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How to use the activity log in Understory Accounting

Keep track of all your transaction activity using the activity log in Understory Accounting

The Activity log is a list of every transaction Understory has turned into an accounting entry — and whether each one reached your accounting system. It's how you keep your books matching your bookings without typing entries by hand.

To access the activity you’ll need to use Understory Accounting, and have the role admin or the permission ”Accounting: Edit”.

You'll find it under Finance → Accounting → Activity.

The Accounting module has four tabs: Overview, Activity, Reconciliation, and Settings. This article covers the Activity log and how automatic bookkeeping works.

Before you start

Two things need to be in place for entries to appear:

  • Experiences created and priced. Entries are built from real bookings, so you need live, priced experiences before any entries show up.

  • Recommended: an accounting system connected. This lets Understory sync entries to your books automatically. You can connect it at any time — it will apply to future transactions.

How automatic bookkeeping works

Every time money moves in Understory, the module creates an accounting entry for it. This covers payments, prepayments, refunds, and gift cards.

For each entry, Understory splits the amount across the right accounts in your accounting system — net revenue, VAT, fees, bank settlement, and (for prepayments) deferred revenue.

A quick note on two terms:

  • Deferred revenue is money paid in advance. It becomes revenue later, when the experience actually takes place.

  • A journal entry is the breakdown of how a transaction is split across accounts — the debit, credit, and VAT for each line. You can see this for any transaction under Journal entry.

Understory never posts to your books on its own. It sends each entry to your accounting system as a draft (a draft daybook entry — a posting that waits in your accounting system until you approve it). You give the final approval there. This keeps the automation fast while leaving the final say with you.

What appears in the Activity log

The Activity tab lists every entry that's been created. Each row shows the date, the category, the related booking or gift card, the amount, and a status.

Categories

  • Payment — a booking payment

  • Prepayment — paid in advance, recognised as revenue later

  • Refund — money returned to a guest

  • Gift card — a gift card sold or redeemed

Statuses

  • Synced — successfully transferred to your accounting system

  • Pending — queued or in progress

  • Failed — the transfer didn't go through and needs your attention

How do I find a specific entry?

  • Use the All / Needs attention toggle to jump straight to entries that need action.

  • Set a period (for example, last month) to narrow the date range.

  • Use Search to find one specific entry.

  • Open the filter panel to filter by Category, Status, Experience, and Location. Select Clear all to reset.

What do I see when I open a transaction?

Click any entry to open the full detail. You'll see three sections:

  1. Transaction: The gross amount, VAT, net, date, customer, and a link to the related booking. A side panel shows the transfer ID, period, type, location, and destination (your accounting system).

  2. Journal entry: The exact account lines that will be posted, with debit, credit, and VAT for each.

  3. History log: A timeline of everything that happened to the entry: when it was created, when the transfer started, whether it synced or failed, and who marked it handled.

What happens when a transfer fails?

When an entry shows Failed, open it to see why. The detail page explains the error (for example, your accounting system was temporarily unavailable) and how many automatic attempts were made. From there you can:

  • Retry transfer — send it to your accounting system again.

  • Fix the account mapping — if the error is about a wrong account, the message names the account and links to the configuration page. Update the mapping there, then come back and retry.

After the first automatic attempts, failed transfers are not retried automatically — they wait for you to retry them or mark them handled.

Good to know

Does Understory post entries to my accounts automatically?

No. Entries arrive as drafts in your accounting system, and you post them there. Understory never posts to your books on its own.

Are OTA bookings included?

No. Bookings from OTA platforms like GetYourGuide and Viator aren't included in the Activity log. You'll need to get that data for your bookkeeping from the OTA's own platform.

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