The general ledger is every journal line in the books, one account at a time. Open it after invoices, bills, supplier payments, or journals you typed have been saved. It is not the chart of accounts, not a trial balance, and not bank reconciliation.
Two doors, same screen. Reports → General Ledger Detail needs Reports plus ledger-detail on the plan (Beta does; Free does not — see Plan and billing).
How to open it
| Step | Click |
|---|---|
| 1 | Accounting → General Ledger |
| 2 | Or Reports → General Ledger Detail → View report |
You need the General Ledger accounting permission. Custom roles start with permissions off — see Invite your team. PDF and Excel also need the Reports permission.
Nothing shows here until a journal has lines: auto-post from a finalized invoice or bill, a posted supplier payment, or a journal you record yourself. Customer payments never land here until you enter a Receipt Journal.
The Account filter lists active chart accounts (code and name), up to 500, sorted by name. On first open Seedflow selects the first account in that list so the Balance column is for one account. Reset clears the account — then every account’s lines mix together and Balance is no longer an account total.
How to read one account
| You want | Do this |
|---|---|
| Cash or bank activity | Pick that asset account. Then reconcile it in Bank reconciliation |
| Sales or Output VAT | Pick the income or VAT account from Sales and purchase posting accounts |
| AP, purchases, Input VAT | Pick the liability, expense, inventory, or Input VAT account bills post to |
| A customer or supplier subsidiary | That is Reports → Subsidiary Ledger — see Open reports. The party column here is only the journal header’s customer or supplier |
The default range is This Month (first of the month through today). Presets include day, week, last month, quarter, calendar year, fiscal year, and Custom. There is no all-time preset — use Custom if you need a wider window so more history sits in the running balance.
Search (magnifying glass) matches entry number, reference, header or line description, account code or name, book type, and status. It does not filter by location or class — those are not on this toolbar.
Toolbar
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Account | One account at a time. Empty after Reset = all accounts |
| Date range | Transaction date from / to. Empty period shows “No transactions in this period.” |
| Search | Narrows the lines already in that account and date range |
| Reset | Clears account, search, and date back to This Month |
Rows load 50 at a time — scroll for more. The footer shows how many of the matching lines are on screen. Order is date, then entry number, then line.
What each column is
| Column | Source |
|---|---|
| Date / Entry | Journal date and JE- number |
| Party | Customer or supplier on the journal header. Dash if none (typical on General Journal) |
| Reference | Optional reference on the journal, not the JE- number |
| Description | Line memo if present, otherwise the journal description |
| Account | Code, name, type, and category |
| Memo | Journal notes |
| Debit / Credit | That line’s amounts. Blank on the unused side |
| Balance | Running debit minus credit from the first loaded row |
Book type and status are not columns. Open Accounting → Journal Entries and search the JE- number if you need to post, void, or see which book it is. Clicking a ledger row does not open the journal.
Use this screen to confirm the books, not to enter them. If a line is wrong, fix it on the document or with a reversing journal — see Documents vs journal entries.
Common checks
| If you see | Likely cause |
|---|---|
| The same sale twice (invoice journal plus a Sales Journal you typed) | Double posting. Void or reverse the manual one |
| A finalized Cash invoice with no sales lines here | Cash + auto-post does not journal the invoice. Enter a Sales or Receipt Journal if you need it on the books |
| A customer payment on the invoice but no cash movement here | Customer payments do not auto-journal. Enter a Receipt Journal |
| A supplier payment’s cash and a second disbursement you typed | Auto-post already created the disbursement. Do not key it again |
| A voided JE- still listed | Void only marks the entry. Post a reversing General Journal if the amounts must come off |
| Balance that looks inverted on AP or income | The column is always debit minus credit. Credits make it more negative |
PDF and Excel use the same account, dates, and search as the screen. They need a from and to date (This Month already has both). Email is on the toolbar but not available yet.
The export is a flat list with a running balance, not a formatted financial statement. P&L, balance sheet, and trial balance are Financial statements. The hub, plan locks, and PDF/Excel are Open reports.
Other guides in Books