Skip to content

Recurring Transactions

Recurring Transactions let you set up a Journal Entry, Bill, or Expense that VMX posts automatically every month, instead of you re-entering it by hand — a landlord's rent, a loan payment, a monthly insurance bill, anything with a fixed amount on a fixed day.

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.

Recurring Transactions is switched on separately, also per-client. A store can be using the Ledger and still not have it: if there is no Recurring item in the Ledger's side menu and no Make recurring… button at the bottom of your Journal Entries, this feature isn't turned on for your store yet. Contact help@vmxllc.com to have it enabled.

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 and the Recurring page. Some users may be set up as view-only for the Ledger — they can look at the Recurring list but the Active checkbox is disabled for them, and the Make recurring… button does not appear on transactions they open.

Make a transaction recurring

  1. In Admin, click Ledger, then open or create the Journal Entry, Bill, or Expense you want to repeat every month.
  2. At the bottom of the transaction, next to Copy and Delete, click Make recurring….
  3. Fill in the dialog that appears:
  4. Name — anything that helps you recognize this template later (for example, "Monthly Rent").
  5. Day of month (1-31) — the day VMX posts this transaction each month.
  6. First run date — the date of the first occurrence. This can be later than today if you want the recurrence to start next month instead of immediately.
  7. Click Create.

VMX saves a copy of the transaction exactly as it currently appears on screen — including any changes you haven't saved yet — as the template for every future occurrence. The transaction you made recurring is not itself changed or posted again by this step; it stays exactly as it was.

Make recurring… only appears on Journal Entries, Bills, and Expenses. Checks, Deposits, and Payments can't be made recurring.

A recurring Bill can't carry an invoice number

Two bills for the same vendor can't share an invoice number, and a recurring template repeats the transaction it was made from exactly — so a Bill with an invoice number would post the first month and be refused every month after that. VMX won't let you create one: clear the invoice number first, then click Make recurring….

If your store requires an invoice number on every bill, Bills can't be made recurring at all, and VMX will say so when you try. Use a Journal Entry or an Expense for a monthly charge instead — both repeat without this restriction.

The Recurring list

Click Recurring in the Ledger's side menu to see every template: Name, Type, Amount, Day of Month, Next Run, Last Posted (a link straight to the transaction it created, or Never if it hasn't posted yet), and an Active checkbox.

Pause a recurring transaction

Untick the Active checkbox on the Recurring list to pause a template — VMX stops posting it until you tick the box again. Nothing about the template itself is deleted; pausing and resuming just controls whether it's currently due.

A template set to the 31st does not get stuck on the 28th

This is worth reading even if you think you already know how it works, because it looks like a bug the first time you see it.

If a template's Day of Month is 31 and a month is shorter — February, or any 30-day month — VMX posts it on that month's last day instead (the 28th in February, the 30th in April, and so on). The next month, it goes right back to the 31st if that month has one. It does not stay stuck on the 28th — the day it landed on in a short month has no effect on where it lands the following month. Each month's posting date is worked out fresh from the Day of Month you set, not from where the template posted last time.

Missed months post automatically, up to three at a time

If VMX's servers were down, or a template simply wasn't looked at for a while, the next time the scheduler runs it posts every month the template missed, oldest first — it doesn't skip straight to today and leave the gap unposted.

This catch-up is capped at three months in a single run, on purpose — so a template that's been broken for a long time doesn't suddenly back-fill a year of rent onto the books unattended. If a template is still more than three months behind after catching up as far as it can, VMX stops there, leaves it visible on the Recurring list as still due, and emails an alert rather than continuing silently.

If you get that alert: something needs a person to look at it — most likely the template's accounts or amounts no longer make sense (an account that's since been deleted, for example), or the server was down for an unusually long stretch. Open the template's transaction type from the Recurring list to check it, or contact help@vmxllc.com if it isn't obvious what's wrong. Once whatever's wrong is fixed, the template catches up (still three months at a time) the next time the scheduler runs — you don't need to manually catch up the missed months yourself.

Running the scheduler twice in the same month never posts twice

Each month a template is due, VMX can post it once and only once for that month — no matter how many times the scheduler happens to run, or whether it's ever run more than once close together. If you ever open a template's Last Posted transaction and it looks right, but you're worried the scheduler "ran twice," you can stop worrying: there is exactly one transaction for that month, guaranteed by VMX, not by timing.

One thing this explains: if a template shows as due (its Next Run date is in the past) but nothing new has shown up in Last Posted, that is usually VMX recovering from an interrupted run. In the ordinary case it sorts itself out on its own — the next scheduled run finishes posting that period, and only that period.

Give it until the following day before treating it as a problem. If the template is still showing as due a day later, contact help@vmxllc.com — a small number of interruptions leave behind something only VMX support can clear, and there's no button on this page that will do it for you. It's a quick fix once someone looks at it, but it won't clear by itself, so it's worth reporting rather than waiting another month.

To change a recurring template, pause it and make a new one

A recurring template can't be edited after it's created. Its name, amount, accounts, memo and day of month are fixed at the moment you click Create, and the Recurring list has no Edit button and no Delete button — the Active checkbox is the only control on an existing template.

To change one:

  1. On the Recurring page in the Ledger, untick Active on the template you want to replace. VMX stops posting it from that point.
  2. Open a Journal Entry, Bill, or Expense showing the details you want from now on — the transaction the old template last posted is usually the easiest starting point — and set it up the way it should be.
  3. Click Make recurring… on that transaction to create a fresh template with the new details.

The paused template stays on the list rather than disappearing, so you can see what it used to do and tick Active again if you change your mind. Leaving it paused is harmless.

None of this touches the months the old template already posted. Those are ordinary Journal Entries, Bills, or Expenses sitting in the Ledger like any other — edit or delete them individually the normal way if a past posting needs correcting. There's no link back from a posted transaction to "the template it came from" beyond the Last Posted column on the Recurring list showing the most recent one.

Weekly, quarterly, and yearly schedules

The Make recurring… dialog's Repeats setting offers Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, and Yearly:

  • Weekly posts every 7 days on the weekday of the first run — day of month does not apply and is hidden.
  • Quarterly and Yearly work like Monthly, including the month-end rule: a day-31 template posts on the last day of shorter months and returns to the 31st when the month allows it.

The run-it-twice-never-posts-twice guarantee holds for every interval.