Ledger

A ledger — specifically the General Ledger — is the master accounting record of a business that contains all financial accounts and accumulates every transaction recorded in the company's journal entries, organised by account type: assets, liabilities, equity, revenues, and expenses. Each account within the ledger shows the opening balance, all debit and credit entries for the period, and the closing balance — providing a complete, categorised history of the company's financial activity. The ledger is the foundation from which trial balances and all financial statements (income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement) are derived. In trading and investment contexts, a 'ledger' also refers to the account statement maintained by a broker — such as the Ventura Securities client ledger — which records all debits (purchases, fees, taxes) and credits (sales proceeds, dividends) in a client's trading account, making it an essential document for reconciliation, tax computation, and audit trail maintenance.