Ads end in 20 seconds
This content is free thanks to our sponsors
Sponsored Ad – I may earn a commission if you click and buy
Accounting
General Ledger
The master book (or computer file) that contains every single transaction for every account in the company.
The general ledger is where all journal entries end up after posting. It's used to prepare the trial balance and all financial statements. Modern accounting software keeps one giant digital general ledger.It's like the main hard drive that stores every photo, video, and file on your computer instead of keeping them scattered on different USB sticks.
Real world: When you record a sale, the general ledger updates the Sales Revenue account and the Cash or Accounts Receivable account at the same time.
💡 The general ledger is the single source of truth for all the company's numbers — if it's wrong, every report will be wrong.