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This guide covers choosing the Books a record posts to and changing them later. Records you don’t assign go to all active Books, so you only need these steps for records that belong in some Books and not others, such as a statutory adjustment. For the rules behind Book assignment, see How records get their Books.

Before you start

To follow these steps, you need the following:
  • Two or more active Books: with only the Primary Book active, no record shows a Books field. See How to Set Up and Manage Books.
  • The Book selection setting, for records other than journal entries: invoices, bills, payments, contracts, and other records show a Books field only when Allow Book selection on all records is on. Only an Administrator can turn it on.

Choose Books on a journal entry

Journal entries always let you choose Books, whatever the organization setting. Use them for entries that belong in some Books only, such as an adjustment required by local statutory rules with no US GAAP or IFRS equivalent.
  1. Navigate to Accounting → Transactions → Journal Entries and create a journal entry, or open a draft.
  2. In the Details section, open Books and select each Book the entry belongs in.
  3. Enter the lines and save or post the entry as usual. See Your First Journal Entry.
Leave Books empty to post the entry to all active Books. After you post it, the entry appears in reports run for the Books you selected and nowhere else.

Allow Book selection on other records

Turn on Allow Book selection on all records when transactions other than journal entries need to differ between Books, for example invoices that belong only in a statutory Book.
  1. Select your organization’s name in the top-left corner and navigate to Settings → General Preferences.
  2. In the Books section, turn on Allow Book selection on all records.
  3. Save your changes.
A Books field then appears on invoices, bills, customer and vendor payments, credits, refunds, prepayments, prepayment applications, deposits, cash sales, direct expenses, bank transfers, intercompany journal entries, allocation journals, amortizations, and contracts. Fixed assets and inventory transactions always post to all active Books. Turning the setting off again doesn’t change the Books on existing records. While it’s off, records other than journal entries keep the Books they have, and you can’t change them to a different set.
With the setting on, accounts receivable and accounts payable can differ between Books, and a payment must match every document it applies to. Turn it on only if your Books need different receivables or payables.

Choose Books on a contract

With Allow Book selection on all records on, a contract’s Books field sits in its Details section. Everything the contract generates takes the contract’s Books: invoices linked to it, customer credits, change orders, terminations, adjustments, and revenue recognition entries.
  1. Create or edit the contract. See How to Create a Contract.
  2. In Details, select the contract’s Books, then save.
Changing a contract’s Books later changes the Books on every record it generated. Because of that, DualEntry blocks the change when a posted record outside the contract is linked to one of those records with different Books, such as a customer payment applied to a contract invoice. Draft linked records don’t block it. Contracts created through the public API go to all active Books. You can change their Books afterwards in the app, or with PUT /public/v2/contracts/{record_id}/ and its book_ids field. The revenue recognition record’s GL Impact tab shows the Books its entries posted to.

Change the Books on a record

You can change the Books on a record after you save it, within the rules that keep each Book complete.
  1. Open the record and edit it.
  2. Change the selection in Books, then save.
DualEntry checks two things when you save:
  • Locked periods: you can’t change the Books on a posted journal entry dated in a locked period. Unlock the period first.
  • Linked records: a record must have exactly the same Books as every posted record it’s linked to, such as an invoice and the payment applied to it. Draft records aren’t checked until they’re posted.
The change appears in the record’s Activity, for example “Books from Primary to Primary, Sweden Statutory”.

Troubleshooting

The table below lists the messages you might see when assigning Books and what to do about each.
Last modified on November 13, 2026