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Ledger

A ledger is a book or collection of accounts in which accounting transactions are recorded. Each account has: an opening or brought-forward balance; a list of transactions, each recorded as either a debit or credit in separate columns (usually with a counter-entry on another page) and an ending or closing, or carry-forward, balance. The ledger is a permanent summary of all amounts entered in supporting journals (day books) which list individual transactions by date. Usually every transaction, or a total of a series of transactions, flows from a journal to one or more ledgers. Depending on the company's bookkeeping procedures, all journals may be totaled and the totals posted to the relevant ledger each month. At the end of the accounting period, the company's financial statements are generated from summary totals in the ledgers. Ledgers include: Sales ledger (debtors ledger): records accounts receivable. This ledger records the financial transactions between the company and its customers. This shows which customers owe money to the business, and how much. Purchase ledger (creditors ledger): records transactions between the company and its suppliers (i.e. usually purchases by the company). This shows to which suppliers the business owes money, and how much. General ledger: consists of the five main account types: assets, liabilities, income, expenses, and capital. For every debit recorded in a ledger, there must be a corresponding credit, so that overall the total debits equal the total credits. The term ledger stems from the English dialect forms liggen or leggen, meaning "to lie or lay" (Dutch: liggen or leggen, German: liegen or legen); in sense, it is adapted from the Dutch substantive legger, properly "a book lying or remaining regularly in one place". Originally, a ledger was a large volume of scripture or service book kept in one place in church and openly accessible. According to Charles Wriothesley's Chronicle (1538), "The curates should provide a booke of the bible in Englishe, of the largest volume, to be a ledger in the same church for the parishioners to read on.

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Concepts associés (7)
Account (bookkeeping)
In bookkeeping, an account refers to assets, liabilities, income, expenses, and equity, as represented by individual ledger pages, to which changes in value are chronologically recorded with debit and credit entries. These entries, referred to as postings, become part of a book of final entry or ledger. Examples of common financial accounts are sales, accountsreceivable, mortgages, loans, PP&E, common stock, sales, services, wages and payroll.
Liability (financial accounting)
In financial accounting, a liability is defined as the future sacrifices of economic benefits that the entity is obliged to make to other entities as a result of past transactions or other past events, the settlement of which may result in the transfer or use of assets, provision of services or other yielding of economic benefits in the future.
Équation comptable fondamentale
The fundamental accounting equation, also called the balance sheet equation, represents the relationship between the assets, liabilities, and owner's equity of a person or business. It is the foundation for the double-entry bookkeeping system. For each transaction, the total debits equal the total credits. It can be expressed as furthermore: In a corporation, capital represents the stockholders' equity. Since every business transaction affects at least two of a company's accounts, the accounting equation will always be "in balance", meaning the left side of its balance sheet should always equal the right side.
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