Prepare & Print General Ledger in QuickBooks

Print General Ledger in QuickBooks
  • January 8, 2024

The Basic Advantages of the General Ledger

General Ledger is of great significance to the user and the account holder at QB. Let us take a look at some of the most important benefits of the GL:

The Financial Statement Preparation

Various financial statements like P&L, Trading, and Balance Sheets can only be created with the help of a General Ledger. This is to enable the user to be able to prepare the Trial balance with the help of the General Ledger’s detailed accounts. Not, just that, but the Trail Balance also allows the guarantee of the accuracy of the data entered in your Ledger Accounts. With the help of this, it is easier to be able to utilize the financial statement with the accurate amounts that have been displayed on the Trail balance, for example, the Income statement and the Balance sheets. Thus, for a business owner, it is important to be able to assess the liquidity, the overall financial position, and the profitability of the organization

The Final Position of a Certain Account

The financial transactions are recorded under the separate accounts head In the company’s General Ledger. These Ledger accounts are also closed at the end of the accounting period, this is done by balancing the debit and the credit sides of all such accounts.

The Smooth Audit

With the help of General Ledger Accounting, one can easily notice material misstatements concerning the various accounts. In the case of requirement, the proper ledger accounts are created and well-sorted with the help of the General Ledger. The best part is that General Ledger behaves like a financial record that is always Audited.

The Simple and Easy Tax Filing

One can also use a General Ledger to be able to record the details of the transactions that your company does over a certain accounting period. This includes various aspects like Invoice Number, tax information, invoice number, the sold items, date of the sale, and the customer’s details.

The detailed records of your ledger accounts offer you the required details for the preparation of your tax returns. This is because one does not need to search the invoice, or bank statement while the submission of the tax returns, as these details, are helpful.

The identification of Unusual Transaction

Various transaction takes place during the accounting period. These are categorized by the transactions in the General Ledger, hence making it easier for the user to be able to identify the unusual transactions. Hence, for any organization, this is of great importance and asset.

The Easy Assessment of the Financial Health of the Company

The Trial balance is prepared based on the General Ledger Accounts, also the final account statement is created based on the Trial balance. This is where the balance sheet and the income statement are also categorized. This is of great importance as it helps in the overall understanding of the financial status. This way one can easily view the Profit of your company and the resources made by it on an overall basis.

The General Ledger Accounts: The Different Types

Let us take a look at the various types of the General Ledger accounts:

1. The Asset Accounts

The resources of your business entity make up its assets and these are responsible for generating the cash flow. These are responsible for the economic value that can be converted into cash equivalent or simply cash. Not, just this, but the current assets and the fixed assets are also categorized under assets. You can easily locate the same on the left side of your balance sheet.

2. The Liabilities Account

This is the amount that you owe to individuals or outsiders known as the liabilities and are also the financial obligations that one needs to carry out. Not, just that, but, these are also the obligations one has to carry out concerning the borrowed funds that are yet to be paid for. These are presented on the right side of the balance sheet. Likewise, the liabilities are also categorized under the Current and Non-Current categories.

3.  The Shareholder Equity

When the company’s assets are more than the liabilities, this is known as the stockholders' equity. Simply put, these are also the assets that are available after the settlement of the debts and the liabilities. Hence, the capital placed by your shareholders in your business in return for the company’s stock and retained earnings is called the Stockholder’s equity.

Likewise, the treasury stock and the share capital retained earnings also comprise the shareholder's equity. So, the current and the non-current obligations are followed by the shareholder’s equity and are included on the liability side of the company’s balance sheet.

4. The Income Accounts Operation

The money that is made from the core business operations is known as the Operating Income Accounts. This data helps the user to know the capacity required for profit generation from the primary business activity. This includes sales revenue, the money from the fee, commissions, and other income types. The income can vary depending upon the business type run by you.

5. The Expense Account Operations

These are the expenses that mandatorily need to be run by you and include the day-to-day operations. Hence, these include the expenses that are required to be run by you for your main business operations. This usually includes insurance, Rent, Payroll, and other expense types similar in fashion.

6. The Non-Operating and Other Income Accounts

These are the one-time income or costs that are earned by you and are called non-operating income and costs, as compared to the operating expenses. But, both of these accounts are not the result of the core business activity. Also, these are not related to your business operations.

The Main Purpose and Requirement of the QuickBooks General Ledger

The various business transactions are kept on track by the QuickBooks General Ledger. These are categorized as assets, liabilities, costs, income, costs, and the owner’s equity. Hence, with the help of the AB General ledger you can keep track of the following:

Keeping track of the Company’s Activities:  Various company transactions like placing personal deposits into the bank accounts, paying business bills from personal money, and other company transactions can be kept on track of with the help of the General ledger. This way the personal expenses and the business expenses can be easily sorted with the help of the QB General Ledger.

Keeping Track of the Business Financial Expenditures: This is one such feature that helps in keeping track of financial expenses in a certain time frame. This way you can easily keep track of the expenses and make the right entries in a jiffy. Hence, the rightful entries are made into the relevant accounts and are not miss-assigned into some other account.

Helps make sure that your Books are kept Updated: One of the best ways to track the various expenses and organize them accordingly is to get hold of the wonderful QuickBooks General Ledger. This also helps to track out the data input errors and also the reasons why the numbers don’t seem to add up if they don’t. Hence, it is advisable to double-check the General Ledger report to be able to ensure that everything is in the right order.

The Working of The QuickBooks General Ledger Reports

Here the double-entry approach is applied to be able to maintain the QuickBook accounting balance. Likewise, the financial statements are also prepared using the same technique. However, to function, it requires a specific technique:

  • The credit and the debits must have the same amount
  • At least one debit and credit entry must be contained in every Journal
  • Equal numbers of debits and credits should not be contained in each account.

A balance sheet formula is used by QuickBooks to be able to maintain a balance. Likewise, the calculation of the firm assets is done by summing up liabilities and owner’s equity.

Conclusion

These are some of the basic features, factors, and details about how to Print and prepare General Ledger in QuickBooks. One must know that in the case of QuickBook Online, a list of transactions from the various accounts for a certain month is displayed in the General Ledge Report. However, when you RUN this report you will need to choose between the cash and the Accrual basis. For further filtration, one can also select the accounts they wish to view.

The very first summary reports showcase the total of each account, the transactions, or exceptions. The best part is that this is available in and easily accessible in all QuickBooks online editions. Hopefully, this article will offer you a comprehensive idea about the various aspects of the General ledger and how to prepare and print it.


Frequently Asked Questions

What are some of the main advantages of General Ledger in QuickBooks?

This is one of the most vital documents in the Accounting system. A General Ledger is made or created after the Journal entries are completed in the Books of Journal Entry.

Here are the advantages of a General Ledger:

  • For the Tax Preparation
  • The preparation of the financial statement
  • Identification of unusual transactions
  • Basic inspection purpose
  • The final position of a specific account
  • The financial health evaluation of a certain organization

What are the features of the GL Code?

The GL codes or the General Ledger codes are the numerical codes that have been assigned to the different General Ledger Accounts. The main aspect of the General Ledger code is to be able to assist you in the proper structuring of the GL accounts and the smooth recording of the various transactions. This way you can organize multiple transactions in a certain accounting period without the resulting confusion. With the help of the GL code, you can simply identify the transaction you are looking for in a jiffy.

Explain the General Ledger Reconciliation Process.

The main purpose of the General Ledger Reconciliation is to be able to assist you in being able to verify the correctness of certain data that is included in your General Ledger account. This is especially beneficial when you have various transactions recorded in your General Ledger under multiple categories.

This can be done in the following manner:
  • By the comparison of the actual documents like bank statements, credit card statements, sales receipts, and invoices with the balances on the Ledger accounts.
  • Likewise, one must also be able to compare the source documents with the General Ledger account balances to find out for any errors. Hence, the QuickBook accounting software makes it easier for the General Ledger Reconciliation.
  • Other aspects like misstatements, inaccuracies, and any recurring errors can be rectified with the help of simple yet appropriate procedures. This way you need not have to go through every aspect of the Journal and ledger accounts manually.  

Explain the General Ledger Detailed Reports

The various aspect of a certain account for a certain period like the beginning balance, ending balance value, and the transaction is offered within the General ledger details. This is the report that needs to be sorted out secondarily by a Log Number in case there are various records of the same General Ledger Number and the same date.

Show the steps to find out the Transaction details by Account on the QuickBooks desktop.

Follow the below steps to find out about the transaction details by accounts on QB desktop:

  •  Navigate to the Reports located on the left Menu
  • Go to the Search field and type in TRANSACTION DETAILS BY ACCOUNTS
  • This will launch Open your Report, now you need to click on the CUSTOMIZE button
  • Now, get on to the Filter section and select the account that you want to be included in the Distribution Account.
  • If you need to refresh the page, you need to click on the RUN report button.
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