Bookkeeping

Bookkeeping in Wesley starts with bank and card activity and ends with reviewed, reconciled, and closed books. This guide follows that operating sequence and explains which actions change the general ledger.

Where to work

Select a client from the firm workspace, then use the client sidebar. The main bookkeeping areas are Banking, Reconciliation, Journal Entries, and Book Close.

Some areas are hidden from the sidebar by default. Open Customize Sidebar to show features such as Fixed Assets, Integrations, AJE, Trial Balance, Account-Vendor, Custom Reports, Cash Flow, or Income Tax Summary. General Ledger is shown with the primary financial reports. Availability can still depend on the firm's plan, integrations, and your access.

Before you begin

• You need access to the client. Read access is enough to inspect the book; write access is required to post, edit, reconcile, or close accounting activity.
• An inactive client is read-only.
• Staff and extended members can be limited per client. Firm owners and managers have full client access when they are internal members.
• Confirm the client's chart of accounts, reporting period, and imported transaction coverage before processing a large batch.
• A closed accounting period blocks changes dated inside that period. A manager or owner must reopen it before corrections can be posted.

See Roles and Permissions for the complete access model.

Recommended monthly flow

1. Open Banking and confirm that every bank and card account is represented.
2. Add or refresh source data from a connected feed, statement, check file, receipt, invoice, or manual entry.
3. Work through Transaction Review: post, match, transfer, ask the client, or exclude each row.
4. Use Rules and AI for repeatable work, while reviewing every proposed accounting outcome.
5. Reconcile statement-backed balance-sheet accounts, including bank, card, clearing, and loan accounts.
6. Review or create Journal Entries, including adjusting entries.
7. Check Recurring Journals that are due or paused.
8. Review the financial statements and client report package, then close the period.

Operational records may also need attention before close. Use A/R & A/P, Fixed Assets, and Payees and Tags when the client uses those features.

What changes the books

These actions affect different layers of the client book:

• Connecting a feed or uploading a statement adds transactions for review; it does not post them automatically unless the selected workflow explicitly says so.
• Posting a transaction, creating a manual transaction, or posting a journal creates ledger activity.
• Matching connects a bank row to existing ledger activity instead of creating a duplicate posting.
• Excluding a transaction leaves it outside the ledger and moves it to Excluded.
• Saving a reconciliation report marks the selected rows as reconciled. Resolve the difference to one cent or less before saving the final report.
• Closing a period prevents later ledger changes inside the date range; it does not post an entry or certify that the books are correct.

Correct or undo work

The correction path depends on the action:

• Unpost a posted bank transaction to return it to Uncategorized.
• Open Excluded to return an excluded row to the active review queue.
• Pause a rule to stop future automation; use Pause & Revert when eligible rule-created postings should return to Uncategorized.
• Delete or replace a saved reconciliation report only after considering its effect on reconciliation history.
• Reopen a closed period before editing dates within it. Only a manager or owner can reopen.
• A deleted journal cannot be restored. Preserve supporting evidence before destructive changes.

Always review warnings on reconciled entries. Editing or deleting a journal that belongs to a saved reconciliation can make that report disagree with the current general ledger.

Troubleshooting the workflow

An action is visible but cannot be completed. Check your client access, whether the client is inactive, and whether the entry date is in a closed period.

An account is missing from Banking. Confirm that it is an asset or liability account in the chart of accounts and that Show in Banking is enabled. Bank and credit-card types are shown by default; other eligible accounts must be enabled deliberately.

A report is missing from the sidebar. Open Customize Sidebar. Some reports are hidden by default.

The ledger and source feed do not agree. Look for uncategorized, excluded, duplicated, or unmatched activity before creating a correcting journal. Review the source document and saved reconciliation first.

The next reviewer cannot tell what happened. Add notes, link source files, and use client work for unresolved questions. The accounting result should be reproducible from the evidence.