General Ledger Definition – What is General Ledger?

General ledger definition. Analyzing the definition of key terms often provides more insight about concepts. General ledger can be defined as record containing all accounts (with amounts) for a business; also called ledger.
A T-account is a shorthand way to represent the general ledger, the general ledger recording the detail of transactions in each account, ordering transaction detail by date. For example, our cash T-account example started with a beginning balance of $1,000 and was decreased by a $200 transaction to arrive at a balance of $800. The general ledger allows us to see the detail behind the account balance of $800, to see the $1,000 beginning balance, and $200 transaction.
A T-account works great for short calculations but where more transactions are needed it is helpful to see dates and a running balance. Below is an example of a general ledger showing more transactions which include dates of transactions and a running balance of the account total for each date.
Each account will have its own general ledger account just as each account had its own T-account, each account having a normal balance of either debit or credit. Accounts with a normal credit balance will increase with a credit and decrease with a debt, just as they had with our T-account example of the accounts payable account. Below is an example of accounts payable general ledger.