General Ledger

The General Ledger is the complete record of all financial transactions posted to each account in your chart of accounts. It provides a detailed, chronological view of every debit and credit entry for a selected account, along with a running balance.

Accessing the General Ledger

Navigate to Dashboard > Accounting > Bookkeeping > General Ledger.

How the General Ledger Works

The general ledger aggregates all posted journal entries for a specific account. When you select an account, you see every transaction that has affected that account, in date order, with a running balance that shows how the account balance changed over time.

Using the General Ledger

Select an Account

At the top of the page, use the Account dropdown to select the account you want to review. The dropdown lists all accounts from your chart of accounts, showing both the account code and name.

Set the Date Range

Use the Start Date and End Date fields to filter transactions to a specific period. This is useful for:

• Reviewing monthly or quarterly activity
• Preparing period-end reports
• Investigating specific timeframes

Review the Transactions

The ledger table shows all matching entries in chronological order.

Ledger Table Columns

Column	Description
Date	The date of the journal entry.
Entry Number	The journal entry number. This can be used to navigate to the original journal entry for more detail.
Description	The description from the journal entry explaining the transaction.
Debit	The debit amount posted to this account in this entry (if any).
Credit	The credit amount posted to this account in this entry (if any).
Balance	The running balance of the account after this entry. This shows the cumulative effect of all entries up to and including this one.

Opening Balance

At the top of the ledger, the Opening Balance is displayed. This represents the account's balance at the start of the selected date range (i.e., the sum of all transactions before the start date). The running balance in each row builds on top of this opening balance.

Info: If no date range is selected, the opening balance is zero and all transactions since the beginning of time are shown. When a date range is set, the opening balance reflects all activity before the start date.

Reading the Running Balance

The running balance in the "Balance" column tells you the cumulative balance after each entry:

• For asset and expense accounts (normal debit balance): debits increase the balance, credits decrease it.
• For liability, equity, and revenue accounts (normal credit balance): credits increase the balance, debits decrease it.

Example

For a "Bank Account" (asset, normal debit balance):

Date	Description	Debit	Credit	Balance
Opening Balance				5,000.00
Jan 5	Customer payment received	2,000.00		7,000.00
Jan 10	Rent payment		1,500.00	5,500.00
Jan 15	Sales revenue deposit	3,500.00		9,000.00

Common Use Cases

Account Reconciliation

Use the general ledger to verify that account balances match external statements:

1. Select the bank account.
2. Set the date range to match the bank statement period.
3. Compare each entry against the bank statement line items.
4. The closing balance should match the bank statement ending balance.

Investigating Discrepancies

If a financial report shows an unexpected balance:

1. Open the general ledger for the account in question.
2. Review recent entries for unusual or incorrect postings.
3. Note the journal entry numbers of suspicious entries.
4. Navigate to those journal entries to review and potentially void or correct them.

Period-End Review

At the end of each month, quarter, or fiscal year:

1. Review key accounts (Cash, Receivables, Payables, Revenue, Expenses).
2. Verify that all transactions are properly posted.
3. Check that running balances make sense and match expected values.
4. Look for missing entries or incorrect amounts.

Audit Trail

The general ledger serves as a complete audit trail:

• Every transaction affecting an account is recorded with its date, amount, and source journal entry.
• The running balance provides traceability from the opening balance to the current balance.
• Entry numbers link back to the original journal entries for full documentation.

Tips for Using the General Ledger

• Check frequently used accounts (bank, cash, receivables, payables) regularly to catch errors early.
• Use date filters to narrow down to specific periods rather than scrolling through the entire history.
• Cross-reference with journal entries when investigating specific transactions. The entry number column provides a direct link.
• Compare opening and closing balances across periods to understand trends and spot anomalies.
• Export data from the Reports section if you need the general ledger data in spreadsheet format for external analysis.