General Ledger

The General Ledger shows a transaction-by-transaction history of activity for any account in your chart of accounts.

What is the general ledger?

In accounting, the general ledger is the complete set of accounts and their transactions. In Keystone, the General Ledger page provides a focused view: you select a single account and a date range, and the system shows every posted journal entry line that touched that account, along with a running balance.

Think of it as a bank statement for any account in your chart of accounts — not just bank accounts, but also receivables, revenue, expenses, and any other account.

Go to Accounting > General Ledger in the sidebar.

How to view the general ledger

Step-by-step:

1. Navigate to Accounting > General Ledger.
2. Select an Account from the dropdown at the top of the page. Accounts are listed by account number and name (e.g., “1010 - Cash - Operating”).
3. Set the date range using the Start Date and End Date fields.
4. The ledger loads automatically when both an account and date range are selected.

The report refreshes whenever you change the account or date range — there is no separate “Run” button.

Understanding ledger entries

Each row in the general ledger table represents a single journal entry line that affected the selected account:

Column	Description
Date	The date of the journal entry
Entry #	The journal entry number (e.g., JE-42), shown in monospace font
Memo	The journal entry’s header memo
Description	The line-level description (may differ from the header memo)
Debit	The debit amount, if this line was a debit to the account
Credit	The credit amount, if this line was a credit to the account
Running Balance	The cumulative balance of the account through this transaction

The running balance updates with each row, giving you a clear picture of how the account balance changed over time. For debit-normal accounts (assets, expenses), debits increase the running balance and credits decrease it. For credit-normal accounts (liabilities, equity, revenue), credits increase it and debits decrease it.

Example

For the account “Cash - Operating” (an asset with debit-normal balance) over one week:

Date	Entry #	Memo	Debit	Credit	Running Balance
03/01	JE-38	Lender check - Loan #101	$12,000		$12,000
03/03	JE-39	Commission payment - J. Smith		$3,500	$8,500
03/05	JE-41	Lender check - Loan #102	$9,200		$17,700
03/07	JE-42	Office rent - March		$2,800	$14,900

Relationship to journal entries

The general ledger shows only lines from Posted journal entries. Each row corresponds to one line of a posted entry. Draft and voided entries are excluded.

Exporting the general ledger

The general ledger can be exported for use in external tools or for record-keeping:

• CSV Export — Click the CSV export button to download the ledger data as a comma-separated values file. The export includes all columns: Date, Entry #, Memo, Description, Debit, Credit, and Running Balance.

• PDF Export — Click the PDF export button to generate a printable PDF of the ledger. The PDF includes the account name, date range, and the full transaction table.

When to use the general ledger

The general ledger is your go-to tool for:

• Investigating an account balance — If a number on the trial balance or balance sheet looks unexpected, drill into the general ledger to see exactly which transactions contributed to it.

• Auditing specific transactions — Find all transactions that affected a particular account within a date range.

• Tracking receivables — View the Accounts Receivable ledger to see which lender checks have been recorded and which are still outstanding.

• Reviewing expense activity — Check the general ledger for an expense account to see every charge posted during a period.

• Reconciliation support — Compare the general ledger for your Cash account against your bank statement to identify discrepancies.

Tips

• If the ledger shows “No transactions found for this period,” verify that you have posted journal entries for the selected account and date range. Draft entries are not included.
• The general ledger only shows activity within the selected date range. The running balance starts from zero at the beginning of the range. To see the full historical balance, set the start date to the earliest date you have entries.
• Use the general ledger in combination with the Trial Balance to understand how individual transactions roll up into summary totals.