"These books are inactive": nothing posts until the books are reactivated
Posting a voucher, issuing a demand, recording a payment, starting a run or cancelling a booking is refused because the promoter's books are inactive; what is blocked and how to reactivate them.
Messages this explains
- “These books are inactive: vouchers cannot be created or posted until they are reactivated.”
- “These books are inactive. Reactivate them under Books to post entries.”
- “Books <name> are inactive”
- “These books are inactive; a draft can be saved but not posted.”
"These books are inactive": nothing posts until the books are reactivated
What you see
- At the top of the books' pages (the books overview and its tabs) an Inactive badge next to the name and the alert "These books are inactive: vouchers cannot be created or posted until they are reactivated."
- On New voucher and the edit page of a draft: "These books are inactive; a draft can be saved but not posted." The Save and post button is not shown.
- On any action that has to post to these books, an error "These books are inactive. Reactivate them under Books to post entries.": Post on a voucher, Issue on a demand, New run on Demand runs and Payout runs, Record payment and Clear on a payment, recording or approving a commission, preparing a revenue run, and the Cancel booking wizard.
- Automatic runs started by a workflow rule, and AI assistants connected to the app, receive the shorter form "Books <name> are inactive".
Why it happens
Books can be switched off on their Edit panel (Active unticked: "Inactive books keep their data but refuse new vouchers and postings."). This is the way to retire the books of a promoter company that no longer trades, or to freeze a set of books while it is being sorted out, without deleting anything (see Books cannot be deleted).
While the books are inactive, every entry that would reach their ledger is refused, whether you post it by hand or it is posted for you: demands (their sales voucher), receipts and payouts, commissions, revenue runs, credit notes and refunds from a cancellation, and demand or payout runs for any project whose promoter keeps these books. The check happens when the entry is posted, so existing drafts stay editable, but a new voucher cannot be started in inactive books either. Reading the books, their reports and their history is not affected.
How to fix it
- Open Books (filter Inactive only if the books are hidden) and open the books.
- On the books overview press Edit, tick Active and press Save changes. You need the Edit permission on Books; without it, ask an accountant or administrator who has it.
- Retry the action that was refused: post the voucher, issue the demand, create the run, clear the payment. Nothing was lost; the refused action was not recorded.
- If the project's promoter company was changed to one whose books are inactive by mistake, correct the promoter on the project instead (the Edit permission on Projects).
Related
Related
- Books overviewScreen
The home page of one set of books: its company and settings, counts, fiscal years, and shortcuts to the chart of accounts, vouchers, reports and opening balances, with the actions to rename, deactivate or delete the books.
- BooksScreen
The list of every set of books in your organization, one per promoter company, with the actions to set up books for a company, open a set or delete one.
- New voucherScreen
Enter a manual voucher (receipt, payment, journal, contra, sales, purchase, credit note or debit note) with its lines and bill allocations, and save it as a draft or post it straight away.
- VoucherScreen
One voucher with its lines and bill allocations, its reversal links, its history, and the actions to post, reverse, cancel or delete it.
- DemandScreen
One demand: the installments it bills, its amounts with GST, the expected TDS and what is payable in money, the receipts and TDS credits against it and how the money is placed on the charges, with the actions to edit, issue, cancel or delete it.
- Demand runsScreen
Every demand run of the chosen books, the dialog that previews and drafts a run billing everything due on a project, and the scheduled rules that create runs automatically.
- Demand runScreen
One demand run: its dates and totals, the demands it drafted, the subjects it skipped and the demands that failed to issue, with the actions to issue or cancel the run.
- PaymentScreen
One receipt or payout: its details, amounts and allocations, and the actions to clear it, bounce it, cancel it, edit it or delete it.
- Record receipt / Record payoutScreen
Record money received from a buyer or society member, or paid to a channel partner or society member: who, how and how much. A receipt settles the payer's open demands by itself, oldest due first; a payout is allocated to commissions or benefit rows by hand. A buyer's consideration and GST are two separate receipts; the TDS they deducted is a TDS credit.
- Payout runsScreen
Every payout run of the chosen books, the dialog that drafts a new run of member benefits, commissions or refunds, and the scheduled rules that draft runs automatically.
- Payout runScreen
One payout run: its payouts, skipped payees and failures, and the steps to approve it, export the bank file, clear it with the bank's UTRs or cancel it.
- CommissionScreen
One channel-partner commission: the partner, the brokerage with GST and TDS, the payouts against it, and the actions to edit, approve, cancel or delete it.
- Revenue runsScreen
The revenue runs (period closes) of the chosen books, the dialog that prepares a new draft run, and the scheduled rules that draft runs automatically.
- Cancel bookingScreen
The four-step wizard that cancels a booking: it shows the demands and receipts that will be reversed, suggests the forfeiture and charges from the rule in force, sets the refund and posts everything in one go, releasing the unit and parking and marking the opportunity lost.
- Books cannot be deleted: vouchers or payments exist in themTroubleshooting
The Delete books dialog refuses because the books already hold vouchers or payments; deactivate the books instead so their history stays intact.