General ledger

Meaning

The general ledger (دفتر الأستاذ العام) holds one account for every line of the chart of accounts and, under each, every posting made to it in date order with the running balance. The journal records transactions as they happen; the ledger reorganises the same entries by account, so the bank's balance, a customer's balance or the year's sales can be read at once. The sub-ledgers for customers, suppliers, stock and fixed assets roll up into their control accounts in it.

The closing balance of every ledger account is a line of the trial balance, and from there the financial statements are built. ZATCA requires the books and the invoices behind them to be kept for at least six years, in Arabic or translatable, in the Kingdom. In software the ledger posts itself and cannot be edited after the fact, which is what an auditor checks first.

Also called: GL · ledger · دفتر الأستاذ

Example

The bank account in the ledger opens October at 25,000.00, shows a receipt of 7,665.00, a supplier payment of 11,385.00 and payroll of 18,200.00, and closes at 3,080.00. That 3,080.00 is the figure on the trial balance and must agree to the bank statement.