The General Ledger – Help Center

What is the General Ledger?
Who can access it?
How do I view the General Ledger?
Types of General Ledger
How do I export the General Ledger?
Why don't third parties appear in the export?

What is the General Ledger?

The General Ledger is a core accounting document. It captures all book entries, organized by account and then by date. Unlike the Journal, which lists entries in chronological order, the General Ledger lets you see all activity for a given account at a glance.

Who can access it?

Main administrators and administrators with access to accounting (including read-only access) can view the General Ledger from Accounting > Documents.

Note: dependent advanced groups whose accounting is consolidated at the parent level only have access to a simplified version of the General Ledger, limited to class 6 and 7 accounts.

How do I view the General Ledger?

Go to Accounting > Documents, then select the General Ledger tab.

From this page, you can:

Filter by account: enter an account number or name to display only the entries linked to it.
Set a date range: limit the view to a specific accounting period or date range.
Choose the ledger type: general, accounts receivable, accounts payable, or contact (see below).

Each line displays: the date, description, associated third party, journal, debit amount, credit amount, and running balance.

Types of General Ledger

Springly offers four types of General Ledger, accessible from the selector at the top of the Accounting > Documents > General Ledger page:

General Ledger

This view covers all accounts in your chart of accounts. You can filter to a specific account or display all accounts at once.

Accounts Receivable Ledger

This view displays entries for account 411 (Accounts Receivable). It makes it easy to identify outstanding invoices and track each customer individually.

Accounts Payable Ledger

This view displays entries for account 401 (Accounts Payable). It helps you identify unpaid invoices and track each vendor individually.

Contact Ledger

This view displays entries for account 467 (Contacts), showing transactions related to your contacts (members, donors, event registrants, etc.) when those transactions don't go through an accounts receivable or payable account. Every movement in this account is linked to an identified contact in your database.

Learn more:

How do I export the General Ledger?

From the Accounting > Documents > General Ledger page, once you've applied your filters and the results are displayed, click the export icon (Excel or PDF) at the top of the page.

Depending on the size of your accounting data, the download will start immediately or the file will be sent to you by email.

Why don't third parties appear in the export?

Following a recent update, third parties are no longer shown in the General Ledger export for accounts that are not third-party accounts (i.e., accounts outside class 4).

Good news: third parties remain visible in the interface and in search. Nothing changes for your day-to-day use.

Why was this decision made?

The chart of accounts is organized into 7 account classes (8 if you count off-balance-sheet accounts).

Class 4 covers third-party accounts: these are the only accounts where associating a third party has genuine accounting significance.

For other account classes (expenses, revenue, cash, etc.), displaying a third party adds no accounting value and can even produce inaccurate data when a payment is linked to multiple third-party accounts. The General Ledger export must be a reliable, compliant document.

What if I need to track transactions by third party?

You have a few options:

Export the Contact Ledger: for all transactions linked to your contacts (members, donors, registrants), use this ledger dedicated to account 467. It gives you a detailed view of movements by contact.
Export the Subsidiary Ledger (accounts receivable or payable): if you've enabled subsidiary accounting, this lets you track transactions broken down by customer (411) or vendor (401).
The Springly interface and search: third parties remain visible in the General Ledger preview. From Accounting > Search, you can also view entries linked to third parties and open any transaction to see its full details.