Best practice playbook: Journal entries

Overview

The batch, post, and export workflow has traditionally been used for daily accounting tasks, but with the journal entries, you can streamline these processes for improved accuracy and efficiency. This guide outlines best practices for daily accounting workflows, including invoicing, payment collection, bank deposits, and more, and what to expect if you're using journal entries.

To optimize your daily accounting activities using journal entries, we recommend you perform the following tasks:

Who uses this feature

Administrators, office employees, managers, accountants, and bookkeepers
Applies to all business types
Applies to all trades

Feature configuration

Account configuration is required to use this feature. Please contact Technical Support for details.

Things to know

Vendor bills and credits are not included in journal entries. You will need to use the batch, post, and export workflow to upload your data into your accounting platform.
Keep in mind that all transactions start in ServiceTitan. If you make updates to a journal entry or transaction in your accounting platform, those updates are not reflected in ServiceTitan.
Make sure that your general ledger accounts and classes configured in ServiceTitan match the same accounts and classes in your accounting platform. Mismatches lead to errors.
Understand what information is managed by ServiceTitan. The key information managed in ServiceTitan could be part of your accounting workflow. Understanding how to navigate your tasks in ServiceTitan prevents confusion.

Benefits of using journal entry-based integration

Simplified data: The simplified data used in journal entries eliminates many points of failure that can occur. Each accounting system has unique requirements that can cause errors if the requirements are not precisely met. Using a simplified approach with journal entries reduces the amount of potential errors that can occur.
Essential data: Keeping your financial records synced between two platforms can be time-consuming and challenging. Journal entry-based integration focuses only on essential financial data while keeping your operational data within ServiceTitan. This makes reconciling easier since you are using fewer comparison points.
Compatibility: Journal entries are accepted in most accounting platforms. This gives you the flexibility and scalability to choose the accounting system that best suits your needs as your business grows.

Step 1: Determine roles and permissions

Determine which employees should have the ability to edit transactions, such as invoices, and which ones should be able to open or close accounting periods. Adjusting roles and permissions accordingly ensures that employees have the appropriate access and control over critical accounting tasks while maintaining security and accuracy within your system.

After determining which employees are granted the ability to edit transactions, make sure they have the proper permissions in the Role or Employees settings screen.

Permissions for editing transactions

Review the permissions in the Invoices section under Accounting to determine permissions for tasks related to invoices.
Review the permissions in the Payments section under Accounting to determine permissions for tasks related to customer payments.

Permissions for accounting periods

Review the following permissions in the Accounting Periods section under Accounting to determine permissions on opening and closing accounting periods:

Open Period
Close Period
Open Transaction Type
Close Transaction Type

Step 2: Review and send invoices

The Invoices module lets you manage your invoice transactions. Filter invoices by various criteria, mark them as reviewed if applicable, and identify invoices that haven't been reviewed, emailed, or sent, with the option to send them in bulk. Regularly reviewing and managing these transactions helps ensure the accuracy of your financials and that invoices are delivered to customers.

Assign invoices for review

Go to the navigation bar and click Accounting .
In the side menu, click Invoices.
On the Invoices screen that opens, use Filter or the review summary at the top to filter your invoices.
Select the invoices you want to be reviewed.
Click Actions > Assign invoices to.
On the Assign to selected invoices pop-up that opens, select the employee responsible for reviewing the invoices.
When finished, click Apply.

Review invoices

Go to the navigation bar and click Accounting .
In the side menu, click Invoices.
On the Invoices screen that opens, use Filter or the top summary at the top.
Find an invoice you want to review and click the invoice row.
Note: Clicking the invoice number takes you directly to the invoice record.
On the Invoice Details screen that opens, review the information.
When finished reviewing the invoice, go to Review Status > Reviewed to mark the invoice as reviewed.
If you want to review another invoice, click Next.
If you're finished reviewing, click Close.

View unsent invoices

Go to the navigation bar and click Accounting .
In the side menu, click Invoices.
On the Invoices screen that opens, use Filter or the top summary at the top.
On the Invoice Filter screen, select Sent Status > Not Sent.
Click Apply to apply your filters.

The Invoices table refreshes to only show invoices with the Not Sent status.

Note: If you are not seeing any invoices, go back to the Invoices Filter screen and check for any other filters applied.

Invoice filters interface showing options for total, balance, and sent status selection.

Send invoices in bulk

Go to the navigation bar and click Accounting .
In the side menu, click Invoices.
On the Invoices screen that opens, use Filter or the review summary at the top to filter your invoices.
Select the invoices you want to email or print.
Click Actions > Email Invoices or Print invoices & mark as sent.

Emailing invoices

If you are sending invoices by email, review the email in the Email Invoices screen and click Send.

Printing invoices

If you are printing invoices to send by regular mail, a new browser tab opens and shows your invoices in PDF format. Click Print to print the invoices.

Step 3: Identify open invoices and collect customer payments

When using journal entries, invoice details are not sent to your accounting platform, so all AR reporting must be managed in ServiceTitan. To ensure accuracy, regularly review AR details and summary reports and collect payments on open transactions.

Invoices module

Use the Invoices module to manage outstanding invoices using the Invoice Aging and Paid Status tabs. The Invoice Aging tab categorizes invoices by overdue days (1-30, 31-60, 61-90, and 90+), helping you identify which customers to contact and determine if interest charges should be applied.

Invoice aging summary showing current and overdue balances for various time periods.

AR Management module

Use the AR Management module to send statements, either individually or in bulk, to your customers. Additionally, you can collect payments for unpaid invoices from this module.

Invoice summary showing customer balances, statuses, and payment details for various clients.

AR Reporting

You can also use the AR Transactions and AR Transactions by Customer reports to see a detailed list of your outstanding invoices in aging buckets. These reports also let you view all payments, including any unapplied payments, and track balances.

Report showing AR transactions by customer with various invoice amounts and statuses.

Step 4: Group customer payments into bank deposits

Since only summary payment data is sent to your accounting platform, it's important to group payments and create bank deposits in ServiceTitan based on the deposit dates in your bank account. If you're using ServiceTitan Payments, this process is automated, reducing manual effort.

In ServiceTitan, bank deposits are groupings of payments that are named or dated to align better with your bank statements. This makes it easier to track and reconcile payments that directly affect your bank accounts.

Create a bank deposit

Go to the navigation bar and click Accounting .
In the side menu, click Customer Payments.
On the Customer Payments screen, click the Ungrouped Payments tab.
Select the customer payments you want to group.
Click Actions > Add to Deposit.
At the Add to Deposit pop-up, enter a Deposit Name or select an existing deposit.
Select the Bank Account.
Enter the Deposit Date.
When finished, click Add to Deposit.

Update deposit status

Use the Bank Deposits module to update the status of bank deposits to ensure accurate reconciliation and tracking of deposited payments.

Go to the navigation bar and click Accounting .
In the side menu, click Bank Deposits.
Select the bank deposits for which you want to update the status.
Click Actions > Update Deposit Status.
In the pop-up, select the new status.
When finished, click Apply.

Note: You can use the Filter option to filter out your bank deposits based on deposit status.

User updates deposit status to 'Deposited' for selected bank deposits in the interface.

Step 5: Validate journal entries sync or download journal entries

To ensure accuracy, validate that entries are synced with your accounting platform.

If you use Touchless Integration, confirm the correct status is applied.
For manual exporting, download your journal entries and compare them to the journal entries in your accounting platform.

Confirm sync status

If you use Touchless Integration, you can confirm the sync status of your journal entries. To check the sync status of journal entries:

Go to the navigation bar and click Accounting .
In the side menu, click Journal Entries.
Check the Sync Status column on the journal entries table.

Journal entries displaying sync status and transaction details for various dates.

For more, see View journal entries and Manage journal entries.

Manually sync journal entries

If your journal entries settings are not set to automatically export, you can still manually sync your journal entries to your supported accounting software.

Note: This feature is only available if you are integrated with QuickBooks Online, Sage Intacct, and Xero, and you have Touchless Integration enabled.

To manually sync journal entries:

Go to the navigation bar and click Accounting .
In the side menu, click Journal Entries.
Use the filter option to filter out journal entries, if needed.
On the journal entries table, select the journal entries you want to sync.
Click Actions > Start Sync.

Menu showing options to download and start syncing journal entries in a software interface.

Download journal entries

If you are manually exporting your journal entries, you can download and reconcile them with the financial records from your accounting platform.

To download journal entries:

Go to the navigation bar and click Accounting .
In the side menu, click Journal Entries.
Use the filter option to filter out journal entries, if needed.
On the journal entries table, select the journal entries you want to sync.
Click Download.

User clicks the blue 'Download' button for selected journal entries in a table.

Step 6: Close accounting period

Accounting periods allow you to lock transactions within a specific timeframe, preventing modifications so you can maintain accurate records between ServiceTitan and your accounting platform. Closing an accounting period also enables accurate reporting for performance pay, sales tax, and other financial reports.

Note: We recommend closing accounting periods at least monthly and using the Close Through Date option when running performance pay or sales tax reports.

Close your accounting periods when you need to:

Lock transactions so they can no longer be edited.
Generate performance pay reports (if using Performance Pay features).
Pull sales tax reports if charging sales tax.

To close an accounting period:

Go to the navigation bar and click Accounting .
In the side menu, click Accounting Periods.
On the accounting period table, find the accounting period you want to close.
Click Actions > Close Period.

Table displaying accounting periods with options to close or download summaries.

Close Through Period

Select the Close Through Period option to mark transactions within that period or transaction type as Exported. This lets you close transactions when necessary to account for payroll reporting.

To mark transactions as Exported while the period is still open:

Go to the navigation bar and click Accounting .
In the side menu, click Accounting Periods.
On the accounting period table, click on the accounting period that contains the transactions you want to close.
Click Actions > Close Through Period.

Table displaying accounting periods with options to close and download summaries.

For more, see Use Accounting Periods.

Vendor bills and credits

Use the traditional batch, post, and export workflow for exporting vendor bills and credits to your accounting platform. If applicable, batch, post, and export these transactions while ignoring or bypassing other batches synced through journal entries, based on your preference.

Accounting Audit Trail

Use the Accounting Audit Trail feature to track historical edits by filtering transactions by type, username, or date.

For more, see Understand Accounting Audit Trail.