General Ledger and Subledger

General Ledger 

 The general ledger is the core of your company financial records. These constitute the central ooks� of your system, and every transaction flows through the general ledger. These records remain as a permanent track of the history of all financial transactions since day one of the life of your company.

  Subledgers and the General Ledger

 Your accounting system will have a number of subsidiary ledgers (called subledgers) for items such as cash, accounts receivable, and accounts payable. All the entries that are entered (called posted) to these subledgers will transact through the general ledger account. For example, when a credit sale posted in the account receivable subledger turns into cash due to a payment, the transaction will be posted to the general ledger and the two (cash and accounts receivable) subledgers as well.

 Source: http://www.businesstown.com/accounting/basic-general.asp