G/L Account Master Records

Business transactions are posted to accounts and are managed via accounts. You must create a master record for each account you need. It contains information that controls the entry of business transactions in an account and the processing of data.

The G/L accounts record the business transactions in totals form. In the standard system, all business transactions that are posted to G/L accounts are updated in the general ledger. Additionally, you can define further ledgers which are also posted to. For this, you must use the Special Purpose Ledger system. Information on additional ledgers can be found in FI-SL Special Purpose Ledger.

The following sections contain basic information on G/L account master data as well as explanations of the settings that you make in Customizing. More detailed information on how to make these settings can be found in the General Ledger Accounting Implementation Guide. You can also find out how to create, display, change, delete, or lock general ledger master data.

FI General Ledger Accounting

The central task of G/L accounting is to provide a comprehensive picture for external accounting and accounts. Recording all business transactions (primary postings as well as settlements from internal accounting) in a software system that is fully integrated with all the other operational areas of a company ensures that the accounting data is always complete and accurate.

The SAP FI General Ledger has the following features:

• Free choice of level: corporate group or company
• Automatic and simultaneous posting of all sub-ledger items in the appropriate general ledger accounts (reconciliation accounts)
• Simultaneous updating of general ledger and cost accounting areas
• Real-time evaluation of and reporting on current accounting data, in the form of account displays, financial statements with different financial statement versions and additional analyses.

Essentially, the general ledger serves as a complete record of all business transactions. It is the centralized, up-to-date reference for the rendering of accounts. Actual individual transactions can be checked at any time in realtime processing by displaying the original documents, line items, and transaction figures at various levels such as:

• Account
• Journals
• Summary/balance transaction figures
• Balance sheet/profit and loss evaluations