General Ledger
See every account with its opening balance, movement and closing balance, then open an account to read each posting with a running balance.
The general ledger is your books, account by account. Open it at Accounting → General Ledger. It is built from posted journal entries, so it always agrees with your trial balance, profit and loss and balance sheet. Draft journals are not included.
The account list
The first view lists every account that has a balance or any activity in the period:
- Opening: the balance at the start of the period.
- Debit and Credit: what was posted during the period.
- Closing: the balance at the end of the period.
- Postings: how many journal lines hit the account in the period.
Balances are shown as Dr (debit) or Cr (credit). Assets and expenses normally sit in debit. Liabilities, equity and income normally sit in credit.
The bottom row adds up the debits and credits for the period. They are equal when your books balance.
One account in detail
Click an account, or choose it in the Account box, to see each posting in date order:
- the date and the type of entry (invoice, bill, payment, payroll run, mileage claim and so on)
- For: the customer, supplier or employee the posting relates to
- the description and the document it was posted for
- the debit or credit, and the running balance after it
Click a posting to open its journal entry. Click All accounts to go back to the list.
An account shows up to 2,000 postings at a time. If there are more, choose a shorter period.
Narrowing the view
- Period: this month, last month, this or last quarter, this or last year, or a custom range.
- Company: if you run more than one company, show one company's books.
- Customer: only postings for one customer. With the Accounts Receivable account open, this is that customer's statement in ledger form.
- Employee: only postings for one employee, for example their mileage and expense claims.
- Search: find an account by code, name or type. Inside an account, search the postings.
The address in your browser keeps your choices, so you can bookmark a view or send the link to a colleague.
Exporting
Export CSV downloads what is on screen: the account list, or the postings of the account you have open.
Where to go next
- Understand the whole module → How Accounting Works
- Next in this module → Create Journal Entries
- Manage Chart of Accounts
- Accounting Reports
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