How to Make a Business Account Ledger in Excel

• Small Business
• |
• Accounting & Bookkeeping
• |
• Accounting & Business

ByFilonia LeChat

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Whether you're a sole owner or have many employees, keeping track of every business process is often a numbers game. To simplify this process, use Microsoft Excel’s ledger templates. Instead of paper ledgers, which can be messy and hard to read, an Excel ledger lets you completely customize your codes and categories, and reuse forms year after year. Excel’s ledger templates are already set up for you, so you can get right into the data-entry process and have records that are easy to review and compare.

1

Open Microsoft Excel, click the “File” tab, and then choose the “New” link. When the Available Templates window appears, type “ledger” into the search box, and then click the arrow button. Excel does not have a button on the Available Templates window for its collection of ledger templates, but it does offer them. Scroll through the business ledger forms that appear as a result of the search and double-click one that best suits your requirements. After a few moments to download, the ledger appears in a new Excel window.

2

Review the text on the template, which may have placeholder or generic words you need to replace with your preferred business terms.

3

Locate the “G/L Code” column on the template. It may be the first or leftmost column on the grid. If you prefer a different term or appearance, such as “GL Code” instead of “G/L Code,” click into the cell and type over the placeholder text.

4

Click into the first cell in the “G/L Code” column, which may be “1,” “100” or “1,000” depending on the template. Change the code to the code you want to start the ledger with.

5

Press the “Enter” key to drop to the cell below the current one, and then change the G/L code as required. Repeat this step until all of the codes on the template match your required ledger terms.

6

Move to the next column and click into the cell to the right of the first G/L code. Change the placeholder term, which may say “Marketing,” “Human Resources” or a product name, to the one that matches the G/L code. Press “Enter” to move to the cell below and match that cell with the G/L code to its left. Continue to press “Enter” to change the terms in the column. There should be one term for every G/L code.

7

Work your way across the grid by entering money already spent for each G/L code, money budgeted and money remaining. Depending on your template, these columns may be autocompleted for you. Complete each G/L code’s row.

8

Check the top or bottom of the template for any additional placeholder text. There may be a place to enter your business name, the year of the ledger or other information.

9

Click the “File” menu and select “Save As.” Enter the name of the ledger file, and then click the “Save” button.