Reading the ledger of an account

The ledger of an account is a running record of every debit and credit that has affected that account. It shows you the account's history and lets you verify that the balance is correct.

Before you start

• You need read access to Accounting (ask your administrator if you cannot see the ledger).
• Know the account name or number you want to review (e.g., "Bank Account," "Sales Revenue," "Accounts Payable").
• The ledger shows entries that have already been posted. Pending or draft entries do not appear until they are saved.

Steps

1. Open your Chart of Accounts. Navigate to Accounting → Chart of Accounts (or Accounts). Open in Usystems

2. Find the account you want to review. Search by name or scroll through the list. Click on the account name to open its detail page.

3. View the ledger entries. The account detail page displays a Ledger or Transactions tab. Click it to see all entries.

4. Read the columns:

   • Date: the business date when the entry was posted.
   • Description / Reference: where the entry came from (e.g., "Invoice #42," "Payment #15," or "Manual Journal Entry").
   • Debit: amount added to this account (shown on the left side for asset and expense accounts).
   • Credit: amount subtracted from this account (shown on the right side for liability, equity, and revenue accounts).
   • Balance: the running balance of the account after each entry.

5. Interpret the balance. For different account types, the balance tells you different things:

   • Asset account (Bank, Inventory): a positive (debit) balance means you have that amount.
   • Liability or Payable account (Credit Card, Accounts Payable): a positive (credit) balance means you owe that amount.
   • Revenue account (Sales, Interest Income): a positive (credit) balance is normal and represents total revenue earned.
   • Expense account (Rent, Utilities): a positive (debit) balance represents total expenses incurred.

6. Drill into an entry (optional). Click an entry to see the full posting details, including which accounts were debited and credited at the same time.

Tips & common mistakes

• The balance may not match your intuition. Remember that "debit" and "credit" have opposite meanings for different account types. For a credit card (a liability), a credit balance means you owe money. For a bank account (an asset), a debit balance means you have money.
• Reconcile regularly. Compare your ledger balance for a bank account to your actual bank statement to catch any missing or incorrect postings.
• Look for old entries. If you suspect a posting error, scroll back to an earlier date to find the original entry and see what happened.
• The ledger is read-only. You cannot edit entries from the ledger view. If you need to correct a posting, create a manual journal entry instead.