Cash Book Journal

The Cash Book Journal provides a structured way to record, monitor, and reconcile petty‑cash transactions in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. It's ideal for organizations that:

• Handle petty cash regularly.
• Require printed or PDF documentation of cash movements.
• Need a simple workflow for entering cash income and expenses.
• Want to integrate cash‑handling into existing journal processes.

By displaying the current petty‑cash balance and the expected balance after posting, the journal provides a quick overview that allows you to easily keep track of your cash transactions. It also makes it easy for you to enter income and expense transactions on a daily basis.

You can set up the cash book feature to automatically check the cash balance when entering or posting journal lines, to ensure that no negative cash values exist. It's also possible to print the entries of the journal as a cash book report either manually or automatically, depending on the setup.

To activate the cash book feature

To assign cash book accounting to a general journal batch and thereby activate the cash book feature, follow these steps:

1. In the Role Center, go to the navigation menu at the top, and then click Finance > General Journals to open the corresponding page.
2. In the action bar, click Edit List to open an editable version of the page.
3. In the list of general journal batches, select the one that you want to use for cash book accounting.
4. In Bal. Account No., enter or select the number of the account that you want to use. {% hint style="info" %} The selected account will determine the default currency. You can select a G/L account or a bank account for currency control. If you fail to specify a balance account in this step, an error message will be displayed when you select the Use for Cash Book Accounting checkbox in step 5 below. {% endhint %}
5. In the Use for Cash Book Accounting column, select the checkbox to activate the feature for the selected batch.

The feature is now activated for the batch you selected in step 3 above. If you then select the batch from the main General Journals page, the page that opens is now called Cash Book Journal rather than General Journals.

To record cash transactions

You record cash movements as journal lines in the Cash Book Journal. Each entry contributes to the running balance, making it easy to verify that the recorded amount matches the physical cash on hand.

To enter a cash transaction, follow these steps:

1. Search for and select General Journals.
2. In the Batch Name field at the top, select the batch configured as the Cash Book Journal.
3. In the table, select a line to record a cash transaction.
4. Enter the Posting Date, Document No., and Description.
5. In the Account No. field, select the petty‑cash account that you want to use.
6. In the Amount field, enter the amount.
7. In the Bal. Account No. field, select the offset account – that is, the account that represents the source or destination of the cash movement (for example, an expense account for cash payments or an income/clearing account for cash receipts).
8. Repeat steps 3-7 for any additional cash transactions you want to enter.

You have now recorded the cash movements of the period defined by the entered posting dates. The cash book balances are displayed at the bottom of the page and are based on the amounts of the transaction lines you've entered. For more information, see Understanding cash book balances below.

Understanding cash book balances

At the bottom of the Cash Book Journal, an overview of the cash book balances is provided to enable you to easily keep track of your cash movements:

These balance amounts – with the exception of the Start Balance – update dynamically as you enter lines.

To configure cash book balance checks

You can set up the cash book feature to automatically check the balance on posting or whenever you add or edit a journal line. This setting helps prevent negative cash balances by validating the cash book balance at the chosen stage.

To set up cash book balance checks, follow these steps:

1. Search for and select Continia Finance Setup.
2. On the General FastTab, locate the Cash Book Balance Check field.
3. Choose one of the following options:
   • On Input – checks the balance when you leave the journal line.
   • On Post – checks the balance only when the journal is posted.
   • None – disables balance checking.

The balance will now be checked according to your setup.

To post the journal

Posting the Cash Book Journal finalizes the entries and updates the petty‑cash account.

To post the Cash Book Journal, follow these steps:

1. Search for and select General Journals.
2. In the Batch Name field at the top, select the batch configured as the Cash Book Journal.
3. Review the entries and verify the balance.
4. In the action bar, click Home > Post > Post or Post and Print.

The journal is now posted (and printed, if Post and Print was selected above, or if automatic printing was configured).

To print a cash book report

The cash book report shows the opening balance, all posted entries, and the closing balance for the selected period. It can be printed manually or automatically.

Manual printing

To print the cash book report manually, follow these steps:

1. Search for and select General Journals.
2. In the Batch Name field at the top, select the batch configured as the Cash Book Journal.
3. In the action bar, click Home > Print Cash Book.
4. On the page that opens, select the desired output option, and then select Print to print a physical report or Send to to export the report as a PDF, XML, Word, or Excel file.

Automatic printing

To enable automatic printing of the cash book report, follow these steps:

1. Search for and select Continia Finance Setup.
2. On the General FastTab, enable Print Cash Report when Posting.

The cash book report is now printed automatically every time the Cash Book Journal is posted.