A ledger is a book or collection of accounts in which accounting transactions are recorded. It is a record of a businesss financial transactions, also called a general ledger. Each account has an opening or brought-forward balance, a list of transactions, each recorded as either a debit or credit in separate columns, and a closing or carried-forward balance. The ledger is a permanent summary of all amounts entered in supporting journals (day books) which list individual transactions by date. Depending on the companys bookkeeping procedures, all journals may be totaled, and the totals posted to the relevant ledger each month. The transactions in a general ledger are organized into five main types: assets, liabilities, equity, revenue, and expenses. Transactions are entered into the correct account to produce financial reports. A ledger provides a record of each debit and credit transaction across the lifespan of a company, and each transaction within the ledger is also known as a “journal entry” . Ledgers can exist as physical books or digital records. Businesses use ledgers to get a detailed view of their financial transactions for different periods of time, be that weeks, months, quarters, or years. The information contained in a general ledger is also what is used to create income statements, balance sheets, or other financial documents.
It is worth noting that the term "ledger" is also used in the context of cryptocurrency wallets. A hardware wallet, such as those offered by Ledger, is a cryptocurrency wallet that stores the users private keys in a secure, offline environment. Finally, in banking and accounting, the ledger balance is calculated at the end of each business day by a bank and includes all debits and credits. It is the opening balance in the bank account the next morning and remains the same all day.
