A General Ledger is a book containing all of the accounts for recording transactions related to your company's assets, liabilities, owner's equity, revenue, and expenses. In AMS this module works as a central hub for accounting data transferred from all sub-ledgers or modules; vineyard management, accounts payable, accounts receivable, tasting room/retail sales, general inventory, fixed assets, broker commission, and manual journal entries. In the following guide, you will find screenshots and instructions on how to set up and maintain your general ledger and chart of accounts.

The Chart of Accounts is a created list of accounts used by a business entity to define each class of items for which money or the equivalent is spent or received. It is used to organize the finances of the entity and to segregate expenditures, revenue, assets, and liabilities in order to give interested parties a better understanding of the financial health of the entity.

The list can be numerical, alphabetic, or alpha-numeric. The structure and headings of the accounts should assist in the consistent posting of transactions. Each nominal ledger account is unique to allow its ledger to be located. The list is typically arranged in the order of the customer appearance of accounts in the financial statements, and balance sheet accounts followed by profit and loss accounts.

The AMS Sample Chart of Accounts is pre-loaded in the system and the sample spreadsheet is also sent to you at startup so you can view the layout of the Cost Centers, Accounts, and Sub Accounts that are included in the system installed. You can Add, Change, Delete and Review accounts directly in AMS to make them more specific to your needs.

If you have a multitude of changes, it may be easier for you to update the Sample Spread Sheet and then send it to AMS for a programmer to electronically update your system. The Sample Spread Sheet is just that, a sample. You can come up with a completely different set of accounts if desired, however, keep in mind that some of these accounts are there for the purpose of how the AMS system works. If you choose to use your own chart of accounts, AMS can clear the sample and upload your accounts electronically into the system at a billable rate.

The G/L area in the system also includes System Journals from other modules and Journal Entries which post to the General Ledger. The General Ledger module also supports G/L budgets and comparisons to prior budgets, comparisons to actual, etc.