Ledgers and account statements
You will be able to: Explain what a ledger shows and read a running balance with Dr and Cr; Use the Account statement to see one account's entries for a period; Describe how reversals appear in the General Ledger.
- Read not done yet
- Self-check: not taken not done yet
- Lesson complete not done yet
A ledger is the record of everything posted to one account. If the chart of accounts is the list of folders, the ledger is what is inside one folder: every debit and credit, in date order, with a balance after each line. Journals, invoices, receipts and every other document all end up as lines in ledgers.
Account statement
Open Reports, then Account statement. Pick any account in the Ledger box: a customer, a supplier, cash, a bank, a tax account, an expense or an income. Set From and To, press Run, and you see:
- The opening balance: everything posted before the From date.
- Every entry in the period with its Voucher, Narration and the running Balance after the row, marked Dr or Cr.
- The closing balance after the last row.
Click a row to open the document that made the entry. Print opens a paper-style statement with your company details and the closing balance written in words. For a customer or supplier it also reads the party account and advances, so money received on account shows too.
General Ledger
The General Ledger report lists every entry that hit your accounts in a period, account by account. Find it in the report list under Reports (it is a catalogue report, so use the report search). Choose a Period, optionally one Ledger, and press Run. It adds three useful things:
- Each account starts with an opening line with Doc No OB, which holds everything posted before the first day of the period.
- Running Balance is debits less credits. A positive figure is a debit balance and a minus figure is a credit balance.
- Cost Center, Job Center and Project Center filters, for analysing entries by department, job or project.
Reversals stay visible
When a document is amended or cancelled, its old entries are not removed. Zeyto adds reversing entries under the same Doc No, shown as minus figures with a narration that starts with Reversal. The balance nets back to what it should be, and anyone can see exactly what happened. Drafts post nothing, so they never appear in a ledger.
Which report for which question?
| Question | Report |
|---|---|
| What moved in this one account, and what is its balance after each entry? | Account statement |
| Show me all the entries for every account (or a chosen one) with cost, job and project filters | General Ledger |
| What does this customer owe and what have they paid? | Party Statement or the customer's Statement button (module 2) |
| Which document made this entry, and what else did it post? | Posting Trail (lesson 7) |
Try it in the demo
- Open https://demo.zeyto.app/demo-app/ and sign in (user admin, password demoAdmin123). This is a public demo with sample data, so nothing you do there affects a real business.
- Open Reports, then Account statement. In Ledger type 'Cash' and pick Cash in Hand. Set a wide From and To and press Run.
- Read the Opening line, then the Balance column with its Dr or Cr. Click a row to open the document behind it.
- Try a Trade Receivables or customer account the same way and compare the Narration column.
Public demo company, sign in as admin / demoAdmin123. Data refreshes nightly.
- A ledger is the full history of one account, with a running balance.
- A minus Running Balance in the General Ledger is a credit balance.
- Amend and Cancel leave the original lines and add Reversal lines, so the ledger tells the whole story.
Check yourself
3 questions on this lesson. Not timed, not the exam, and you can try again. Score 60% or more, and read the lesson, to complete it.