A general ledger account (GLA) is the first element of an accounting code
A combination of up to six elements: a general ledger account, a single entity and up to four analysis dimensions, as recorded on a specific transaction line item.. They also form part of a FinancialForce chart of accountsA collection of general ledger accounts, entities, and analysis dimensions, organized into a reporting structure.. General ledger accounts will normally be used to represent different categories of income, expenses, assets, liabilities and reserves (share capital and retained profits).
Accounting supports three types of general ledger account:
- Balance Sheet
- Profit and Loss
- Retained Earnings
A company's balance sheet and profit and loss statement are both derived from the transactions posted to the general ledgerCentral repository for all your business transactions. Each transaction is posted to a general ledger account.. The account type defines in which of these statements each account's transactions will appear.
The retained earnings account is used to roll up your profit and loss balance into the retained profit account in the balance sheet at the end of the financial year. If you have more than one company in your org, and they all have different home currencies, you will need a retained earnings account for each company.
Each general ledger account in the chart of accounts is typically assigned a name and a unique code by which it can be identified. This is known as its reporting code.
For example:
| Name | Reporting Code | Account Type |
|---|---|---|
| Accounts Payable Control | CRE002 | Balance Sheet |
| Account Receivable Control | DBT001 | Balance Sheet |
| Bank Account - Checking | BNK001 | Balance Sheet |
| Sales Tax | TAX003 | Balance Sheet |
| Bank Interest | FIN005 | Profit and Loss |
| COS - Parts | COS001 | Profit and Loss |
| COS - Delivery | COS101 | Profit and Loss |
| Retained Profit | RET001 | Retained Earnings |
These are just some of the general ledger accounts you are likely to need.
The General Ledger Accounts tab displays a home page that lets you quickly create and locate your general ledger accounts. You can also sort and filter your general ledger accounts using standard and custom list viewsGive you instant access to specific sets of data. In addition to using existing views, you can create custom list views for the items most relevant to you.. In addition, this tab lets you view and edit detailed information on each general ledger account.
The General Ledger Account object is an organization-level objectCustom object that exists across all companies in an organization (org)..
Corporate and Local GLAs
In certain circumstances, your business may need to produce financial reports for more than one statutory body, for example:
- If you have companies based in different countries.
- If you want to report on an alternate chart of accounts that belongs to an acquired company.
You can indicate whether a GLA is to be used in corporate or local statutory reports by assigning the corporate chart of accounts structure or a local chart of accounts structure to it. See What is a Chart of Accounts Structure? for more information.
You will also need to create a mapping between the local GLA and its corporate equivalent so that when transactions are recorded, transaction line items are populated in both GLAs. See Mapping Corporate and Local GLAs for more information.
GLA Groups
GLA groups are useful if you want to close a period to your accounts payable (for example) but leave it open for your accounts receivable. The groups available are Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Cash or None. If you prefer not to use GLA groups, a period will be open to all general ledger accounts until you select its Final Close checkbox.
GLAs and Currencies
If your multi-company org has more than one home currencyThe main working currency of the current company., you must create a separate retained earnings and suspense account GLA for each home currency. So, for example, if you have two USD companies and one GBP company in your org, you must create the following GLAs:
- Retained Earnings USD
- Suspense USD
- Retained Earnings GBP
- Suspense GBP
The two USD companies can share the same USD GLAs.