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General Ledger (Ledger)

The VMX Ledger is a full double-entry general ledger built right into the POS. Instead of exporting daily totals to outside accounting software, stores that use the Ledger keep their books — chart of accounts, journal entries, bills, checks, deposits, and financial statements — inside VMX itself.

Availability

The Ledger is enabled per-client by VMX — most stores use QuickBooks instead and will not see a Ledger tab in Admin. If you'd like to discuss using the VMX Ledger, contact help@vmxllc.com.

Within a store that has the Ledger enabled, each user also needs the GL admin permission (managed on the Admin → Permissions page) to see the Ledger tab. VMX can also set up individual users (an outside accountant, for example) with read-only access — they can view accounts and run reports but cannot save changes.

Open the Ledger

  1. Open Admin and click Ledger in the top navigation.
  2. The Ledger opens to the Pay Bills page (or the Chart of Accounts, if your access doesn't include bill paying).
  3. Click the arrow handle on the left edge of the page to slide out the Ledger menu.

The slide-out menu contains:

  • A Search box — find transactions by number, date, memo, vendor, invoice number, check number, or dollar amount.
  • General Ledger — Chart of Accounts (see Chart of Accounts)
  • Reports — P&L, P&L Detail, Balance Sheet, Cash Flows, Trial Balance, Journal, and Audit Log (see Financial Statements & GL Reports)
  • Vendors — Balances, Balances Detail, Payments, Pay Bills, and Print Checks
  • New — create a new Check, Journal Entry, Expense, Deposit, or Bill

All Ledger reports are kept on the accrual basis (each report footer shows "Accrual basis" and the time it was generated), and every page is formatted for printing — use your browser's print function to produce a clean paper copy.

Create a Ledger transaction (Check, Journal Entry, Expense, Deposit, Bill)

In the Ledger's slide-out menu, under New, choose the type of transaction to create:

  • Check — a payment written from a bank account
  • Journal Entry — a manual entry with debit and credit lines you control
  • Expense — money spent from a bank or credit card account
  • Deposit — money added to a bank account
  • Bill — an amount owed to a vendor (accounts payable), paid later through Pay Bills

Every transaction has a Date and a Memo. Depending on the type you'll also see:

  • Vendor — on Expenses, Bills, Checks, and Payments
  • Bank/credit account — the account the money moves through, on Expenses, Deposits, Checks, and Payments (Journal Entries and Bills don't have this field)
  • Check no. and Payee / Address — on Checks and Payments
  • Due Date, Discount $, Bill No., and Balance Due — on Bills (Bill No. is required; a Make Payment button appears on bills with a balance due)

Below the header, add detail lines. Each line has an Account dropdown, an amount, and an optional description. Inactive accounts are hidden from the dropdowns.

  1. Fill in the header fields and lines. Click Add Lines if you need more rows.
  2. Click Save (or Save & New to save and immediately start another transaction of the same type).

For a Journal Entry, the debit and credit totals at the bottom of the lines must be equal before the entry makes sense — a green check icon appears next to the totals when the entry balances, and a "no entry" icon when it doesn't. Small arrows next to each amount show whether a debit or credit increases that account, based on its type (debits increase assets and expenses; credits increase liabilities, equity, and income).

Existing transactions can be reopened from any report by clicking their number. On an existing transaction you'll also find Copy (duplicate it), Delete, Revert Changes, a Print Check button on checks, an Attachments section for scanned invoices or receipts attached to the transaction, and a History section showing every change ever made to it (see the Audit Log section of Financial Statements & GL Reports).

Search the Ledger

Type into the Search box at the top of the Ledger's slide-out menu and press Enter. Search matches transactions by:

  • Transaction number or PO number
  • Date (type a date like 9/15/2025)
  • Memo text
  • Vendor name or vendor code
  • Invoice number (Ref No.) or check number
  • Dollar amount — bill amounts, and individual debit or credit line amounts

Results list the ID, Date, Type, Amount, Memo, Vendor, Ref No., PO#, and Check# of each match; click an ID to open the transaction.

Close the books (lock a period)

Once a period is finalized, you can lock it so no one accidentally changes history. Set the Books Closed Before date on the Admin → Configuration page. After that, any attempt to add, edit, or delete a Ledger transaction dated before that date is rejected with:

The books are closed prior to [date], so transactions with dates before that date may not be added, edited or deleted.

To make a correction in a closed period, clear or move the Books Closed Before date, make the fix, and set the date back.

How the Ledger fits together

For stores set up with the daily sales journal, VMX posts register activity into the Ledger automatically as journal entries, so the books reflect POS activity without re-keying. That posting is configured by VMX as part of Ledger setup — contact help@vmxllc.com with questions about what posts automatically for your store.