The journal your accountant posts
After you accept your opening difference, Landara shows one entry to be made in Xero or QuickBooks: move your old stock value across, and decide what to do with what is left.
Updated 10 August 2026
Once you accept your opening difference, Landara starts comparing against the Inventory account it posts to. On an existing accounting file that account is empty, and your stock value is still sitting in the account you used before.
One journal fixes that. Landara works it out and shows it; your accountant enters it in Xero or QuickBooks.
Why Landara does not just post it
Every other journal in this module is arithmetic Landara can stand behind. This one is not, entirely. It has two parts, and only the first is bookkeeping.
| Part | What it is | Who decides |
|---|---|---|
| The transfer | Move the balance out of your old inventory account into the one Landara posts to | Nobody. Same stock, relabelled |
| The remainder | What is left once that is done | Your accountant |
Landara names the part it can prove
Before handing anything to your accountant, the card accounts for whatever it can establish from its own posting history. Two causes are provable, and both are common on a file that was set up in stages:
- COGS journalled before your Inventory account was opened. A COGS journal credits Inventory, so one raised before anything debited that account reduced a balance nothing had built up. Your books are short by exactly that amount, and the card names it, dates it and links to the journals.
- An opening balance posted short. If the opening entry went in at your on-hand value without allowing for COGS you had not journalled yet, the account started low by that difference.
Posting your outstanding COGS journals will not close that second one. A COGS journal reduces your Inventory account and your on-hand value by the same amount, so the gap survives untouched and merely stops having a matching number beside it. It needs a correcting journal of its own.
Landara only names a cause it can prove, and it checks first that your Inventory account holds exactly the net of the journals it has posted. If anything else has moved that account, it cannot attribute the difference and says so rather than guessing.
What is left is your accountant's call
Anything the card could not account for is a genuine disagreement about what your stock is worth, and there are two opposite explanations for it:
- Your books understate inventory, because purchases were expensed rather than capitalised. Fixed with a journal.
- Landara's costs are above what you actually paid, which is common when prices are reconstructed from recent invoices. Fixed by correcting cost layers, not by a journal.
Landara cannot tell those apart, and posting the wrong one has a tax consequence. So it reports the number and stops. When it has accounted for everything, it says so and there is nothing left to decide.
What the card shows
On Dashboard → COGS → Valuation, under your accounting card:
| Line | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Your Inventory account should hold | The target. Note this is usually not your on-hand value, see below |
| Dr new account / Cr old account | The transfer. Landara states the exact amount |
| COGS journalled before your account was opened | Named and dated when it applies. Fixed with a correcting journal |
| Your opening balance was posted short | Named when it applies, with what went in and what it should have been |
| Still unexplained after that | Whatever is left, for your accountant to decide on |
Enter it in your accounting software. Nothing needs recording back in Landara: the next time the card loads it reads the new balance, the difference closes on its own, and the journal stops being suggested.
Why the target is not simply your on-hand value
This is the part that looks like an arithmetic error and is not.
Your books are only ever caught up to the last entry posted, and two kinds of entry can still be on their way. The target is the position before both, because both will post against this account:
- COGS you have not journalled yet adds to the target. You are about to credit the account with those journals, so it has to start high enough to absorb them.
- Shipment bills you have not published yet come off the target. Those bills will debit the account when they land, so it has to start low enough that publishing them brings it up to your on-hand value rather than past it.
Worked example:
| Figure | Amount |
|---|---|
| Landara on-hand value | $49,700 |
| COGS not yet journalled | $300 |
| Shipment bills not yet published | $8,000 |
| Target for your Inventory account | $42,000 |
Bring the account to $42,000, then post the $300 COGS journal and publish the $8,000 of bills, and it lands at $49,700, matching Landara. Target $49,700 instead and those same entries drive it to $57,400: the published bills have counted stock the target already held, which is the double count this arithmetic exists to prevent.
The card shows each adjustment as its own line whenever it is non-zero, so you can see where the target comes from.
The remainder shown here will not exactly equal the opening difference you accepted, and that is correct. The baseline was measured against your current on-hand value; this targets the position before your unposted COGS. They differ by exactly that unposted amount.
Post it in the right order
- Confirm which account held your stock before Landara, under Settings → Connections → Configure Tax Codes.
- Accept the opening difference on the valuation page.
- Have your accountant enter the journal Landara shows, in Xero or QuickBooks.
- Check the valuation card reads in line.
- Now post your COGS journals from the COGS report.
Landara will refuse a COGS journal until step 3 or 4 is done. A COGS journal credits your Inventory account, so the stock has to have been debited into it first. Without that, you are crediting an account nothing ever put anything into and driving it below zero, quietly, every period you post. See post a COGS journal.
If your stock never moved accounts
Some merchants use the same inventory account before and after, because theirs already works on a bill line. Set both slots to it. Landara sees there is nothing to migrate, suggests no journal, and the two figures should agree from the moment you accept.
