Bookkeeping Basics
General Ledger
The complete set of every account a company's transactions post to — the master record behind all financial statements.
The general ledger (GL) is the central repository of the books: every account from the chart of accounts, each holding its full history of debits and credits. Sub-ledgers — accounts receivable, accounts payable, fixed assets — feed summarized entries into it, and the trial balance and financial statements are all derived directly from it. There is no number on your financials that doesn't come from the GL.
When someone says 'the books,' they mean the general ledger. Close procedures, auditors, and month-end reviews are all verification exercises against it: do the sub-ledgers agree with the GL, does the GL balance, and does every balance make economic sense? Because everything flows through it, an error posted to the GL propagates into every statement built on top — which is why transaction review and period-end adjustments focus there.
Example
Your AR sub-ledger shows $47,000 in open invoices. The GL's accounts receivable control account should also show $47,000 — if it shows $44,000, three invoices were never posted and the discrepancy must be resolved before close can finish.
Common questions
What is the difference between a general ledger and a sub-ledger?
The general ledger holds summary balances for every account; sub-ledgers hold the detailed transactions behind specific accounts (individual customer invoices in AR, individual bills in AP). Sub-ledgers must reconcile to their control account in the GL.
Who maintains the general ledger?
Bookkeepers post daily transactions to it; the accountant or controller owns its integrity — reviewing postings, making adjusting entries, and signing off that it balances and makes sense at period-end.
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