What is a General Ledger Template?

Here are 13 free Excel templates for you to download. If you've been tasked with managing the financial records for your company, you have a big responsibility. Thanks I found AP Ledger very Helpful in my current AP position. Sample General Ledger format in Excel sheet available as example for accounts department of companies, factories, import and export offices, small offices, production units to record the payments of customers and clients.

A General Ledger template (GL) in modern electronic usage, is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) tool or software that allows the company to use it for the integrated application of management operations. This software serves as the main storage of all accounting data in digital form from subsidiary ledgers like – accounts receivable and payable, cash and cash equivalents, fixed assets, income, expenses, equity and other accounts relevant to the company.

The General Ledger in accounting terms, is a listing of all accounts that are found in the Statement of Financial Position (Balance Sheet) and the Statement of Comprehensive Income (Income Statement) as revised by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). This change in account name was made to enhance the presentation of financial information for both in-house and third party users. The General Ledger is also known as the Book of Final Entry, where all accounts are recorded by the use of account names listed in the company’s Chart of Accounts.

Postings in the GL should consider the equality of the debits and credits. It is a must that all entries affecting day to day company-related transactions be recorded. The bookkeeping entry rule sees to it that there is a corresponding entry for debit and credit whenever a transaction is recorded. Both accounts are always equal and balanced, thus adhering to the accounting equation that:

Assets = Liabilities + Equity

The accounting equation is the conceptualized truth in the creation of the Statement of Financial Position. The GL may look fairly simple; however, the realities of a company’s complex business structure may also tend to complicate the workings of its financial recording structure.

How To Create A General Ledger Template In Excel 2010

Whatever business that you’re in, it is important for you to keep track of the operations of the business to know how you are doing. It is oftentimes a numbers game and can be real messy if you use the paper trail in tracking down all income and expenses. The Microsoft Excel Ledgers are customized to fill in these needs. The templates are ready so data entry can be done right away and would be easy to correct and review later on. The basic procedures on how to go about using the templates follow:

1. Go to Microsoft Excel, open up “Tab” and click on the “New” icon. Then click on “Ledgers” when the template window appears, and click again the “Arrows” button. Excel does not have an icon for its ledger templates on its Available Templates window, but they have these as part and parcel of their product offerings;

2. Upon seeing the different business ledger forms, select the one that is suitable for your requirements. After a few minutes, the downloaded file will appear on the Excel Window;

3. Review the account names used in the template. There may be a need for you to replace them with your own account name, as indicated in your Chart of Accounts;

4. The GL number codes found on the first cell on the left, correspond to the assigned number of the accounts. You will change them using the code numbers assigned to your Chart of Accounts;

5. Click on the “enter” key to drag down the cell below the current one. Then change the GL code in accordance with your own account codes.

6. The next procedure would be to move to the right portion cell of the GL code. There may be a need for you to change the categories as indicated: to company departments like Marketing, Operations and Human Resources among others; or product lines of the company that matches the GL codes.

7. The “enter” icon is clicked to move the cell where it matches the GL code to its left. Continue to click on the “enter” icon to match the category in the column for every GL code.

8. Working along the grid would mean posting transactions for each GL code. Money payments for purchases of equipments and inventory may be posted as well as the budget that has been previously set up for this expense. The money remaining after the purchases have been made would also be indicated in the grid.

9. The process would depend entirely on the template that are used and may be auto completed for the user. There is need to complete each GL row depending on the number of transactions that you need to record.

10. Check on the topmost position of the GL where you need to write down the name of the company, the type of ledger that is prepared, and the period covered of the financial statement. Lastly click on “File” and select “Save as” to save it under your file name. Click “file” to save the work.

Where To Download Free General Ledger Excel Template

– Microsoft Office . The latest version of Microsoft Office 365 that includes programs like Excel, Word, PowerPoint and more can be subscribed free for one month. The features are available for five (5) PC’s or Macs6 and up to five (5) mobile devices.

– Microsoft Office. The software can be easily downloaded from the Microsoft Office site which consist of four in one GL template. The features include budgets, monthly expense itemization, as well as a template for charitable organizations. This software can be easily modified and be used with Excel 2007 and higher.

– Spreadsheetzone. com, a site where you can upload the templates by industry, functional area and application types. Aside from the GL template, the more popular ones include templates for Capital Budgeting, Cash Flow Projections and Sales and Inventory management.

– The site of Prime Time FreeWare that caters to free. software download online: Excel Sheet Navigation and Management Software 7.0; Excel Compare 3.0.2; Excel Sheets Copier; Excel Sheets Separator 10.1.2; Excel Recovery Toolbox, and Microsft Excel Viewer.

– MyExceltemplates.org They have a couple of free downloadable templates that include those for General Ledger, Job Sheets, Income Statement, Balance Sheet, Invoice, Production Scheduling, among many others.

Their excel sheet navigation software can switch, copy, rename, or delete open sheets in MS Excel files version 2000 and higher. Their downloadable GL’s are from publisher David Business System Ltd., Peak Info Systems Inc., and Time and Motion Solutions.

Our Most Popular Template

The excel cash book is the simplest and easiest way to start recording and tracking your business income and expenses and bank balance, for your day to day bank accounts.

You can add or delete unwanted columns and delete or insert more rows.

Balances are calculated automatically with built-in formulas so all you have to do is enter how much you earned or spent and the expected bank balance is calculated for you! You can then perform a bank reconciliation within the cashbook to make sure the cashbook reconciles with your bank balance.

This cash book also includes an Income Statement report so you can see if the business is making a profit or a loss each month, and a Balance Sheet report so you can see what your business is worth.

2. Expense Form Template

This form is a cash book specifically for tracking income and expenses off a credit card.

3. Accounting Excel Template

This template is similar in layout to the cash book, however it incorporates sales tax features so you can use it for GST or VAT or HST, and has the added benefit of keeping records for two bank accounts and one credit card.

4. Sales Invoice Template

Need to give your customers a sales invoice?
Excel already has a great variety of Invoice templates included in their system.

Click on File > New and type Invoice into the search bar. The same goes with just about any other template that you might need. You probably don't need to search the web or use my templates to find one - just look inside Excel!

I have done a sample invoice anyway and you can click on the link to go look at it and use it to get an idea of what information you need to include on your self-designed template.

5. Statement of Account

This is what you need to send to your customers at the end of the month.

Use it to list all the invoices you have sent them and include a total.

This tells your customers how much they owe you, and if for some reason they are missing an invoice, they can contact you for a copy.

A statement of account is the best way of reminding your customers that you sent them a certain number of invoices during the month, and that they owe you a certain amount of money and that it is due by a certain date, and that if they don’t pay on time you might charge a certain amount of interest.

6. Accounts Receivable Ledger

Use this spreadsheet to record all the invoices a business issues to a customer who have an account with the business.

You can track customer payments, and keep notes on what a customer says if the business has to call them about overdue payments.

7. Excel Inventory Template

If you buy or make stock items and sell them, you can use this Excel inventory template to keep a track of all items purchased (made) and sold, having a record of the costs and prices, the quantities, the values and so one for each one.

There is an overall Inventory Report which updates automatically so you get to see the totals in one list and immediately see the quantities left in stock, and the overall value of stock on hand.

We also explain how to bring the total value of stock on hand into your bookkeeping software.

8. Receipt Template

Although this particular excel receipt is geared towardsrent, you can easily customize it to exclude anything to do with rent if yourequire a receipt for other purposes.

This template has two versions, one has a shadedbackground which just makes it look pretty, the other one has no shading sosaves the ink usage on your printer.

9. Accounts Payable Ledger

This spreadsheet is a fantastic tool for keeping a record of your purchase invoices due for payment.

You would only need to use this spreadsheet if you have bought goods on account and which you still owe payment to the supplier/vendor.

You would not use this spreadsheet if you paid for your goods at the time of purchase - eg. if you paid with cash or bank card or with some other means.

10. Cash flow Template

This particular cash flow report is good to use if your business is tight on funds and you can only pay bills as income comes in.

You will update it every day and see what your current cash flow is looking like.

It allows you to enter in all the bills coming up with their due date, enter in the daily bank balance, enter in the income and calculate how much you have available to pay the bills.

This will enable you to prioritize payments for the most urgent and important bills such as wages or telephone.

11. Petty Cash Log and Voucher Templates

This excel bookkeeping template comes with two tabs, one for the log, wherein you list the daily cash in’s and out’s, and one for the slip, which can be printed out (might want to copy and paste the slip to fill up a page, and then cut them once printed).
Keep them in the cash box so that anyone with access can complete one whenever they take money or put change back in.

12. Income Statement Template

Also known as profit and loss statement.

All businesses need to know if a profit or loss is being made.

An income statement basically totals the income, totals the expenses, and subtracts the expenses from the income to arrive at a profit or loss figure.

13. Balance Sheet Template

This excel bookkeeping template lets you know what the financial position of your business is i.e. how much you own (assets), how much you owe (liabilities) and your stake in it (equity). In your second year of trading you need to include 'Retained Earnings' under the Equity section (which is just your 'current year earnings' from the first year).

14. Trial Balance

A trial balance is a must have report if you want to move your accounts from one bookkeeping system to another, and it is something a tax accountant will check over at the end of the financial year to ensure all the debits and credits balance.

This excel template allows you to prepare one, and you can also view an example and read up how it works.

15. Journal Entries

This template cannot be downloaded to your computer. It is designed to be used within the web page.

It allows you to practice entering the details of a business transaction in the top half and watch as the bookkeeping journal unfolds in the second half. It can be used for income and expenses paid into or out of a bank account, petty cash, credit card etc.

A great template to help you understand how journals work.

16. Home Office Tax Expenses

General Ledger Format In Excel Free Download For Windows 10

Working from a home office?

This excel template can be used to record all your personal bills each month (like power, city rates, home & contents insurance etc.), on which you are able to claim a portion as a deductible business expense.

The claimable portion will be the percentage of your home office area vs the house area.

We tell you how to calculate that and include it in the template so that the total claimable is automatically worked out.

Conclusion to Excel Bookkeeping Templates

Free Business Ledger Excel

If you are an Excel user, you can try installing the Office Mobile app which allows you to access your documents from your OneDrive or Dropbox or the Microsoft Excel app to your mobile device. It allows you to view and edit and save your Excel documents. Great for when you are out and about.

All of the Excel bookkeeping templates founds on this page can also be opened within OpenOffice.

If you are on this page you probably already own a desktop version of Microsoft Excel or you subscribeto Microsoft 365, but did you know that OpenOffice is completely free?

General Ledger Format In Excel free download. software

It is an excellent alternative to Excel and also has wordprocessing, presentations, graphics – all the things you can get fromMicrosoft, but for free! And in many different languages.