A journal in Exact Online groups entries of one kind, such as bank, cash, general, purchase or sales. The purchase journal (inkoopboek) is the journal of the Purchase type where you post supplier invoices, and every journal has its own series of entry numbers per financial year. You create journals under Company name > Master data > Financial > Journals, and with automatic invoice processing you choose yourself which purchase journal the entries from the Scanning service go to.
Journals sound like something you set up once and then forget. That is true, until you get an invoice in dollars, start a second company or your accountant asks why entry number 214 is missing. Below you read how to set it up properly. I checked all menu paths in the Exact knowledge base on 24 September 2026. The sources are at the bottom.
What is a journal in Exact Online?
Exact puts it like this: journals group specific transactions, for example domestic sales or everything that happens in one bank account. Every entry you make, you make in a journal. When you go to Financial > Entries & G/L Accounts > Entries > Create, you first select the journal and only then the account and the amounts.
Journals are part of the master data of a company (administratie). You create them when you start with a company. Exact asks for two things first: G/L accounts for bank, sales, purchase and cash to link to the journals, and a financial year that has been created.
The journal types in Exact Online
Exact Online has six journal types. This is what goes in them and what Exact itself says about them:
| Journal type | What goes in it | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Bank | Transactions on one bank account | Created automatically when you create a bank account. You can only create a bank journal through a bank account. It also needs a G/L account Unallocated. |
| Cash | Cash payments and receipts | You link its own G/L account and decide if it is the main journal for payments and receipts. |
| General (memoriaal) | Corrections, depreciation, accruals | If you have not set a journal for Item - Transactions, Exact links it to the next general journal you create. |
| Purchase | Supplier invoices | You link its own G/L account. The entries from the Scanning service also land here. |
| Sales | Customer invoices | You link its own G/L account. |
| Payment services | Transactions through a payment service | A separate type next to bank and cash. |
If you create several journals of the same type, each journal must get its own G/L account. So that also applies when you want two purchase journals.
The purchase journal: where your purchase invoices land
The purchase journal (inkoopboek, also called inkoopdagboek) is the journal of the Purchase type. Every purchase invoice you post in Exact ends up in a purchase journal. If you receive invoices through Peppol, the digital postbox or the Scanning service, Exact turns them into entry proposals. If you use none of those three, you create the purchase entries yourself. Either way, the entry ends up in a purchase journal, with its own entry number.
What turns an invoice into an entry is covered in posting purchase invoices automatically in Exact Online. What a purchase invoice is exactly, you find in our glossary.
When do you use more than one purchase journal?
For most companies one purchase journal is enough. A second one only makes sense when it gives you something: a separate number series, a separate overview or a different currency. These are the situations where we see it:
- Several companies. Every company (administratie) has its own master data, so also its own journals. If you have a holding with three operating companies, you set up a purchase journal in each company.
- Foreign currency. Exact gives you two routes. You switch on Variable: Currency in your purchase journal, so you can post in more than one currency there. Or you create a dedicated journal per currency and use that for those entries. Variable: Currency and Variable: Exchange rate are only available with the Currency module.
- Type of invoice. Some companies keep cost invoices and item invoices apart, or give a business unit its own purchase journal. Exact does not force this. It is a choice for your own overview.
- Credit notes. Exact has no separate journal type for credit notes. So a supplier credit note is also posted in a journal of the Purchase type. Whether that is the same purchase journal or a separate one with its own number series is up to you. Agree on it with your accountant before you start, not halfway through the year.
If you work with many companies, also look at our page on multiple administrations.
Step by step: setting up a purchase journal in Exact Online
Step 1. Create the purchase journal
Go to Company name > Master data > Financial > Journals and click New. Pick the Purchase type, enter a code and description and link the G/L account on which the transactions of this journal are booked. If you already have a purchase journal, the new one gets its own G/L account. After saving, the journal shows up in the Overview | Journals list.
Step 2. Set the currency
The same screen has a Currency section. With Currency you add active currencies to the journal. With Variable: Currency you can enter transactions in more than one currency. You also need that option if you later want to post currency revaluation entries in this journal. Variable: Exchange rate supports more than one exchange rate and can only be switched on once Variable: Currency is on.
Step 3. Set the entry numbers
Every journal counts its own entry numbers (boekstuknummers) per financial year. Open the journal through its Code or Description and, in the Financial year: Entry number section, enter the start number or next number for a financial year. Exact uses that number for the next entry and counts up afterwards.
Note: this only changes the numbers of new entries. If you want to change the entry number of an existing entry, you must delete the entry and enter it again with the number you want.
Step 4. Pick the purchase journal for automatic invoice processing
If you use the Scanning service, go to Company name > Settings and select Automatic invoice processing. There you decide which purchase and sales journal the entries that come through the Scanning service are booked to. If you create a new purchase journal and the Scanning service must post into it, do not forget this setting. Otherwise the proposals keep landing in the old journal.
Step 5. Block a journal you no longer use
A journal without entries can be deleted: select it in the Journals list and click Delete. If it already has entries, you open the journal, click Edit and select Blocked. You can then no longer pick it under Entries > Create, but the history stays.
Step 6. Check for missing entry numbers
Go to Financial > Entries & G/L Accounts > Reports > Missing entry numbers (Ontbrekende boekstuknummers). Select a financial year and click Refresh. You see per journal which numbers are missing. According to Exact, gaps come from deleted entries or numbers that were skipped by accident.
Common mistakes
- Posting in the wrong journal. A purchase invoice in the general journal, or in the purchase journal of the wrong company. The amount is right, but your overviews and your number series are not. Under Entries > Create, always check first which journal is selected.
- One journal for everything when you need more. If you want a separate number series or overview for a business unit or a currency, set it up at the start of a financial year. Splitting halfway gives you two half years nobody can compare any more.
- Gaps in the numbering. A deleted entry leaves a gap. Run the Missing entry numbers report before your accountant does, and note why a number is missing.
- Foreign invoices in the euro journal. Without Variable: Currency you cannot enter transactions in more than one currency in a journal. An invoice in dollars then does not fit your euro journal. Switch the option on or create a journal per currency.
- The purchase journal not set for automatic invoice processing. You created a new purchase journal, but the Scanning service still posts in the old one. Or the other way round: you block the old journal without updating the setting. After every change to your journals, check Company name > Settings > Automatic invoice processing.
How Glimps does it
Glimps only works with Exact Online. It takes suppliers, G/L accounts, VAT codes, cost centres, projects, journals, purchase orders and receipts straight from Exact. So a Glimps posting is a real posting in your own company, in the journal you chose.
Glimps reads every line of the invoice, codes each line from how you posted that supplier before (see also GL coding) and posts the entry in Exact Online itself, per supplier as far as you allow. If you work with several administrations, you manage them from one platform. With the PO matching add-on, Glimps puts every line next to the purchase order and the receipt, as explained in 3-way matching explained. Who should authorise which invoice is covered in authorising invoices in Exact Online.
Eight checks stop or limit a posting. Two of them touch this topic directly: a credit note and a different currency than usual limit automatic posting, so such an invoice comes to you first. And Glimps never pays. Glimps does not support Peppol or UBL.
You start today. You connect Exact Online yourself and your first invoice is processed within minutes. You try it free for 14 days. See the pricing page or open the demo first.
Conclusion
One purchase journal per company is enough for most businesses. Create a second one for a different currency, its own number series or a separate overview, preferably at the start of a financial year. Give every journal its own G/L account, check for gaps and remember which journal the Scanning service posts to.