Xero general ledger report: Account Transactions, opening balances and export

Short answer: Xero’s full general ledger is the Account Transactions report (some report lists also call it General Ledger Detail). Open Xero’s reports (Reporting in the newer menu, Accounting > Reports in the older one), search for Account Transactions, select all accounts, set the dates, switch on the Debit and Credit columns and the opening balances, and click Update. Export it to Excel or Google Sheets for the accountant or auditor. For one line per account (debits, credits and movement for the period) run the General Ledger Summary instead, and for closing balances on one date run the Trial Balance. The ledger only holds posted transactions: draft and awaiting-approval invoices and bills, and bank statement lines that have not been reconciled, are not in it yet.

Which ledger report to use

Report	What it shows	Use it to
Account Transactions (the general ledger detail)	Every transaction posted to the accounts you pick, grouped by account: date, source, contact, description, reference, debit, credit, running balance	Export the full ledger, see what makes up a balance, review an expense account line by line
General Ledger Summary	One line per account: total debits, total credits and the net movement for the dates you choose	See which accounts moved in a month or a year before opening the detail
Trial Balance	Every account’s balance on one date, debits and credits	Check balances against statements at a month or year end
Journal Report	The journals Xero posted for each transaction, including manual journals, in date order	Audit trails and finding who posted what

Clicking an amount on the Trial Balance, Balance Sheet or Profit and Loss opens Account Transactions for that account and those dates, so you rarely need to set it up by hand for a single account.

How to run and export the full general ledger

1. Open the report. Go to Xero’s reports and search for Account Transactions.
2. Pick the accounts. Select all accounts for the full ledger, or only the Balance Sheet accounts for a tie-out. There is an option to leave out archived accounts.
3. Set the dates. For a year end, the first and last day of the financial year. Choose accrual basis unless the client reports on cash (cash vs accrual).
4. Choose the columns. Add Debit and Credit (the running balance needs both), plus Source, Contact and Reference, which are what an auditor asks about.
5. Show opening balances. Under More, switch on opening balances. They show for asset, liability and equity accounts, and you can also show them on revenue and expense accounts. You can include accounts with no transactions in the period (those with an opening balance, a zero balance, or both) so the export lists every account.
6. Update, then export to Excel or Google Sheets. A full year for a busy file runs to thousands of lines, so a spreadsheet is more useful than a PDF.

Save the layout as a custom report once it is right (Xero custom reports shows how), so next month’s export takes a minute.

The running balance

The running balance column shows a cumulative balance within each account group. Xero’s community team explained the rules in September 2026: the report must include the Debit and Credit columns for the running balance to work, it follows the chronological order the report first loads in, and if you sort by another column you click Update to recalculate it. So sort by date when you want to see a balance move over time, such as the low point of a bank account in a month.

Worked example: a year-end tie-out from the ledger

These figures and names are made up. Fernside Joinery Ltd, a UK joinery business, VAT registered, has a year end of 30 September 2026. Before sending the year to the accountant, the bookkeeper runs Account Transactions for the Balance Sheet accounts from 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026, with opening balances on. Credit balances show as negative:

Account	Opening 1 Oct 2025	Debits	Credits	Closing 30 Sep 2026
Business bank account	18,620	214,380	219,140	13,860
Accounts Receivable	26,400	238,500	236,750	28,150
Accounts Payable	-11,300	96,480	98,230	-13,050
VAT	-7,940	31,780	32,560	-8,720

Each closing balance is the opening balance plus debits less credits, and each should match something outside the ledger:

Account	Ledger closing	Outside the ledger	Result
Business bank account	13,860	Bank statement at 30 September: 13,860	Agrees
Accounts Receivable	28,150	Aged Receivables total at 30 September: 28,150	Agrees
VAT	8,720 owed	July to September VAT return: 8,720	Agrees
Accounts Payable	13,050 owed	Aged Payables total: 13,050, but it lists Marsh Tool Hire at 1,240, and Marsh’s statement says it was paid on 14 August	Look closer

The Marsh bill points to an expense account. Repairs and maintenance is 9,180 for the year against 3,240 the year before, so the bookkeeper runs Account Transactions for it alone, sorted by amount:

• A 4,950 dust extraction unit, bought in March. It is equipment that will last for years, not a repair, so a journal moves it to Plant and machinery and the accountant charges depreciation on it instead.
• Marsh Tool Hire, 1,240, twice: once as a bill and once as a Spend Money transaction on 14 August, when the payment was reconciled without matching it to the bill. Unreconciling the bank line, deleting the Spend Money and reconciling the line against the bill instead removes the second 1,240 from Repairs and the unpaid 1,240 from Accounts Payable at the same time.

After the fixes, Repairs and maintenance is 9,180 − 4,950 − 1,240 = 2,990, close to last year’s 3,240, and Accounts Payable is 11,810, which now agrees to the suppliers’ statements. Profit for the year rises by 6,190 before the depreciation on the new equipment, which at 20% a year would be 990, so 5,200 after it. None of this showed on the Trial Balance, which balanced throughout. It showed on the ledger: one closing balance that an outside statement disagreed with, and one expense account that had nearly tripled.

Why a transaction is not showing in the general ledger

• It is not approved. Draft and Awaiting Approval invoices and bills are not posted. They reach the ledger when approved (Awaiting Payment).
• It is still a bank statement line. Lines from the bank feed are not in the ledger until you reconcile or code them. Spend Money and Receive Money you entered yourself are in the ledger whether reconciled or not, which is why an “unreconciled” figure differs between the bank reconciliation screen and the ledger (bank reconciliation report).
• The dates or basis differ. A cash-basis report only shows an invoice once it is paid. Check the date range covers the transaction date, not the date it was entered.
• The account is archived or filtered out. Include archived accounts, or check the account filter and any tracking category filter.
• It was coded somewhere else. Search for the amount in Xero, or run Account Transactions for all accounts and filter the export by contact or reference. A line in Suspense is a common answer.

Common questions

Where is the general ledger in Xero? In Xero’s reports. The full ledger is the Account Transactions report (also called General Ledger Detail in some report lists); the General Ledger Summary gives one line per account. Search the report list for either name.

What is the difference between Account Transactions and the General Ledger Summary in Xero? Account Transactions lists every transaction in each account, with its date, source, contact and amount. The General Ledger Summary gives one line per account with the total debits, total credits and net movement for the period. Start with the summary to see which accounts moved, then open the detail for those.

How do I export the general ledger from Xero to Excel? Run Account Transactions with all accounts selected, the dates you need, the Debit, Credit, Source, Contact and Reference columns and opening balances switched on, click Update, then export to Excel or Google Sheets.

How do I show opening balances in Xero’s Account Transactions report? Use the More option on the report to show opening balances. They show for asset, liability and equity accounts, and you can switch them on for revenue and expense accounts as well.

Why is the running balance blank or wrong in Account Transactions? It needs both the Debit and Credit columns on the report. It is calculated within each account group in the order the report first loaded, so after sorting by another column, click Update.

What are general ledger codes in Xero? They are the account codes in the chart of accounts (Accounting > Chart of accounts), such as 200 for Sales or 610 for Accounts Receivable in Xero’s default chart. Every transaction line is coded to one, and the general ledger reports group by them.

Why doesn’t the general ledger match the bank statement? Usually because statement lines are not reconciled yet, or because Spend Money and Receive Money were entered in Xero but never matched to the bank feed. Reconcile to the statement date and compare again; the bank balance guide covers the other causes.

Where ReportPilot fits

ReportPilot does not replace the ledger or the year-end review. Once a client’s books are reconciled, it connects to their Xero with read-only access and sends them a plain-English email every Monday with their key figures (sales and profit against last month, cash, who owes them and what is overdue, bills due soon) under your practice’s name, plus scheduled report packs. The Bookkeeper plan covers 15 organisations for US$49 a month, after a 14-day free trial with no card (pricing). You can see a sample email first.

Related guides: the Xero year end checklist, the Xero month end checklist, the Xero trial balance, Profit and Loss detail in Xero, depreciation in Xero and the aged debtors and creditors reports.