> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.hitaji360.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Recurring Transactions > Some accounting work happens on a fixed rhythm: a monthly rent expense, a quarterly retainer invoice, a depreciation journal every month-end. Some accounting work happens on a fixed rhythm: a monthly rent expense, a quarterly retainer invoice, a depreciation journal every month-end. A **recurring transaction** is a schedule that generates these documents for you automatically. You define *what* to create (an expense, an invoice or a journal entry) and *how often*, and Hitaji 360 produces the real document each time the schedule comes due — keeping a full history of every occurrence. **You'll find this at:** `/accounting/recurring` > 📷 *Screenshot: Recurring Transactions page with stats cards, status tabs and the "New Recurring" button — to be added.* *** ## What a recurring transaction can generate A recurring transaction targets exactly one **entity type**: | Entity type | What gets generated each cycle | | ----------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Expense** | A new expense, dated the generation day. | | **Invoice** | A new customer invoice, dated the generation day with a due date derived from your settings. | | **Journal Entry** | A new journal entry — and unlike the other two, journal entries are **created and posted automatically** in the same step. | Each generated document is a normal expense / invoice / journal entry and behaves exactly like one you created by hand from that point on. *** ## Access (multi-business note) The Recurring Transactions area is available to users with accounting read access (`accounting:read`) in the active business. Recurring transactions are scoped to the **accounting book** of the business that is active when you create them; switching business switches which schedules you see. *** ## The lifecycle of a schedule Every recurring transaction has a **status**: | Status | Meaning | What you can do | | ------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------- | | **Active** | The schedule is live and will generate documents when due. | Pause, Cancel, Generate now | | **Paused** | Temporarily stopped; the scheduler skips it. | Resume, Cancel, Generate now | | **Completed** | It has reached its maximum number of occurrences and will not run again. | View only | | **Cancelled** | Stopped for good. | View only | The page header shows count cards for **Total**, **Active**, **Paused** and **Completed**, and status tabs to filter the list. You can also filter by entity type (Expense / Invoice / Journal Entry) and search by name. *** ## Creating a recurring transaction 1. Go to **`/accounting/recurring`** and click **New Recurring**. 2. Fill in the schedule header: | Field | Notes | | --------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Name** *(required)* | A label, e.g. "Monthly Office Rent". | | **Type** *(required)* | Expense, Invoice or Journal Entry. The form below changes to match. | | **Frequency** *(required)* | Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly or Yearly. | | **Start Date** *(required)* | When the schedule begins. The first occurrence is anchored here. | | **End Date** | Optional. If set, it must be **after** the start date; the schedule won't generate past it. | | **Max Occurrences** | Optional cap. After this many generations the schedule moves to **Completed**. Leave blank for unlimited. | 3. Fill in the **Template Data** — the details of the document to generate. The fields depend on the type you chose: **Expense** * Vendor (contact), **Amount** *(required)*, Category, **Description** *(required)*, Currency, and Notes. **Invoice** * **Customer** *(required)*, **Due Days** (how many days after generation the invoice is due), and one or more **Line Items** — each with a description, quantity and unit price. Optional Terms and Notes. The form shows a running estimated total. **Journal Entry** * **Memo** *(required)* and at least **two Lines**, each with an account and a debit or credit amount. A running Dr/Cr total is shown. (Remember a journal entry must balance — see [Journal Entries](/accounting/user/transactions/journal-entries).) 4. Click **Create Recurring**. The schedule starts **Active**, and its first **next occurrence** is calculated from the start date and frequency. > 📷 *Screenshot: New Recurring Transaction modal with the Journal Entry template fields expanded — to be added.* *** ## How and when documents get generated A background scheduler runs **every 5 minutes**. On each run it looks for schedules that are **due** (active, with a *next occurrence* at or before now) and generates the next document for each. You don't have to do anything for this to happen. For each successful generation the system: * creates the target document (and, for a journal entry, **posts** it); * advances the schedule's **next occurrence** by the frequency; * increments the **occurrence count** and stamps **last generated**; * writes a **history** record of the occurrence. Generation is protected against duplicates: even if two scheduler runs (or a manual generate and the scheduler) collide, exactly one of them produces the document for a given slot — you won't get double invoices for the same cycle. If a particular generation **fails** (for example a referenced account is missing), the schedule still moves on to its next slot and the failure is recorded in the history as **FAILED**, so an operator can see and fix it. The system does not silently retry the same slot. ### Generate now (manually) To run a cycle immediately rather than waiting for the scheduler, use **Generate now** (the bolt icon) on an **Active** schedule. This produces the next document on demand. It refuses to run if the schedule is completed or cancelled, if the maximum occurrences has already been reached, or if the end date has passed. *** ## Managing a schedule Row actions (and the same actions on the detail page) let you control a schedule: | Action | Effect | | ---------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **Pause** | Active → Paused. The scheduler skips it until you resume. | | **Resume** | Paused → Active. The next occurrence is re-anchored from *now*. | | **Cancel** | Sets the schedule to **Cancelled**. You're asked to confirm because this **cannot be undone**. | | **Generate now** | Produces the next document immediately (Active schedules). | | **Delete** | Removes the schedule (a soft delete; history is retained). | | **Edit** | Change the name, frequency, dates, cap or template data. Not allowed on completed or cancelled schedules. Changing the frequency or start date recomputes the next occurrence. | Click a row to open the schedule's **detail page**, which shows its settings and the full **occurrence history** (each generated document, when it was generated, the slot it filled, the amount, and whether it succeeded or failed). > 📷 *Screenshot: Recurring transaction detail page showing the occurrence history table — to be added.* *** ## When a schedule finishes If you set a **maximum occurrences**, the schedule automatically becomes **Completed** on the generation that reaches the cap, and its next occurrence is cleared so it never runs again. If you set an **end date**, generation simply stops once that date has passed. *** ## Behind the scenes * **Expense** and **Invoice** schedules create a *draft/open* document of that type, which then follows its own normal posting and payment flow. * **Journal Entry** schedules create **and post** the entry in one move, so the ledger is updated immediately. The entry must balance — if the template lines don't, that occurrence is recorded as failed. For the double-entry mechanics of generated journal entries (debits, credits, balancing, reversal), see [Journal Entries](/accounting/user/transactions/journal-entries). *** ## Known gaps / things to verify These are noted for the team and should be confirmed before this page is considered final for end users: * **Detail-link route mismatch.** From the list, clicking a row navigates to `/accounting/recurring-transactions/:id`, but the registered route for the detail page is `/accounting/recurring/:id`. The row click may land on a not-found page. The list and detail pages otherwise live under `/accounting/recurring`. * **Expense template — account fields appear ignored.** The "New Recurring" form collects an **Expense Account** and a **Payment Account** for expense schedules, but the back-end expense generator only uses amount, description, category, contact, currency and notes — it does not appear to pass those two account selections through. Confirm whether these fields actually influence the generated expense before documenting them as effective. * **No dedicated RBAC slug.** Creating/pausing/cancelling/generating recurring transactions is gated only by general accounting workspace access (`accounting:read` on the route), not by a finer-grained permission. Confirm this is intended. *** ## Related * [Journal Entries](/accounting/user/transactions/journal-entries) — the entries that "Journal Entry" schedules generate and post. * [Journal Entry Templates](/accounting/user/transactions/journal-templates) — reusable line layouts for one-off (manual) journal entries.