Manual Journal - Ability to set default for 'Show journal on cash basis reports'
Ability to set as default whether the "Show journal on cash basis reports" should be ticked or un-ticked on manual journals
Purpose: Because accountants that does the annual journals for clients who do their own GST we don't usually want these journals to show the late GST claims

Hi team! We've been following the conversation here and appreciate you taking the time to explain the need for this feature.
We understand you’re looking for a way to change the default setting for the ‘Show journal on cash basis reports’ checkbox in manual journals, so that it’s unticked, and that having this box ticked by default can create inaccurate cash basis reports, which is particularly challenging when you’re correcting entries or dealing with a high volume of journals.
We may look into this with a finer lens further down the line, but want to share that there's no immediate works planned to enable changing the default for whether a journal is Cash basis.
As many of you have noted, right now you'll need to manually untick the box for each journal entry.
If any change is planned for this we'll be sure to share with you all, here.
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Jan Singleton commented
Yes for me the Statement of Cash Flows is basically a useless feature as it includes journals which in our case we would very very rarely use a journal to provide a cash entry.
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Jennifer Rodrigues commented
Xero - PLEASE listen to what we are saying! Rob Schmitt has made it very clear. I cannot rely on any cash-based reporting that Xero claims to provide.
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Emma Harrison commented
Well said Rudi.
One minor change will make a considerable improvement -
Rob Schmitt commented
Kelly - I believe the Xero Product team may have misunderstood the issue.
The core problem is that cash reports are inaccurate because imported journals are being included - even though this is almost never required. This prevents users from accurately relying on Xero’s cash reporting features and undermines valuable existing functionality.
This affects a material part of your product, yet the fix is simple: change the default so that “Show journal on cash basis reports” is unticked by default — which is correct 99% of the time. It’s extremely rare to journal a cash transaction - that’s what bank feeds are for.
You don’t need to make this a configurable default; just change it centrally. Doing so would instantly improve accuracy and make your entire user base happier. The only reason you haven’t heard more complaints is likely because many users simply don’t realise their cash reporting is wrong.
Implementing this small change would resolve the issue for most users and remove unnecessary frustration. Please reconsider.
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Leanne Gillies commented
Unfortunately, this response demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of what a manual journal actually is. In no way should entries on Xero made on a manual journal be reported on a cash report. I hope this decision is reviewed and reversed, preferably by a team that includes some qualified accountants.
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Rob Schmitt commented
This response is unreasonable and nonsensical. This is a clear product issue that undermines the accuracy of cash reporting and is more important than introducing new features. Our use of journals for revenue recognition, given that Xero does not support this either, creates a significant problem for us and many others. If Xero’s staff had a better understanding of their clients and the broader impact on other features, they would prioritise resolving this issue immediately - wake up...
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Abigail Bruwer commented
It looks great but essentially Xero's cash means nothing to us as long as journals automatically posting come through with the cash tick on, which discounts Xero's information significantly. This is an urgent essential upgrade Xero is behind on.
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Tim Burgess commented
Incredible that after *nine years* of this being an open issue, Xero finally responds just to say "yeah nah, we're not going to fix this setting which never made sense in the first place".
Clearest sign yet that Xero does not understand its customers or their requirements.
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David Ackerman commented
This does seem like such a simple change for Xero to make. It's not even as if it impacts other areas of the system, its just changing a default or allowing it to be set as the default option.
Very frustrating, especially given this was raised 9 years ago!
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Kris Milovsorov commented
So, let's get this straight. You can spend $2.5bn on a payment platform but you can't pay a software developer for half a day to make what will be an easy change? This is not rocket science.
It is stuff like this, plus the excessive price rises, makes it increasingly hard for me recommend Xero to my clients.
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Heidi McMath commented
Agree, unsatisfactory answer from XERO regarding this.
This functionality needs to be actioned to enable users to produce sensible cash flow reports.
As an example, why would depreciation (a typical journal for most business) be considered as a cost that should go through the cash flow.I would hope XERO could at least, set default journal as "UNTICKED" for this particular box as this would be the general rule for 95% of journals.
Then a user can tick the box, on the odd occasion it does affect the cash flow. -
Emma Harrison commented
Response from Xero is unsatisfactory.
"may look at with finer lens down the line" is a joke!
This needs to be rectified ASAP, please -
Russ Smith commented
That's great news. I can look forward to continued monthly manual checks of over a hundred journals, and users who aren't as knowledgeable about accounting or the fact Xero has this feature incorrectly set up can keep having incorrect cash reports.
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Abigail Bruwer commented
Pretty disappointing to hear this, with over 100 journals coming through a day from our ERP system this makes Xero incapable of cash reporting and cash forecasting for us
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Sam Gray commented
I'm not sure what's more concerning - that the original developers who wrote Xero didn't know that manual journals should be non-cash by default - or that 15 years and 208 votes later, Xero still doesn't know...
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Jane Godfrey commented
In the current format there is a significant room for error as most journals done for management accounts are accruals and prepayment so should not affect the cash flow. If this is overlooked it means there are delays whilst the journals are identified and corrected. It should be a function like the date is, a mandatory field that needs ticking as "include in cash" or "exclude from cash" that way it has to be completed and can not be overlooked. This is a very basic requirement and would save errors and lost time.
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Audrey Connelly commented
complete pain in the butt, and so easily overlooked, and this was been asked for for a few years now,( By reading the comments) this was asked about in 2016! Come on Xero ....
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Karen Sante commented
Need to have this functionality
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Adele Hardie commented
I believe this is the only thing I want fixed with Xero. Please attend to this asap. who ever thought it was a good idea to default to cash obviously has never ever worked as an accountant or accounts clerk.!!!
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Shelby Willitts commented
Most of our journal entries are for accrual based financial records only. Please allow the default to have this box unchecked as we have to uncheck this box 90% of the time.