Free General Ledger Templates

Therefore, a general ledger contains individual accounts in which similar transactions are recorded, whether relating to an asset, a liability, an individual, or an expense. Consider the following example where a company receives a $1,000 payment from a client for its services. The accountant would then increase the asset column by $1,000 and subtract $1,000 from accounts receivable. The equation remains in balance, as the equivalent increase and decrease affect one side—the asset side—of the accounting equation. In this instance, one asset account (cash) is increased by $200, while another asset account (accounts receivable) is reduced by $200.

General Ledger with Budget Comparison Template

The general journal is a great place to find out when accounting transactions happen. This is where your accountant makes the original entry for your financial transactions and dates them. All transaction data comes to the general journal and makes its way to the general ledger. Sub-ledgers are particularly helpful for businesses with a high sales volume because you can segment your financial transactions into digestible categories, making managing your financial data easier.

How To Create a General Ledger

As such, the journal and ledger both have the most crucial roles in an accounting process to ensure that no transaction is missed out. For any details on the transaction, confusion or rectification, accountants refer to these two books of accounts. As per bookkeeping rules, every financial transaction affects two accounts, causing them to either gain or lose something with equal amounts. Goods purchased with cash will cause goods to be debited as an asset while cash getting credited to finance the purchase.

What Is a General Ledger Template?

The general ledger (GL) summarizes all the financial information pertaining to your business. For this reason the ledger is sometimes known as the book of final entry or the book of secondary entry. For more small business budgeting and balance sheet resources, see our list of downloadable small business balance sheet templates. A general ledger helps you to weighted average method know the overall profitability and financial health of your business. In addition to this, the information contained in general ledgers help you to run any audits smoothly. Unlike pperating expenses, the non-operating incomes and expenses are one-time incomes or expenses that you either earn or incur.

The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed. See our free small business income-related resources for additional small business income tools. Say, you record a Prepaid Rent of $500 at the end of every month, the adjusting entry would be as follows.

See our collection of Excel accounting templates for additional accounting resources. Sign up to a free course to learn the fundamental concepts of accounting and financial management so that you feel more confident in running your business. For instance, you could assign four-digit codes for all your accounts, or you could assign specific numbers to specific accounts. You can refer back to the details regarding the sales made and helps you to keep track of payments that have been received or yet to be received from your customers.

Save this accounting general ledger template as a one-off file, or share it as a template with your accounting team to standardize financial reporting practices. You need to record business transactions in your books of accounts based on the dual aspect of accounting. So, as per the Duality Principle, each transaction will involve a minimum of two accounts, meaning one account will increase while the other decreases. This system of debit and credit helps in finding out the final position of every item at the end of the given accounting period. Use this sample general ledger template with example text and figures to track financial transactions.

1. Businesses have an expansive list of accounts, so you will need to make as many as required to track all transactions.
2. Operating Income is generated from your core business operations and helps you to know your capacity to generate profits from primary business activities.
3. In each accounting period, entries and account listings are compiled into the essential financial statements of a business, including the balance sheet and income statement.
4. Sub-ledgers are particularly helpful for businesses with a high sales volume because you can segment your financial transactions into digestible categories, making managing your financial data easier.
5. The first thing you—or your accountant—must do is gather the accounting documents that are used to post corresponding entries.

Use this simple general ledger template to gain insight into your business’s financial data and debit and credit accounting records. Add the account name and number, item date and details, and post reference, such as asset, liability, or revenue for each transaction. Then, enter the debit or credit figures so that you can account for every transaction and determine your bottom line. GL is a set of ledger accounts where transactions recorded in journals are posted. A balance sheet is a statement that presents the company’s financial position at a point in time. When starting a small business, you may not know all of the important ins and outs of record keeping.

But of course, that’s easier said than done—which is why we’ve drawn out exactly how general ledgers can be used to your benefit. Basically, where your general ledger contains the summary-level information, the sub-ledgers contain the details, such as transaction dates, amounts paid, and descriptive information. A sub-ledger gives you a place outside of the general ledger to record detailed information on your transactions. To find more templates and advice on tracking small business expenses, see our comprehensive list of small business expense templates.