Transactions

Transactions are the basic financial building blocks in Populi. Each transaction is self-balancing—it debits certain General Ledger accounts and credits others, the sum of the debits matching the sum of the credits. Higher level entities in the financial ecosystem like invoices and payments are built on transactions; each such entity is a unique transaction. Transactions are posted on a particular date, and these posted dates are the basis of how transactions appear (as opposed to some other attribute like transaction type).

Transactions may be voided. Voiding a transaction keeps the record for audit trail purposes, but removes it from reports and negates its effect (if any) on account balances.

Each transaction is identified by a unique transaction number. This is in addition to the unique numbers generated for invoices and payments. So, a given invoice, in addition to its own Invoice#, will also have a unique Transaction# associated with it.

Transaction types

• Journal entry: A manually-created transaction that credits one set of General Ledger accounts and debits others.
• Sales invoice: A legally-binding document stating that someone owes you a particular amount of money, and when that money is due.
• Sales credit: A legally-binding document that decreases the amount you are owed, even to the point that you might owe them money.
• Customer payment: A record of payment received from a customer (or other non-financial aid payer), usually in response to an invoice.
• Customer refund: A record of the return of a payment or part of a payment from you to a customer.
• Aid payment: Payment from a financial aid source on a student's behalf.
• Aid refund: Money returned to the financial aid source.
• Sales receipt: A record of an immediate exchange of goods or services (that is, the payment and the service or merchandise were traded simultaneously).
• Library fine: A fine imposed on a library patron (like an overdue book); these are typically handled outside of the functions in Populi Financial.
• Donation: Money given by a donor to your school.
• Purchase: Represents when a customer buys something from your Bookstore.
• Inventory Adjustment: Reflects the value of Bookstore item inventory adjustments.
• Gateway Processing Fee: If you charge a credit card convenience fee, those transactions are recorded separately from the customer payment.
• Reversal: In Financial > Settings, you can choose whether to Void or Reverse transactions. Reversals appear in this report only if you've adjusted that setting.

Where to find transactions

• You'll find a filter-able, sortable table of all Transactions listed in Financial > Accounting > Transactions.
• Financial > Accounting > General Ledger is the foundational level of Populi's accounting system. Each entry into the General Ledger contains an account number from your Chart of Accounts, and either a credit or a debit. You cannot directly modify the GL other than by generating some kind of transaction.
• Profile > Financial > History shows all of a person's transactions, starting with the most recent at the top. Use the filter drop-down to see transactions of a particular type. Click the transaction # link to see the transaction page, or the reference link to see the associated Invoice or payment detail.