Overview of the General Ledger Database
In the General Ledger (G/L) application, all transactions are made to batches rather than directly to the database. Any transactions released to general ledger are also stored in batches.
When you manually post transactions or automatically release batches from applications, the information is stored in the G/L batches. For example, if you release the batches from Accounts Payable, the information is stored in G/L batch number 9001.
Accounts Receivable (A/R), Order Entry (O/E), Payroll, and Accounts Payable (A/P) are online applications. An online application immediately updates its master files with any financial transactions. When the master files are updated, the information is also stored in batch files (temporary files used to store information). The batch files from these applications can be used to run reports and to release the information to general ledger.
When you release the batches from the online applications, you can have the transactions automatically released to general ledger batches, or you can manually post the transactions in the General Ledger Posting window.
Note: To have the released batches automatically flow to the G/L batches, you must specify Y in the Auto Post field in the (L2) G/L Master Numbers screen. If you specify N in this field, you must manually post the information in the General Ledger Posting window.
To update the G/L application, you must release the G/L batches. You release these batches with the G/L Batch Report. You can release all or some of the batches in a batch file at one time. If all of the batches in a batch file are released, the batch file is automatically deleted. When new postings are made, the batch file is recreated.
When the G/L batches are released, the information is cleared from each batch and stored in the GL MASTER file. This information is also used to update the running account balances stored in the chart of accounts file (CHARTFILE).