How it works
Every transaction ends up in the general ledger as journal lines against accounts in the chart of accounts. Subledgers, such as accounts payable, accounts receivable and inventory, hold the detail and post summaries or individual entries to the general ledger. Account balances in the ledger roll up into the trial balance, the balance sheet and the profit and loss statement.
Example
When a customer pays a $1,200 invoice, the ledger records a debit to the bank account and a credit to accounts receivable, and both balances update on the next report.
In integrations
The general ledger is the system of record that finance products read from and write to. The Unify Accounting and ERP APIs are designed to expose ledger accounts, journal entries and the transactions that feed them in one model across QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite and other platforms, with writes validated against open periods and active accounts. Treat the ledger as your customer's system of record, not a cache. Read freely, but write carefully: validate before you post, never overwrite what accountants entered, and make every change traceable.