General ledger

A general ledger is the accounting record that groups every posted financial transaction into accounts such as rent income, repairs, cash, deposits held, payables, debt, and owner equity. Unlike a bank statement, it records what a transaction represents. Unlike a tenant ledger, it covers the property or rental business as a whole rather than charges and payments for one resident account.

Each ledger entry should carry a date, account, amount, property or unit when relevant, description, and link to its source document or subledger. Under double-entry bookkeeping, each transaction affects at least two accounts so the books remain in balance. Even when a small landlord uses simpler software, the same control matters: a bank feed suggestion is not a final classification until someone verifies the property, purpose, and supporting record.

Suppose an owner pays a $1,200 plumbing invoice from the rental checking account. The general ledger records the decrease in cash and classifies the other side according to the actual work and accounting policy, with the invoice attached to the correct property. If a tenant later reimburses $200 for a separately documented responsibility, that receipt receives its own entry; editing the original invoice down to $1,000 would erase the real sequence.

Watch for uncategorized transactions, duplicate bank-feed imports, personal activity mixed with property activity, and totals that do not reconcile to subledgers or bank statements. Close each period by resolving exceptions and preserving adjustments rather than overwriting history. The general ledger is the source for financial statements, but its output is only as reliable as the classifications, cutoff dates, and reconciliations behind it.