A reversing entry is an equal and opposite posting that cancels an earlier journal posting in Business Central while keeping both entries visible for audit.
A reversing entry cancels an earlier posting by creating entries of the same amount in the opposite direction. Business Central keeps both the original and the reversal, marks the original entries as reversed and links the two, so the correction stays traceable. It is meant for posting mistakes, not for business events such as a return, which are handled with a credit memo.
Press Alt+Q, search for G/L Registers, select the register that contains the wrong posting and choose the action to reverse it. The same reverse transaction action is available from customer, vendor and bank account ledger entries. Recurring general journals also offer reversing recurring methods, which post the counter entry automatically on the day after the posting date.
On 05.07.2026 an accrual of CHF 12,000.00 is posted to account 6900 with balancing account 2300, but the amount should have been 1,200.00. You open G/L Registers, find the register created by that journal posting and run the reversal. After you confirm, Business Central posts 12,000.00 in the opposite direction under the same document number and on the same posting date as the original entry. You then post a correct line of 1,200.00, and the account history shows all three movements.
Reversal is refused when the entry has already been applied or closed, for example a vendor entry that a payment has settled: you unapply first, then reverse. Entries produced by posted documents are generally not reversible this way and need a credit memo instead. Reversals also fail when the posting date of the original entry falls outside the allowed range, because Business Central posts the reversal on that same date. That is also why a reversal cannot be moved into the current month to leave a closed period untouched: if the correction has to land in an open period, you post a manual correcting entry there instead.
Because both movements stay visible, reversing is preferable to any attempt at deleting or editing, which posted entries do not allow in any case. When you reconcile, use the reversed indicator on the ledger entries to filter out pairs that cancel each other. Business Central gives the reversal the same document number as the original posting, so the two lines stay easy to match on an account or bank statement.
No. Posted entries cannot be deleted in Business Central. You reverse the posting or post a correcting entry, so the audit trail stays complete.
The usual reasons are that the entry has been applied or closed, that it did not come from a journal posting, or that the reversal date is outside the allowed posting dates.
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