Use journal entries to adjust your client’s books

Learn how to use journal entries to make small adjustments to your client’s books. You can do this in QuickBooks Desktop Accountant or Accountant Enterprise.

Need to make minor corrections to your client’s books? Create journal entries in your copy of your client’s company file. Then, you can email the journal entries so your client can add them to their books.

If a journal entry is linked to a transaction, it won't show on the list of Journal Entries to send.

Important: To use journal entries for small adjustments, work on a backup file your client sent you. If you need to get your client’s books ready for tax purposes, it’s best to work on an accountant’s copy instead.

Step 1: Create the journal entries

Create journal entries to set up account balances, create daily bookkeeping corrections, or other small adjustments.

Step 2: Send the journal entries to your client

After creating your journal entries, here’s how you can send them.

1. From the Accountant menu, select Send General Journal Entries.
2. Select the Dates ▼ dropdown and select the date range of journal entries you want to send. Or add custom dates in the From and To fields.
3. Select the journal entries you want to send.
4. Review the Journal Entry Details section.
5. If you need to make a quick correction to an entry, select its account in the Account column. Select Save and Close once you’re done.
6. You can send the journal entries in two ways:
   • To send them now, select Email as Attachment.
   • Or Save as File to a folder you can quickly access, like your desktop folder. Then, attach the file in an email to send it to your client.

Step 3: Remind your client to import the journal entries

Let your client know that you sent the journal entries. Here’s how they can import journal entries to their company file.