General ledger
The central record of all a business's financial transactions, organised into accounts.
What it means
The general ledger is the master record of every financial transaction a business makes, sorted into accounts such as sales, purchases, cash, receivables and payables. It is the backbone of your accounts and the source from which financial statements are produced.
Subsidiary ledgers — for example a debtors ledger listing each customer's balance — feed detail into the general ledger and let you see who owes what.
Why it matters
An accurate ledger lets you trust your receivables figure and spot overdue accounts before they age. It also underpins bank reconciliation, which checks the ledger against your actual bank balance. Keeping invoice records clean with Merion invoicing makes ledger entries easier to match and review.
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