Accounting Cycle: Posting Journal Entries to General Ledger

The main takeaway is learning how to post journal entries to the general ledger in accounting.

### Posting Journal Entries to the General Ledger
* 💼 The general ledger contains a separate account for each individual account, with an account name, number, and columns for **date, post ref, debit, credit, and balance**.
* 📅 The **date column** refers to the date of the journal entry item, the **post ref column** indicates the page of the journal the entry was made, and the **debit and credit columns** reflect the actual amounts debited and credited in the journal entry.
* 📚 "Your balance simply updates the **balance after each and every entry** onto your ledger."
* ✍ To post journal entries to the general ledger, the account number must be recorded in the **post ref column** to indicate that the entry has been posted.
* 💵 Debits increase asset accounts like cash, while credits decrease them. The opposite is true for **liability and equity accounts**.
* 🔢 "Accounts payable is a liability account, so how do liability accounts increase? With a **credit**."
* 🏦 When an account does not exist in the ledger, it can be added to the chart of accounts with an **appropriate account number**.
* 📝 The next step after posting journal entries to the general ledger is to journalize and update the ledger for **adjusting entries**.

In our last video, we analyzed a series of transactions and learned how to journalize those on a general journal. Our next step in the accounting cycle is to take these journal entries and post them to a general ledger. Now, before we get to actually posting these journal entries, let's talk about The Ledger in general. You have a separate Ledger account for each individual account, as you can see here, and this continues on. Um, we have an account name up here along with the account number, and remember this will correspond to the chart of accounts that we used in our prior lessons. And just so you can kind of see it here, I'll scroll over a little bit. There's a little bit of a sneak peek at that chart of accounts that we were using earlier. So, I filled in all of that information for us over here on our Ledger. Um, we have a series of columns as well. We have the date, which will refer to the date of the journal entry item. This will typically not be filled out very often. It is usually only used for a

beginning balance, and sometimes we use them to specify whether something is an adjusting entry, which we haven't learned yet, so for now this will just stay blank. The post ref refers to the page of the journal that the journal entry was made. So if I have a one here, that means that it came from the first page of the general journal. If I have a two here, that means that it came from the second page of the general journal. And now we have two series of debit and credit columns. Now, your first debit and credit columns are going to refer to what we actually did in the journal entry. So if we debited cash here for 50,000, it is going to be debited here for 50,000. And your balance simply updates the balance after each and every entry onto your ledger. So let's go ahead and practice posting each of those on the 1st of January. We have cash on the first page of the journal. We debited cash for 50,000, so we have a beginning balance of 50,000 debit now.

the last part whenever you post something is to go back to your general journal, and we haven't been able to do anything anything yet with this post. A column, but we are going to be able to start that now. Um, this post refers to which account number, or it basically is a check to ensure that this line of the journal has been posted to The Ledger. So, this has been posted. So, now we can fill this in. Typically, you'll see something, uh, like a check, or you will fill it in with the number. Most textbooks use a number. So here, account number 11 has been posted. Check. Let's move on to this next one, Christopher Noll's Capital. I'm going to scroll down to that account. So, on the first, we credited it for 50,000. So, that is a 50,000 balance. Just to finish it off, fill it in with that account's number 31, and we're done. Now, let's take a look at supplies on the third first page of the journal. We debited supplies for 2,000.

we have a 2,000 balance, and let's fill in that 15 accounts payable. That one's already filled in for us. Sorry about that on the third first page of the journal. We credit it for 2,000, so we have a 2,000 balance there. Let's finish it up over here. 21, there we go. Now rent expense will be further to the bottom. So for rent expense on the 6th first page of the journal, we debited that for 3,000. So we have a 3,000 debit balance there, and let's finish it up by putting in the account number. Now finally we get to do one where we get to update the balance in cash. Let's see how we do that on the sixth first page of the journal. We credited cash for 3,000. So what is our new balance? We started with 50,000. A credit to cash will decrease it, and it offsets that debit. So let's decrease it by 3,000. So we have 47,000 in our cash account now.

and don't worry, we'll get plenty of opportunities to practice that some more. So, prepaid Insurance, let's move on to that one. First page of the journal, still, we debit it for 6,000. So, we have a 6,000 balance. And check, we are done with that line. Back up to cash on the first page of the journal. We credited cash for 6,000. So, we are eating through that cash pretty quickly. We started the day with 47,000. We spent 6,000 more. So, now we only have 41,000 left in that account. Okay, let's finish that one up. But have no fear, the next transaction we have is also cash, and that's going to increase it a little. So, on January 15th, we debited cash for 5,000. So, the balance in this case is now 41,000 plus that 5,000 debit. Remember, debits will always increase cash because cash is an asset. Okay, next, fees earned. Let's move down to our fees earned account. There it

is on the first page of the journal. We credit for 5,000. So we have a 5,000 credit balance. Okay, now on to page two. Accounts payable. Okay, on January 21st on the second page of the journal. Notice that this went from page one to page two. I debited accounts payable by $2,000. So now if I had a balance of 2,000, I just paid off that 2,000. Once the balance in accounts payable, it's now zero. And you might ask yourself, well, where do I put that zero on the debit or credit balance or the debit or credit side? And this depends on what the normal balance of the account is. Now accounts payable is a liability account. So how do liability accounts increase with a credit? And remember, wherever they increase, that's the normal balance of the account. So we're going to put that on the credit side. Remember, if you're forgetting those debit and credit rules, go back to our basics of debits and credits video, and you can take another

look at those. Okay, up back to cash. So on the 21st on the second page of the journal, we credited cash for 2,000. So now we had 46,000. We spent 2,000 of it. So now we only have 44,000 left in the account. And 11. Okay, accounts receivable. Well, which we actually do not have an accounts receivable account. Let me put that in. Now we're going to have to make that one up. Okay, let's add that account in. Remember, if you're working with an actual company and they don't have an account that you need, all you have to do is add that account in to their chart of accounts. Remember, sometimes things do change with a company and typically you won't have to be adding in a different account, but it does happen occasionally. Let me see if we had something in our prior one. Okay, yes, there it is. Accounts receivable in our prior video was 12. Let me add that one in. I'm actually going to add that in.

appropriate place as well. Okay, so right up here I want it underneath cash since it's 12. And typically in the real world when you're doing this, you will be working with accounting software, and that will make this process much easier rather than playing around all these Excel boxes. Number 12, there we go, just to make sure everything looks good. Okay, owner fees, Capital drawing, okay. Okay, I believe we're ready to get going. So accounts receivable here on the 25th on the second page of that journal, we debited that for $1,500. So we have a $1,500 balance. And now we get to use that account number 12. Okay, fees earned. Let's go down to our fees earned account. Remember it's a revenue account, so it'll be a little bit further down. On the 25th, there we go, on the 25th, second page of the journal, we credited fees earned for $500. So it's the new balance $5,000 + $1,500 credit balance. Okay, now let's play with a few

more of those. Let's see, 41. There it is. Okay, let's go back up to cash. So we have a few changes up there. On the 31st, on the second page of the journal, we received some cash. That's a debit. So what happened to our balance? Went from 44,000 to 47,000. And we're done with that one. And last but not least, fees earned. Let's go down to that fees earned account. There we go. The 31st, second page of the journal, we had a credit of 3,000. So the ending balance for that month for fees earned is 3,000. Excellent. Okay, now our next step for the following video will be adjusting entries. So we will talk about how to journalize those adjusting entries and then how to update our ledger for those adjusting entries. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments. Thank you and happy studying.

Posting to a Ledger

TLC Tutoring

Posting Journal Entries to the General Ledger

The general ledger has a separate account for each individual account mentioned in the journal entries.

The ledger includes columns for the date, post reference, debit, credit, and balance.

The post reference indicates the page of the journal where the entry was made, and the balance column is updated after each entry.

The post is a guide on how to fill in account numbers after posting to the ledger.

It explains the process for Christopher Noll's Capital, supplies, accounts payable, rent expense, and cash.

The post provides a step-by-step demonstration of updating the balances for each account.

Tracking Cash Flow and Account Balances in Journal Entries

The cash balance is quickly decreasing due to multiple debits, leaving only $41,000 remaining.

A subsequent transaction adds $5,000 to the cash balance on January 15th.

The accounts payable balance is cleared by a $2,000 debit, bringing it to zero and following the rules of credit increase for liability accounts.

Tracking Cash and Accounts in the Journal

Cash was credited for $2,000 on the 21st, leaving a balance of $44,000 after a $2,000 spending.

An accounts receivable account was added, with a prior balance of $12, and then debited for $1,500 on the 25th.

The fees earned account was also credited for $500, bringing the new balance to $6,500.

Tracking Financial Transactions and Adjusting Entries

Cash received on the 31st resulted in a balance increase from 44,000 to 47,000.

The fees earned account had a credit of 3,000, bringing the month-end balance to 3,000.

The next step involves journalizing and updating the ledger for adjusting entries in the following video.