Ledger
In accounting, ledger means a book of accounts, each holding the entries posted to it. The general ledger holds every account; a subledger — AR, AP, fixed assets — holds the detail behind one control account and must agree to it.
- Layer
- Lexicon
- Defined in
- Lexicon
- Components
- 2
Not a rule
Bookkeeping convention — not codified. US GAAP governs recognition, measurement and presentation — not the mechanics a bookkeeper uses to get there. Anyone citing a standard for this word is citing the wrong thing.
Every citation in this system, with the text we read and the date we checked it, is in US GAAP and where these rules come from.
Ledger, in use
Quoted from the 21 documents that use the word — what it does to an interface, in the spec's own sentence.
Everything in this system eventually reads from somebody else's ledger.
Any table wider than its container pins its row header with FROZEN_LABEL — scrolling a general ledger sideways and losing the account name is the exact motion this family exists to support.
Purpose-scoped accounts are just a dimension on the ledger — see the accounting model.
For founders
The same idea written for a founder: what it costs a startup that ignores it, and what to do in a real month.
- General ledger and double-entry bookkeeping, explainedHow double entry works: journal entries, debits and credits, normal balances, running balances, the trial balance, and why posted entries are reversed.
- Accounts payable process for startups: intake to paymentHow a bill moves from inbox to paid: intake, coding, approval, scheduling and recording, plus AP aging and who approves what at a 10-person startup.
- Form 1099-NEC for startups: threshold, deadline, e-filingWho gets a 1099-NEC, the new $2,000 threshold, why a W-9 comes first, what goes on a 1099-K instead, and the deadlines, penalties and state copies.
What it is not called
Each of these is a real word for a different thing. Using it here is what makes a product read as though it was built by someone who has not done the work.
- database
- spreadsheet
Components that render this
The concept is not documentation-only. These are the components that name it in their specification, grouped and stated exactly as the catalog states them.
Components that render the terms it depends on
Little in the catalog names this concept outright, but its definition is built out of others that are named. These render general ledger, subledger, account.
2Cards
Family spec3Payments
Family spec5Ledger & tables
Family spec- AccountRegisterGL detail with a running balance.
- AccountTieOutEvery BS account, proven against its evidence.
- RollForwardOpening → movements → closing → tie. The universal shape.
- AccountPickerShows the normal balance. Blocks non-postable accounts.
- ChartOfAccountsHierarchy, statement mapping, unsupported-account flags.
- DimensionPickerEntity always required; renders what the account demands.
10Receivables (AR)
Family specTerms this one depends on
- Control accountA GL account whose balance is the total of a subledger — AR, AP, fixed assets — and is posted only from it
- General ledgerThe complete set of accounts, holding every posted entry
- SubledgerThe detail, by customer, vendor or asset, whose total must equal its control account in the GL
- AccountA GL account in the chart of accounts. Always qualify when a bank account is meant.
Also in Foundations
Defined in Lexicon. This page is generated from that document, so the two cannot disagree.