A general ledger is like a big list of all the money that a person or a business has. You know how important it is to keep track of how much money you have in your piggy bank or in your wallet, right? Well, a general ledger is like that but for bigger things like a store or a company.
The general ledger is made up of different accounts that help keep track of different kinds of money. For example, there might be an account for how much money the store has in the bank, an account for how much money the store owes to other people or businesses, and an account for how much money the store has earned and spent.
All of these accounts are like little categories that help the person or the business understand where their money is going and where it's coming from. Every time a transaction happens, like when the store buys new merchandise or when someone pays for something, that information gets recorded in the general ledger.
In a way, you can think of the general ledger as a big book that tells the story of what happened to a person or a company's money. It's important to keep the general ledger up-to-date and accurate so that everyone knows exactly how much money is available and where it's being used.