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This guide explains how to correctly provide account information when creating Journal Entries via the Unified API.

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Journal Entry

A Journal Entry (also referred to as a G/L entry) is the most generic way to create accounting entries.
It can be used to book any kind of transaction — invoices, bank movements, adjustments, accruals, payroll entries, and more. By definition, every journal entry line must have a ledger account specified. In Chift’s API, we use two fields to indicate this:
  • the type of account (account_type)
  • the account identifier (account)

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Fields

  • account_type
    • general_account → The account value is a general ledger account number (retrievable via GET /chart_of_accounts).
    • customer_account, supplier_account, employee_account → account value is a third-party account.
  • account
    • If general_account → Simply the (general) ledger account number.
    • If _account (third-party account) → Enter the partner ID from the target software (retrieved via GET /clients, GET /suppliers, GET /employees, or in the response when creating a partner).

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How partner account works

When account_type is customer_account, supplier_account, or employee_account and you provide the account value (partner ID in the target system), the API will automatically:
  1. Retrieve the default general account associated with that partner.
    • This can be the system default (e.g., all customers post to 411000)
    • Or a specific account configured directly on that partner’s record in the accounting software.
  2. Use this default account to complete the posting unless you override it (see below).
In French systems, the partner may be identified by an auxiliary account. In such cases, partner_id = auxiliary account number = ledger account.

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Additional fields for account control

  • force_general_account (string | null)
    Overrides the default general account for a customer, supplier, or employee account.
    If set, this value is used instead of the one configured in the accounting system.
  • prioritise_thirdparty_account (boolean | null, default: false)
    In some accounting systems (e.g., those using auxiliary accounts), you cannot provide both a general account and a partner account, since technically both are ledger accounts. If true, the API will prioritize the third-party account (partner) in such cases. We recommand to set to true when using force_general_account.
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