Overview
Set up a transaction once, and SoftLedger creates it for you on a schedule. Recurring entries work for journals, invoices, and bills — anything you enter on a regular cadence, like a bi-weekly payroll journal, a monthly subscription invoice, or a recurring software bill.
Every recurring entry has two pieces: a template (what gets created) and a schedule (when it gets created).
See a demo video for a payroll journal here:
Common use cases
Recurring journal — payroll accruals, monthly interest amortization, revenue recognition
Recurring AR invoice — monthly or yearly subscription billing
Recurring AP bill — expenses incurred every month, like software subscriptions
Step 1: Create the template
The template holds everything the created document will contain — accounts, amounts, descriptions, dimensions. Two ways to make one:
From scratch — go to the Templates page for the document type (for journals: Financial > Journals > Journal Templates) and select + New.
From an existing document — open a journal, invoice, or bill you've already created and select Create Template. This is usually the faster path: build the entry once the normal way, confirm it's right, then template it.
Note: Date fields on the template are ignored — each created document is dated by the schedule that creates it.
Step 2: Set the schedule
Go to the Recurring page for the document type (for journals: Financial > Journals > Recurring Journals), select + New, and set up:
Name — make it descriptive, like "Payroll - 1st of month"
Template — select the template you created
Frequency — how often it runs: for example, monthly, or every 2 weeks for a bi-weekly cadence
Start date — the first date the document is created. The start date also sets the pattern: start a monthly schedule on October 1st and it runs on the 1st of every month
End date — optional. Leave it blank and the schedule runs indefinitely
Semi-monthly cadences (like payroll on the 1st and the 15th) are two schedules on the same template: one monthly schedule starting on the 1st, and a second starting on the 15th.
Caution: Schedules only create documents from today forward. Setting a start date in the past will not backfill entries — it simply begins on the next occurrence.
What gets created
Every recurring document is created in draft, regardless of type, so nothing posts without review. Recurring journals land on your Draft Journals page ready to approve; invoices and bills land in their respective draft lists and flow through your normal approval process from there.
Monitoring your schedules
Navigate to Admin > System Jobs to see every run. Recurring documents appear alongside other system jobs (like bulk uploads) with a recurring type — you'll see when each job completed, and if a run failed, selecting the job shows you why and which document was affected.
Good to know
Draft first, always. The schedule creates the document; your team still reviews and posts it.
One template, many schedules. The same template can drive multiple schedules with different cadences or start dates.
Amounts change? Edit the template and every future run picks up the change; documents already created are untouched.
Pausing a schedule — disable it rather than deleting, and re-enable when ready.
Questions about recurring documents? Reach out through the chat bubble or at support@softledger.com — happy to help.