Read the general ledger and trial balance

Read the posted ledger of all financial activity and the trial balance that proves the books balance as of a date.

The general ledger is the full posted record of every financial transaction. The trial balance is the snapshot that proves it balances. Both read the same source: the posted journal entries behind your invoices, bills, payments, and manual entries, mapped through the chart of accounts. Draft and voided entries do not appear in either.

Read the general ledger

  1. Go to Accounting > General Ledger.
  2. Each row is a posted line: its account, debit or credit amount, entry date, and the source it came from. Posting an invoice, opening a bill, recording a payment, or posting a manual journal entry all write lines here.
  3. The ledger is a record, not an editor. To change a posted line, void the entry that created it and post a corrected one.

Read the trial balance

  1. Go to Accounting > Trial Balance.
  2. Each account shows its net debit or credit balance, ordered by account number, with a Total row at the bottom.
  3. Set an as of date to see the balance through the end of that day. Only entries posted on or before that date are included.
  4. The debit total and the credit total must be equal. Because every posted entry balances, the trial balance always balances; if a number looks wrong, trace it back through the ledger to the source document.
Posted journal entries  ->  General ledger (every line)
                        ->  Trial balance (net per account, as of a date)
                              debits total == credits total

The chart of accounts

Every line posts to an account in the Chart of Accounts (Accounting > Chart of Accounts). Accounts are typed (asset, liability, equity, revenue, expense) and can be nested. Each account carries its current balance. Setting up the chart of accounts is organization-level configuration covered in the in-app help center for signed-in customers.

Where to go next