Read the bank ledger in SamBooks

The «Accounting» tab on the Bank page is the ledger of your cash and bank accounts: every journal entry that moved money, with its reconciliation status shown row by row.

What this is for

When you open Finance → Bank you'll find two tabs: Accounting (open by default) and Bank transactions. They are two different, complementary views, and it's easy to mix them up: Bank transactions shows the transactions from your bank statement — what the bank says happened — still waiting to be reconciled with your bookkeeping (that's covered in Reconcile bank transactions in SamBooks). Accounting, the subject of this guide, shows the ledger instead: every journal entry that moved a bank, cash, card or PSP account, whether or not it has already been reconciled with the statement. It's the «what's actually on the books» view, useful for checking transactions account by account, opening an entry's detail, correcting it or deleting it, and seeing at a glance what's already in line with the bank and what isn't.

Before you start

Viewing this page is open to every user in the company, regardless of role. Actions that change an entry (editing, correcting, duplicating, cancelling a collection/payment or a match, deleting) are reserved to the Manager and Administrative roles: a Viewer or a Logistics user can see everything on this page but can't touch anything.

Step by step

1. Open Bank → Accounting tab

From the left menu go to Finance → Bank. The Accounting tab is the one open first when you land on the page (no need to click anything); the other tab is called Bank transactions.

2. Read the header: the three balances

Above the two tabs, shared by both, is a bar with the Account selector (defaulting to «All accounts») and three numbers: Book balance (what the recorded entries add up to — a summary of this very table), Bank balance (the latest balance known from an imported statement, with the date it refers to; if you've never imported a statement you'll see «no statement imported») and Difference. Hovering over the Difference shows the explanation: it comes from statement transactions not yet reconciled and from ledger entries not yet linked to a statement transaction — the more you reconcile, the closer the two balances get.

Changing the account in the selector updates both these three numbers and the table below together: it's the same filter, shared between the two tabs.

3. Filter the table

Below the header you'll find three filters:

• Reconciliation — All, Reconciled or Not reconciled.
• Period — a date range.
• Search — searches the description, the line detail or the counterparty's name.

The account filter isn't here: it's the shared one in the header (step 2). If nothing matches your filters you'll see the notice «No entries — No journal entries on cash accounts found for the selected filters»: try widening the period or clearing the filters.

4. Read the table columns

• Date — the entry's posting date.
• Description — the memo, with an optional detail below it (the line description or the counterparty's name, when present).
• Account — the cash/bank account moved and its sub-account.
• Amount — green for an incoming amount, red for an outgoing one.
• Reconciliation — a badge: Reconciled (green) if the row already has a matching statement transaction, Not reconciled (red) if it doesn't yet, — for accounts that have no statement to compare against (for example a cash drawer, where reconciliation doesn't apply), or Excluded (neutral badge) for rows you've manually taken out of reconciliation — more on this in step 6.
• Links — up to three icons: the eye Open document (only if the entry comes from a real document, payment or bank transaction — absent for free-standing manual entries), the ledger icon Open journal entry detail (always present), and, only when the entry is already reconciled with a specific transaction, the bank icon Open the linked bank transaction, which takes you straight to that transaction on the Bank transactions tab.

5. Open an entry's detail

Click anywhere on the row (or the ledger icon) to open the Journal entry detail window: entry number and year, posting date, VAT date, memo, the source document if any, the linked document chain, and an AI history tab with any actions Sam has taken on that entry. If the entry has been voided you'll see it right away, with the voiding date.

6. The actions available on each row

On the right side of the row you'll find up to five icons, which change depending on where the entry comes from and the accounting period's status:

• Edit entry (pencil) — only for free-standing manual entries, and only while the accounting period is still open: opens the editor to fix the memo and lines in place, keeping the same entry number.
• Correct (reverse and reissue) — appears instead of «Edit entry» once the period is closed or that period's VAT has already been settled: SamBooks no longer lets you touch the original entry directly, so it neutralises it with an opposite-sign entry and immediately posts a corrected one, both in the open period. The original stays exactly where it was, untouched, for traceability.
• Duplicate — present on every row, always: opens a new manual entry pre-filled with the same accounts and amounts as the source row, ready to adjust before saving.
• Cancel collection/payment — only on entries created from a recorded collection or payment (for example from the open-items list): deletes the entry — without creating an opposite-sign one — and reopens the linked due item for the outstanding amount. Blocked if the fiscal year is closed.
• Cancel match — only on entries created from a reconciled bank transaction: undoes the link, deletes the entry generated by the reconciliation, and reopens any linked due item. The bank transaction itself is untouched: it simply goes back to the ones waiting to be reconciled, on the Bank transactions tab.
• Delete entry — only for free-standing manual entries with the period still open: asks for confirmation («Delete this entry?») and removes it.

When the period is closed or VAT has already been settled, «Edit» and «Delete» disappear and only «Correct» remains: the same rule applies to both cases, to guarantee that an entry already declared to the tax authority can no longer be altered directly.

7. Close a due item straight from here

In the bar above the tabs, only while you're on the Accounting tab, you'll find the Close due item button: it opens a window with two tabs, Payables and Receivables, where you pick the open item you want to settle. Selecting one opens the actual recording window — the same one you'd use from Open items for an ordinary collection or payment, or, if you picked an F24 payment due item, the same accounting-entry preview used on the F24 page. It's handy because you don't have to leave Bank to go to Open items or F24: the entry it creates shows up right away in this table.

This path does NOT start from a real bank transaction (unlike «Close due item» on the Bank transactions tab, which also links a specific statement transaction): use it when you want to record a payment or collection you already know happened, ahead of or without waiting for the transaction to arrive with the statement.

8. Browse with pagination

At the bottom of the table you'll find pagination, defaulting to 10 rows per page, with the option to switch to wider pages (up to 50) from the selector next to the page numbers.

Entries excluded from reconciliation

Some entries — typically the ones recorded before the first bank statement you ever imported — will never find a matching bank transaction, and sitting forever in the «to reconcile» queue on the Bank transactions tab is just noise. That's why you can exclude an entry from the linkable ones: this action starts on the other tab, inside the assignment window for a transaction («Link to entry» path → «Review the excluded ones») — it's covered in Reconcile bank transactions in SamBooks.

What you see here, on the Accounting table, is the result: the excluded row stays visible exactly as before (the exclusion changes nothing about your books — amounts, balances and outstanding figures stay identical), but the reconciliation badge becomes Excluded instead of «Not reconciled» — showing it in red would be misleading, since it will never be reconciled by your own choice, not because of a problem. On the row you'll also find the Restore among linkable entries action, which undoes the exclusion and puts the entry back in play for the next reconciliation pass.

The reverse link: from the entry to the bank transaction

When an entry is already reconciled with a specific transaction, the Links column also shows the Open the linked bank transaction icon: clicking it takes you straight to the Bank transactions tab, with that transaction open. It's the mirror of the icon that, from the other tab, takes you from a statement transaction's row to the entry that reconciled it — handy when you're starting here and want to see «which bank transaction exactly matches this entry».

Who can do what

Every user in the company can see this table, regardless of role. Actions that change something (Edit, Correct, Duplicate, Cancel collection/payment, Cancel match, Delete, Exclude/Restore, Close due item) require the Manager or Administrative role: users with the Viewer or Logistics role can look and open details, but an attempted change is rejected.

Ask Sam

You can ask Sam for the same view you see here — «Sam, show me the unreconciled transactions on the Intesa current account for July» or «what's the book balance of the cash account?» — and Sam answers with the same data as this table and header. For manual entries it can also create, edit, correct or delete them for you, if you ask with the specifics («Sam, delete the manual entry I recorded yesterday by mistake on the current account»): these are the same actions you find in the row icons, with the same confirmation before executing. Duplicating an entry stays a handy shortcut only here in the interface: you can still get the same result by asking Sam to create a new entry with the same accounts and amounts as the source one.

If something goes wrong

• I don't see any entries with the filters I picked — widen the period or switch the Reconciliation filter to «All»; also check you haven't selected a specific account in the header if you were looking for a transaction on a different one.
• I can't find the «Edit» icon on an entry — if you see «Correct» instead, that entry's period is already closed or that period's VAT has already been settled: it can no longer be edited directly, but you can correct it by reversing and reissuing.
• I clicked «Cancel match» by mistake — the entry generated by the reconciliation is deleted and the bank transaction goes back into the queue on the Bank transactions tab: you can reassign it from there.
• An entry stays «Not reconciled» forever and I know it never will be — it's probably an entry from before your first imported bank statement: use the exclusion described above, from the Bank transactions tab, to take it out of the queue without touching your bookkeeping.
• I can't find the «Close due item» button — it only appears while you're on the Accounting tab; on the other tab you'll find «Import history» instead.

Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between the Accounting tab and the Bank transactions tab? Accounting shows the ledger — every journal entry recorded on cash/bank accounts, reconciled or not. Bank transactions shows the queue of statement transactions still waiting to be matched to those entries.

How do I see a bank account's balance in SamBooks? Open Finance → Bank, pick the account from the header selector, and read «Book balance» (what's recorded) and «Bank balance» (from the latest imported statement).

Can I edit an entry already recorded on the bank account? Yes, if it's a manual entry and the period is still open, with the Edit icon. If the period is closed or VAT has already been settled, you correct it by reversing and reissuing instead of editing it.

What does the «Excluded» badge on a row mean? That you've taken that entry out of the queue of items linkable to a bank transaction (typically because it predates your first imported statement): nothing changes in your bookkeeping, it just sits outside the reconciliation check. You can restore it any time.

Can I close a due item from the Bank page without going to Open items? Yes, with the «Close due item» button at the top of the Accounting tab: pick the item from Payables or Receivables and record the payment or collection from there.

Why doesn't an entry have the icon to open its source document? Because it's a free-standing manual entry, with no document (invoice, payment or bank transaction) it comes from: only entries that come from a real document have that link.

Related guides

• Reconcile bank transactions in SamBooks — the statement queue, excluding entries and assigning transactions.
• Connect an account and import your bank statement in SamBooks — how to bring your bank's transactions into SamBooks.
• Open items and due dates in SamBooks — the due items linked to the collections and payments you see in this ledger.
• Record a collection or a payment in SamBooks — the full recording flow from an open item.