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Use this guide to record an audit, year-end, or interim adjustment as an adjusting entry: a GL journal entry flagged so that reports can leave it out, include it, or show it on its own. You finish with the entry posted, in a locked period if needed, and a report showing it the way you want. Adjusting entries are DualEntry’s take on a 13th period. Instead of a fixed extra month, you flag any journal entry on any date. For every rule, report mode, and API field, see Adjusting Entries Reference.

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Before you start

You need three things in place before you post. An Admin can set up all three.
  • Company setting: adjusting entries are off for every company until someone turns them on. Turning the setting on requires permission to edit organization settings, which only the Admin role has by default.
  • Adjusting Entry permission: the Adjusting Entry permission, Create action, lets a user flag an entry. Of the built-in roles, only Admin and Controller hold it.
  • Journal entry access: creating a new adjusting entry also needs permission to create journal entries. Flagging an entry someone else drafted needs permission to edit journal entries instead.
By default only Admin holds both permissions needed to create a new adjusting entry. Controller can flag an entry but cannot create journal entries, and Accountant can create journal entries but cannot flag them. To let someone other than an Admin post adjusting entries end to end, add the missing permission to their role, as described below.

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Turn on adjusting entries for a company

Turn the setting on once per company. Entries can be flagged only in companies where it is on.
  1. Navigate to Settings → General Preferences, from your organization’s name in the top left corner of the screen.
  2. In the Adjusting Entries section, switch on Enable Adjusting Entries.
  3. Under Apply To, choose All companies, or choose Specific companies, select Show company list, and select the companies.
  4. Choose Save.
All companies covers every company that exists now. A company you create later starts with the setting off, so turn it on for that company when you add it. To turn the setting off for a company that already has adjusting entries, clear it and confirm Disable Adjusting Entries. Those entries keep their flag, but reports treat them as regular journal entries until you turn the setting back on.

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Grant the Adjusting Entry permission

Add the permission to a role when someone in that role needs to flag entries.
  1. Navigate to Configuration → Company → User Roles and open the role.
  2. In the permission grid, select Create on the Adjusting Entry row.
  3. Choose Save.
The change applies to everyone who holds the role and to every API key that carries it. To let a Controller create the adjusting entry as well as flag it, also select Create on the journal entries row. See User Roles and Permissions for the limits on editing roles.

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Post an adjusting entry

An adjusting entry is an ordinary journal entry with the Adjusting Entry switch on. Everything else about the entry, including balancing, classifications, approvals, and exchange rates, works as it does for any journal entry.
  1. Navigate to Accounting → Transactions → Journal Entries and select + to create a new journal entry.
  2. Select a company that has adjusting entries turned on.
  3. Set Date to the date the adjustment belongs to, such as 12/31/2026 for a year-end audit adjustment. Any date in any fiscal year works.
  4. In the Details section, switch on Adjusting Entry. An Adjusting badge appears in the page header.
  5. Add the lines. Bank, credit card, and statistical accounts are not offered on an adjusting entry.
  6. Save or post the entry as usual.
To flag an entry someone else drafted, open it, switch on Adjusting Entry, and save. If the entry’s date is in a locked period, it must be flagged when it is first saved, so the person who creates it needs both permissions.

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Posting into a locked period

If your role holds the Adjusting Entry permission, the date picker offers dates in a locked period, and the entry saves without reopening the period. This skips the Other GL Transactions period lock only. A line on an accounts payable or accounts receivable control account is still checked against the A/P Transactions or A/R Transactions lock, so a locked sub-ledger blocks the save. When the entry goes through an approval workflow, the approver’s permissions decide whether it can post into the locked period, not the submitter’s.

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Choose how a report shows adjusting entries

Reports exclude adjusting entries until you change the setting on the report. The setting carries into the report’s exports, drill-downs, and any custom report you save from it.
  1. Run the report, such as the income statement.
  2. Select Open report settings (the gear icon) in the report toolbar.
  3. Under Report Format, select an Adjusting Entries option.
Pick the option that matches what the report is for:
  • To keep monthly trends, flux, and budget comparisons free of one-off adjustments, leave it on Excluded.
  • To show the year-end layout of the months, then an Adjusting Entries column, then a total that includes them, choose Additional period on a summary report with month, quarter, or year columns.
  • To give auditors a report of the adjustments alone, choose Only.
  • To produce final statements where each adjustment sits in the period it is dated, choose Mixed into period.
Not every report offers every option. The modes by report table lists which reports support which modes.

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Find and review adjusting entries

The Journal Entries list and the entry’s own history show which entries are flagged and who flagged them.
  • Journal Entries list: add the Adjusting Entry column, which is hidden by default, or filter on Adjusting Entry with Yes or No. An export of the list includes the column only while it is shown.
  • Activity history: turning the flag on or off is recorded against the Adjusting Entry field, with the user and time.
Because adjusting entries can be dated anywhere, review the list filtered to Yes at each close to confirm where they landed.

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Troubleshooting

These are the messages and symptoms people hit most often, with the fix for each.
  • The Adjusting Entry switch is missing: the company’s setting is off, or your role lacks the Adjusting Entry permission. On an entry someone else already flagged, the switch shows but is disabled, with You need the Adjusting Entry, Create permission to change this.
  • You do not have permission to post adjusting entries.: your role lacks the Adjusting Entry permission. Ask an Admin to add it to your role.
  • Adjusting entries are not enabled for this company.: turn on the setting for the entry’s company. Changing an entry’s company to one with the setting off also clears the switch.
  • Bank and credit card accounts cannot be used on an adjusting entry.: replace the bank or credit card line with another account. To record bank activity, post a regular journal entry.
  • Recurring journal entries cannot be adjusting entries.: recurring templates cannot be flagged. Post each adjustment as a one-off entry.
  • A locked-period error on an adjusting entry: the entry has a line on an A/P or A/R control account and that sub-ledger is locked, or you are changing the flag on an existing entry in a locked period. Unlock the sub-ledger section, or post the adjustment without that line.
  • The Adjusting Entries column shows zeros: the entries belong to a company with the setting off, so reports count them as regular entries.
  • A dashboard does not match the report: dashboards and Data Analytics always include adjusting entries. Set the report to Mixed into period to match them.
Last modified on October 29, 2026