This page is a guided tour rather than a lecture. Below are the two free files, an Excel general ledger workbook and a printable Word account page, with each part labelled A to F the way you’d mark up a printout for a new bookkeeper: what the zone does, which formula runs it, and what to change for your own business. The sample books belong to Larkspur Studio LLC, a fictional (illustrative) two-person design studio, for October 2026.

The general ledger template in Excel

The workbook has three tabs: Chart of Accounts, General Ledger and Journal. Most people open it on the ledger tab, so the tour starts there and works outward.

A. The account block: one band per account

Each account starts with a parchment-coloured opening row: the account code, the account name and the balance it carried into the month. Below it sit that account’s transactions in date order, then the next account begins. This is the classic ledger layout. It’s what an auditor or accountant expects to see when they ask to “see the GL”.

The account name on the band isn’t typed. It’s looked up from the chart of accounts with INDEX(...,MATCH(B7,...)). Rename an account once on the chart and every band picks up the new name. The opening balance is pulled the same way, so the only place you ever key an opening figure is the chart.

B. The posting lines

Every journal entry becomes at least two lines on the ledger: one debit and one credit, under different accounts. In the sample, JE-102 (invoice 1041 to Fernhill Bakery for $6,800) appears twice: as a debit under 1100 Accounts receivable and as a credit under 4000 Design revenue. Ten days later, JE-109 (the bakery pays) also appears twice, debiting cash and crediting receivables. Put the two lines side by side and you can follow the money from invoice to bank.

Keep the journal reference on both lines. It’s the only thing that links them, and it’s the first thing you’ll search for when a number looks wrong.

C. The running balance column

This is the column that does the real work. The formula on each line is:

=H7+IF(normal balance="Debit", N(F8)-N(G8), N(G8)-N(F8))

In plain terms, take the line above and add this line’s movement, with the sign set by the account’s normal balance. Assets and expenses are debit-normal, so a debit increases them. Liabilities, equity and revenue are credit-normal, so a credit increases them. The template reads the normal side from the chart of accounts. Credits to revenue therefore show as a rising balance (6,800 → 16,200 → 19,450) instead of a run of negatives, which is how a human reads a ledger. N() treats a blank debit or credit cell as zero, so empty cells don’t break the formula.

Each new account band resets the balance because its first row pulls a fresh opening figure. The cash account in the sample goes from $18,450.00 to $23,215.60 over 13 lines, and you can check every step.

D. The balance check at the top

Line 4 of the ledger tab totals every debit and every credit and tells you whether they match. In October the sample shows Total debits 40,371.40 · Total credits 40,371.40 · in balance. If you post a one-sided entry or type 1,850 on one line and 1,580 on the other, it switches to OUT OF BALANCE straight away, before the error gets anywhere near your month-end reports.

A balanced ledger isn’t automatically a correct one. Post an expense to the wrong account and the totals still agree. The check catches arithmetic, not judgment, so it works best alongside a monthly bank reconciliation for the cash account.

E. The Chart of Accounts tab: the control panel

Twelve accounts are set up, each with a four-digit code, a type and a normal balance. The numbering follows the common convention: 1000s for assets, 2000s for liabilities, 3000s for equity, 4000s for revenue and 5000s for expenses. You can extend each range as the business grows (5600 Travel, 5700 Insurance) without renumbering anything.

The Debits and Credits columns total the ledger by account using SUMIFS on the account code. Closing balances then follow from the normal side: opening + debits − credits for debit-normal accounts and the reverse for the rest. Two checks sit under the table:

• Ledger check: confirms that total debits equal total credits and that closing balances net to zero (debit-normal closing balances minus credit-normal ones). The second test catches a wrong opening balance, which the first can’t.
• Net income: closing revenue minus closing expenses. For Larkspur’s October that’s $19,450.00 − $5,782.40 = $13,667.60. That figure is the bottom line of your profit and loss statement.

Type and Normal have dropdowns, so a typo like “Debt” can’t quietly send an account down the credit-normal formula path.

F. The Journal tab: where entries start

The journal is the chronological list: date, reference, description, debit account, credit account and amount, one row per entry. It’s the easiest place to write things down as they happen. Each entry then gets posted as two lines on the ledger tab. The total at the bottom is compared with the ledger’s debit total and shows Matches when everything has been posted. If an entry hasn’t made it onto the ledger, the check says so.

Why not generate the ledger from the journal automatically? You can, with FILTER and SORTBY in Excel 365. But those functions don’t work in Excel 2016 or 2019, and they make the ledger read-only, so you can’t annotate a line. Posting by hand at this size (a few dozen entries a month) takes minutes and keeps the file working in every version of Excel, LibreOffice and Google Sheets.

The Word general ledger account page

Some people still keep a paper ledger, or need a single account printed for a file, a loan officer or a board pack. The Word page covers one account. The header shows the account name, number, normal balance, period and opening balance. The table has eight sample lines for Larkspur’s cash account plus blank ruled rows for more. At the bottom, total debits, total credits and the closing balance sit in a strip, along with a box for whether the account agrees to the bank reconciliation.

The Rec. column is the detail worth copying into whatever system you use. Tick each line when it appears on the bank statement. In the sample, the last two lines aren’t ticked yet. The card payment and the account fee were still clearing at month end, which is exactly the kind of timing difference a reconciliation exists to explain.

Setting it up for your own books

1. Replace the chart of accounts. Keep the code ranges, change the names. Most small businesses need 20 to 40 accounts. Start lean, because you can always split an account later but merging them mid-year is painful.
2. Enter opening balances on the chart only. Use last period’s closing balances or your opening balance sheet. The ledger check will tell you if they don’t net to zero.
3. Clear the sample lines on the ledger and journal tabs. Keep one account band as a pattern. Copy it down for each account you use and change the code in column B.
4. Post weekly, not monthly. Twenty entries are easy to post. Eighty, with half the receipts missing, are not.
5. Close the month. When the ledger check shows Balanced and the cash account agrees to the bank, copy the closing balances into next month’s opening column.

Where the ledger feeds next

A general ledger isn’t a report you send anyone. It’s the source that the reports come from. The closing balances on the chart give you the trial balance. The revenue and expense accounts become the P&L, and the asset, liability and equity accounts become the balance sheet. Movements in cash, receivables and payables drive the cash flow statement, and account 1100 gives you the starting list for an accounts receivable aging report. If you need to present the results, the financial report template lays them out for owners or lenders.

Accuracy comes first, so get the ledger right before you spend time formatting reports.

Larkspur Studio, its clients and all figures are illustrative. This template supports bookkeeping but isn’t accounting or tax advice. If you’re unsure how to classify a transaction, ask your accountant.