Aqid ERPOne account, every posting, the balance after each
The general ledger (دفتر الأستاذ العام) is the book of accounts: one sheet per account, every entry posted to it in date order, and the running balance. The sample is a bank account for one month: an opening balance, a receipt, a payment, the payroll, and the closing balance that must agree to the bank statement on one side and the trial balance on the other.
- The account code and name, and the period.
- The opening balance, which is the previous period's closing balance.
- Per line: date, reference (the voucher, invoice or journal number), description, debit, credit, balance.
- Totals of the debits and credits for the period, and the closing balance.
Reading the sample
The bank opens at 25,000.00. A customer's payment of 7,665.00 is a debit (money in). A supplier payment of 11,385.00 and the October payroll of 18,200.00 are credits (money out). The account closes at 3,080.00, which is the bank balance on the trial balance.
| Opening balance | 25,000.00 |
|---|---|
| RV-0215 receipt | +7,665.00 → 32,665.00 |
| PV-0098 payment | −11,385.00 → 21,280.00 |
| PR-10 payroll | −18,200.00 → 3,080.00 |
Keeping the books
ZATCA requires VAT records, invoices and the books behind them to be kept for at least six years after the end of the tax year, longer for capital assets, in Arabic or with an Arabic translation available, and accessible in the Kingdom. A ledger kept in a spreadsheet meets the letter of this; a ledger kept in an accounting system posts itself from the documents and cannot be edited after the fact, which is what an auditor and a tax inspector look for.