The journal type is set in the Journal Type dropdown when you create a journal or when you import one.

There are five options:

For the full instructions on creating, editing and voiding journals, see our article on how to work with journals and generate journal reports.

This is the standard, everyday journal that you enter manually in the Journals screen. Use it for the ordinary adjustments and presentation changes you make during a job. Whether it posts back to the client's accounting software is controlled by the Flag as Pending Export to Client File checkbox, not by the journal type. Leave it ticked for adjustments you want to push back into the client's accounting software and untick it for journals that are only for presentation.

Use this type to create or adjust opening balances directly in Active Ledger & Reporting. It works like any other journal, except that every line counts towards the opening balance of the account. Reach for it when you need to make a small correction to opening balances that have already been imported.

For more detail, see our article on how to import and edit opening balances.

This is the default type applied when a full trial balance is imported, for example when you connect to the client's accounting software or import a trial balance via Excel. It becomes the source of truth for the dataset's trial balance. Because of this, entering an imported trial balance will automatically reverse a rollover opening balance journal so that the imported trial balance stays authoritative. This is expected behaviour.

Use this type when an import should represent period movements rather than a complete trial balance. Unlike an imported trial balance, an imported movement journal adds to the dataset rather than becoming the source of truth, so it does not reverse an existing opening balance rollover journal.

If a rollover opening balance journal has been reversed because an import came in as an imported trial balance, changing the journal type to imported movement journal is part of the fix. See our article on understanding rollover opening balance journal automatically being reversed.

This type represents opening balances brought in from another system or dataset. You can create imported opening balance journals in three ways:

When you import an opening balance, it overrides any existing import journal for the same period. This prevents duplication when you import more than once or from multiple sources.

A journal's type, which you set when you create or import it, is separate from its status, which reflects where the journal is in the workflow.

The statuses are:

Balancing is a status, not a type. It is applied to the consolidated journal that is exported to the client's accounting software.

For more on journal statuses and posting journals back to the client's accounting software, see our articles on how to work with journals and generate journal reports and how to export a balancing journal.