GL Entries & Transactions

The General Ledger is where every transaction in include GO lives. Every purchase, payment, invoice, payroll batch, and depreciation run posts to the GL — that is what makes the trial balance balance and the financial statements add up. This is the page accountants and controllers spend their day in.

Unlike most pages in include GO, the General Ledger uses a multi-window layout: a top toolbar of launcher buttons opens floating windows, and you can have several open at once — for example, the Trial Balance and a GL Explorer drill side-by-side. Each window is draggable, resizable, minimizable to a dock, and closeable independently.

Navigation: in the left sidebar, click Finance, then General Ledger. The page opens with one GL Explorer window already loaded so you can start working immediately.

The launcher toolbar

Across the top of the page is a row of launcher buttons. Click any one to open that view in a new floating window. You can open multiples of the same type — for example, two GL Explorer windows with different filters — to compare side-by-side.

GL Explorer — the transaction grid

GL Explorer is the workhorse of the General Ledger. It shows every GL entry as a flat, filterable grid — one row per debit or credit line.

The bottom of the window shows running counts: Transactions: N (how many distinct postings are in view) and Lines: N (how many debit/credit lines that adds up to). Below the data is a sticky totals row showing the debit and credit sums for everything visible — useful for spot-checking that a filter set still balances.

Filtering and saving views

Every column has a filter icon in its header. Click it to filter by text, range, date, or set membership — the same AG Grid filtering pattern used elsewhere in the app.

On the right edge of the window are three vertical tabs: Columns (show/hide individual columns), Filters (collapsed filter panel for everything you have set), and Saved Views (named combinations of filters + column visibility you have saved). Saved Views are per-user — a controller and an accountant can each have their own.

Multiple Explorer windows at once

You can open more than one GL Explorer window — for example, one filtered to Cash – Operating for May, another to Accounts Receivable for the same period. The Duplicate icon in the window header copies the current filter set into a new window, which you can then refine independently.

Posting a Journal Entry

For corrections, accruals, depreciation, or any transaction not generated by another module (AP, AR, payroll, etc.), use a manual Journal Entry. Click Journal Entry in the launcher toolbar — a dialog opens.

The bottom bar shows Accounts: N and Net: Out of balance (or Balanced). You cannot post an unbalanced entry — debits must equal credits. Post Journal Entry writes it to the GL; Add to Recurring Group saves it as a template for repeating entries (monthly accruals, depreciation, etc.) and the Recurring Entries sub-tab manages those templates.

Trial Balance

The Trial Balance is the foundational accountant's view — every active GL account with its debits, credits, and closing balance for the selected period. It is the first thing to look at when a financial statement looks wrong.

The view is grouped by account type — Asset Accounts, Liability Accounts, Equity Accounts, Revenue Accounts, Expense Accounts — in the standard balance sheet / income statement order. Each row shows the account number, name, type, opening balance, period debits, period credits, net change, and closing balance.

The header has a Period selector (from/to months) and a Recalculate button. The top-right shows the total accounts in view and whether debits equal credits — a quick sanity check that the trial balance still balances.

Drilling into an account's transactions

Every row in the Trial Balance is clickable. Click an account and a GL Explorer window opens automatically, pre-filtered to that account number and the same period range. This is the fastest way to answer "what made up this number?"

The new window's title shows the account number — for example, "GL Explorer — Acct #10100". The filter is already applied; you can refine it further or open additional drill windows from other rows. The Trial Balance window stays open underneath, so you can flip back and forth.

The same drill pattern works from Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet — click any account row to open GL Explorer scoped to that account.

Profit & Loss

The Profit & Loss (P&L) statement — also called the income statement — shows revenue minus expenses to arrive at net income for the selected period.

The structure follows GAAP: Revenue at the top, Cost of Goods Sold immediately below (yielding Gross Profit), then Operating Expenses, Other Income/Expense, and Net Income at the bottom. Section totals are bolded; individual account lines underneath each section show the breakdown.

Header controls let you pick the period range and choose between Current Period, Year-to-Date, and comparative views (Prior Period, Prior Year) so you can see how the current results stack up.

Every revenue and expense row is drillable — click into GL Explorer to see exactly which transactions made up that number. Section header rows (Total Revenue, Total Expenses, Net Income) are not drillable; only individual account lines are.

Balance Sheet

The Balance Sheet shows assets, liabilities, and equity at a single point in time (the as-of date). Where the P&L covers a period, the Balance Sheet is a snapshot.

The structure is the standard accounting equation: Assets = Liabilities + Equity. Assets are grouped current (cash, AR, inventory) before non-current (fixed assets, accumulated depreciation). Liabilities split current (AP, accrued wages, current portion of long-term debt) from long-term. Equity shows retained earnings and current-year net income.

The as-of date selector in the header determines the snapshot date. Like the P&L, every account row is drillable into GL Explorer — useful for answering "what is in this accrual balance?" or "what makes up our AR?"

Cash Flow

The Cash Flow statement reconciles net income to the actual change in cash for the period, broken into operating, investing, and financing activities.

The window has two tabs:

• Statement — the rendered Statement of Cash Flows for the chosen period, using the Indirect (GAAP) method. Operating Activities (starting with Net Income, then adjustments for non-cash items and working-capital changes), Investing Activities (capex, asset sales), and Financing Activities (debt, equity contributions, distributions). Net Change in Cash plus the Beginning Balance equals the Ending Balance.
• Configuration — maps which COA categories roll into which Cash Flow line. Set up once during onboarding; rarely touched after.

The header shows the period range, the calculation method, and a Recalculate button to refresh the numbers after a late posting.

Working with multiple windows

The multi-window layout is the General Ledger's defining feature. A few patterns that take advantage of it:

• Trial Balance + drill. Open Trial Balance, click an account to drill, leave both visible. Investigate the transactions without losing your spot on the TB.
• P&L vs prior period. Open two P&L windows side-by-side, set one to this month and one to last month. Compare line-by-line without scrolling.
• Reconciliation flow. Open Cash Flow, then a GL Explorer filtered to Cash – Operating. Walk the cash movements line-by-line.
• Multiple filtered Explorers. Duplicate a GL Explorer window with the duplicate icon, then refine the copy's filters. Two views, same source data.

Use Minimize All to collapse every open window to the dock at the bottom of the screen when you need a clear canvas. Restore All brings them back exactly where they were.

Permissions

Permissions are assigned per role on the Roles & Permissions page in Settings.

Tips

• Start at Trial Balance, drill from there. When something looks off on a financial statement, the Trial Balance + drill flow is faster than going straight to GL Explorer and building filters from scratch.
• Save the views you use every month. Reconciliations and period-close reviews follow the same filter patterns each month. Save them as named views and open them with one click.
• Use comparative columns on P&L. Looking at this month's revenue alone tells you less than looking at it against last month and last year. The comparative columns make trend issues obvious.
• Manual JEs need balanced lines. The dialog will not let you post an entry where debits do not equal credits — but it is easy to miss a typo before posting. Watch the Net: Out of balance indicator at the bottom of the dialog.
• The Cash Flow Configuration is set once. If your Cash Flow statement shows zero in a section that should have activity, the Configuration tab is where the mapping lives — usually a chart-of-accounts category was added after initial setup and was not mapped.
• Multiple GL Explorer windows are encouraged. Unlike most pages, where opening two of the same view is awkward, the GL page is designed for it. Use the duplicate icon liberally.

Related topics

• Chart of Accounts — every GL entry posts to a COA line; the COA structure determines how the trial balance is organized.
• GL Categories — group COA lines into report sections (used by P&L, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow).
• Fiscal Periods — the calendar buckets every GL entry posts into; closing a period locks it.
• AR Invoices — invoicing customers; each invoice posts a GL entry.
• Purchasing & Payables — POs, receipts, and invoice matching; each step posts to the GL.