General Ledger Codes and Mapping: A Worked Example

Codes identify accounts; they do not determine treatment

An illustrative chart might use 1000 Checking, 1010 Savings, 1100 Receivables, 1200 Supplies, 1500 Equipment, 2000 Payables, 3000 Owner capital, 4000 Revenue, 6100 Rent expense and 6200 Bank fee expense. These numbers are not universal. Another organization may use different ranges, departments or legal-entity segments.

A mapping document should include the destination code and name, account type, effective date, conditions and approver. Reusing an old code because it has the same label can be wrong after a system migration or chart redesign. Keep identifiers as text so leading zeros survive spreadsheet imports.

Contribution and fee examples

Use fictional Cedar Studio’s October J1 as the first proposal: source CAP-01 confirms an owner contribution of $5,000, so debit 1000 Checking and credit 3000 Owner capital. A $5,000 incoming bank row alone would not distinguish that contribution from a loan or customer collection. The contribution document supplies the missing fact.

In a separate mapping exercise, statement row FEE-10 establishes a $5 bank fee. The proposed entry is debit 6200 Bank fee expense and credit 1000 Checking. If the fee was already entered through another process, mark the mapping as already posted and link that entry rather than duplicating it.

Map a transfer without creating income or expense

Separate exercise TR-07 moves $250 from the same entity’s checking account to its savings account. The approved accounting entry is debit 1010 Savings $250 and credit 1000 Checking $250. The checking export has -250 and the savings export +250; those are two sides of one transfer, not a purchase and a sale.

Link both source references and the transfer confirmation. Do not erase either bank row as a duplicate, and do not post a second transfer merely because both accounts were imported. Different legal entities, currencies, bank fees or settlement dates require further analysis rather than this simple same-entity rule.

Some rows must remain review exceptions

Unknown receipt UNK-09 for $175 is not mapped to Revenue solely because it is positive. The preparer asks for remittance details and checks open invoices, loan agreements and owner records. In this exercise, the proposal remains unposted with owner close preparer, due November 2 and status awaiting evidence.

The exception register is not a substitute for completing the books: the responsible reviewer decides the controlled treatment required at close, records that decision and follows up. Never generate a suspense or equity entry merely to force the reconciliation difference to zero.

Approve mappings and preserve the decision trail

The preparer proposes treatment and attaches source references. The business’s authorized accounting reviewer approves account selection and any required splits. The posting user records the journal reference, and the reconciler checks that source totals were posted once. In a small organization these duties may overlap, but document the review rather than inventing a second approver.

A useful recurring rule is narrow: a confirmed monthly account-maintenance fee from a particular bank account can propose Bank fee expense, subject to review. A broad rule that every payment to a merchant is supplies fails when the same merchant sells equipment or processes refunds.

Fulla converts statement PDFs into reviewed CSV, XLSX, JSON and OFX exports. It does not choose classifications, maintain ERP mapping rules or post journals. The accounting decision and the destination import requirements remain outside the extraction step.