General Ledger
Record journal transactions and automatically generate individual T-accounts/ledgers.
Journal Entries
The Ultimate Guide to the General Ledger
Welcome to the EasyToolz General Ledger tool. While the general journal lists transactions chronologically, the general ledger organizes them by account, giving you a clear picture of where your money actually is.
What is a General Ledger?
The general ledger (GL) is the master set of accounts that summarizes all transactions relating to a company's assets, liabilities, equity, revenue, and expenses. The process of transferring information from the journal to the ledger is called "posting."
The Chart of Accounts
To use a GL, a business first sets up a "Chart of Accounts"—a numbered list of every bucket of money the business tracks. Typical numbering systems use:
- 1000s: Assets (e.g., Cash, Inventory)
- 2000s: Liabilities (e.g., Accounts Payable, Loans)
- 3000s: Equity (e.g., Retained Earnings)
- 4000s & 5000s: Revenue and Expenses
How to Use This Tool
Simply select an account and input the transactions that affected it during the period. The tool functions as a T-account, automatically calculating the running balance on the correct side (debit or credit).
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is my ledger out of balance?
If the total of all debit balances does not equal the total of all credit balances, a posting error occurred. You likely transposed a number, posted a debit as a credit, or forgot to post one half of a journal entry.