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The General Ledger Master Data

19 January, 2016 - 12:35

The general ledger master data contain summarized information of all company event data. The main inputs to the general ledger consist of totals, extracted by event type, from the business event data captured in the various feeder processes discussed earlier.

One piece of data on each general ledger entry is a code that identifies the source of the entry and provides a beginning point of reference for developing a proper audittrail. The code gives the auditor a means of tracing back to the individual business events that have been aggregated into the general ledger balances. Note that in addition to storing the entries of the current period (both monthly and yearly activity are usually maintained in general ledger systems), beginning-of-period and year-to- date balances also are available.

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Figure 15.6 General Ledger/Business Reporting Process 
 

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In an enterprise system, the user can select any beginning and ending date to accumulate information for a period of time of interest, because the source business event data are maintained. Thus, if a manager wants to examine sales over a two-week period or a three-month period or any other period, the information can be aggregated through a query to provide the manager the precise information of interest.