Help Center / General Ledger

Viewing and Searching Journal Entries

Light provides tools to search, filter, and view journal entries and all accounting documents. This article explains how to find and analyse GL data.

What is this page about

This page covers where to find accounting documents and journal entries in Light, which filters and searches are available on each screen, how to drill from a document into its ledger postings, and how to export what you find. Read it when you are tracking down a specific transaction or preparing data for review.

On this page

  • Accessing the General Ledger
  • Filtering Transactions
  • Searching Transactions
  • Sorting Results
  • Viewing Document Details
  • Drilling into GL Entries
  • General Ledger Report
  • Other reports
  • Chart of Accounts Drill-Down
  • Sum Accounts
  • Unposted Documents
  • Cleared vs. Uncleared
  • Journal Entry Specific Features
  • Multi-Journal Entries
  • Custom Properties in GL
  • Exporting GL Data
  • Reconciliation Status
  • Saved Searches and Reports
  • Performance Tips
  • Best Practices
  • Related Articles

Accessing the General Ledger

To view all accounting documents and transactions:

  1. Go to Accounting → Transactions
  2. You see a list of all accounting documents
  3. Filter and search to find specific items
  4. Click a document to view details

The ledger shows all document types (invoices, payments, journal entries, etc.) in one place.

Filtering Transactions

Use filters to narrow the ledger view. The Transactions screen offers seven filters:

Document type:

  • AP (vendor invoices)
  • AR (customer invoices)
  • Bank Payment
  • Journal Entry
  • Card Transaction, and the other document types

Status:

  • Draft, Approval pending, Approved, Posted, Partially cleared, Cleared, Archived

Document date: when the transaction occurred

Posting date: when it posted to the GL

Entity: the company entity, where you run more than one

Currency: the transaction currency

Business partner: vendor or customer

Combine filters to find specific transactions quickly. To filter by valuation date, use the Journal entries screen described below.

Searching Transactions

Search matches text across three fields:

  • Document number, such as an invoice number or reference
  • Description
  • Business partner name, meaning the vendor or customer

Search matches partial text, so searching part of a document number or description returns all matching results.

Example: Search "invoice" to find all invoice-related documents.

Sorting Results

Click a column header to sort by it. These columns sort:

  • Document sequence ID
  • Document number
  • Business partner
  • Posting date
  • Status

To order results by amount or document type, filter the list down first, then export it and sort in your spreadsheet.

Viewing Document Details

Click a document in the list to see full details. The tabs vary by document type. Vendor invoices, customer invoices and credit notes show Lines, Ledger impact, and Log. A journal entry shows Journal overview in place of Lines. Bank payments and year-closing entries have no Lines tab, and an FX revaluation uses its own Overview, Activity and Related structure.

Where a document shows them, expect:

Header information:

  • Type, status, sequence number
  • Document and posting dates
  • Business partner (if applicable)
  • Currency and amounts

Lines:

  • GL account and amount for each line
  • Tax information
  • Custom properties
  • Allocation details
  • Product information (product name and ID) on revenue and discount lines from sales invoices

Note: Ledger transaction lines carry product name and ID where a product was involved. Product names reflect the current catalogue name unless overridden on the invoice line. This attribution enables net-revenue-by-product analysis. This is most meaningful on revenue and discount lines from sales invoices; other line types may or may not carry product data depending on how the document was created.

Related:

  • Linked documents (original invoice, payment, etc.)
  • Approval information
  • Clearings/matches

Activity:

  • Creation date and user
  • Last modification
  • Posting details

Drilling into GL Entries

To see the actual GL transactions created by a document:

  1. Open the document

  2. Click Ledger impact

  3. See all debit and credit entries posted:

    • GL account, debit and credit amounts
    • Transaction, entity, and group currency amounts side by side
    • Links to source line items

This shows exactly how the document posted to the ledger. The tab shows converted amounts in each currency, so work out the applied rate from those figures if you need it.

General Ledger Report

View all GL account balances and transactions:

  1. Go to Planning & Reports → Reports and open General Ledger

  2. Filter by date range and entities

  3. See account balances with:

    • Opening balance
    • Period debits and credits
    • Closing balance
    • All transactions that make up the balance

The GL report is your most detailed view of the ledger.

Other reports

The Planning & Reports → Reports page also offers:

  • Aged Accounts Receivable and Aged Accounts Payable, with Aged AR Detail and Aged AP Detail for the underlying items
  • EU Sales List

Open a report, set your date range and entities, then export it to CSV for reconciliation or audit work.

Chart of Accounts Drill-Down

To see everything affecting a specific GL account:

  1. Go to Settings → Records → Chart of accounts

  2. Find the account and click it

  3. See:

    • All transactions in the account
    • Filter by date range

For opening/closing balances and account-level rollups, use the General Ledger Report instead (see above).

Sum Accounts

Sum accounts aggregate the balances of a range of account codes for summary reporting (see Chart of Accounts Setup for how aggregation rules work). A Sum account's balance is a rollup based on its configured account code range, so it appears as a single aggregated figure rather than an expandable parent/child hierarchy.

Unposted Documents

View documents that haven't posted yet:

  1. Go to Accounting → Accounting documents
  2. Set the Status filter to Draft. The default view shows Draft, Posted, Partially cleared and Cleared documents together, so narrow it to see only what is waiting
  3. Review before posting, or post in bulk

This helps you manage documents in your pipeline.

Cleared vs. Uncleared

Filter for clearing status:

Uncleared:

  • Document posted but not yet matched/reconciled
  • Shows as "Unmatched" in reconciliation reports

Cleared:

  • Document matched to other document
  • Shows as "Cleared" or "Matched"

Use this to focus on items needing reconciliation work.

Journal Entry Specific Features

For journal entries specifically:

  1. Go to Accounting → Journal entries

  2. Filter by:

    • Status (Draft, Approval pending, Approved, Posted, Archived)
    • Entity
    • Posting date, document date, or valuation date
    • Currency

  3. View entries sorted by your preference

This screen carries the valuation date filter, which the Transactions screen does not.

Multi-Journal Entries

Some journal entries affect multiple accounts. To view and edit:

  1. Open the multi-journal entry
  2. See all lines with debits and credits
  3. Modify amounts if in DRAFT status
  4. View how it posted to each account

Multi-journal entries allow complex transactions in one document.

Custom Properties in GL

Search and filter by custom properties:

  1. If documents have custom properties (department, project, etc.)
  2. Filter by property value to find related transactions
  3. View custom properties in GL listings and reports

This helps with cost allocation and project-based analysis.

Exporting GL Data

Export journal entries and GL transactions for analysis:

  1. Use list Export button to export filtered results
  2. The export downloads as a CSV file
  3. Custom properties are included as additional columns

Exported data includes product information (product name and ID) when available on ledger transaction lines, particularly on revenue and discount lines from sales invoices. This enables net-revenue-by-product analysis in your exported data.

For large exports: If your filtered result contains more than 10,000 rows, Light runs the export in the background and shows "Your export is being prepared". You'll receive a notification with a download link when it's ready. Smaller exports download instantly.

Use exports for detailed analysis in Excel or consolidation to other systems.

Reconciliation Status

From the GL view, see reconciliation status:

  1. Each posted document shows status:

    • Unmatched (not reconciled)
    • Partially cleared (some matching)
    • Cleared (fully matched)

  2. Click to see what it was matched with

This helps you focus reconciliation efforts.

Saved Searches and Reports

Save a report view you use often:

  1. Open a report and apply your filters
  2. Click Add to favorites
  3. Reopen it from your favourites at any time

If you change the filters later, use Update favorite to the current view to store the new version. Custom report templates have their own Save button.

Performance Tips

When working with large GL databases:

  • Use date filters: pull a period at a time rather than all-time data
  • Filter by document type: narrow to what you need
  • Search before sorting: find first, then sort
  • Use reports: pre-built reports are optimised for this
  • Schedule exports: large exports run in the background

Best Practices

  • Review GL regularly: check throughout the month rather than waiting for month-end
  • Verify posting: check documents posted correctly
  • Investigate anomalies: unusual entries need explanation
  • Maintain account list: archive inactive accounts
  • Use consistent keywords: standardise search terms so records stay findable
  • Keep audit trail: reverse GL entries rather than deleting them

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