How to Make a Ledger

1. Open Excel by double-clicking the Excel icon on your desktop. If you don't have an Excel icon on your desktop, you can click 'Start' and then 'All Programs,' followed by 'Microsoft Office.' Then select 'Microsoft Excel.'
2. Enter 'Entry Date' in the A1 field. Enter 'Account Name' in the B1 field. Enter 'Debit/Credit' in the C1 field. Finally, enter 'Amount' in the D1 field.
3. Enter your financial transactions into these four fields to create the general ledger. For example, you purchased office supplies on July 1, 2010, in the amount of $50. For this transaction, you'd enter '7/1/10' in A2 for the entry date, 'office supplies' in B2 for the account name, 'D' in C2 because the transaction is a debit and '$50' in D2 for the amount. Continue entering all your transactions in chronological order.
4. Click the 'Insert' tab, click 'Pivot Table' and then select 'Pivot Table' again if you're using Excel 2010. If you're using an older version of Excel, you'll need to click 'Data,' then 'Pivot Table Pivot Chart Report' and click 'Next.'
5. Left-click on B1 and continue holding down the button to highlight all cells through to the end of the list. For example, if you had 100 transactions added to the general journal, you'd highlight B1 through D101. Click 'Next.'
6. Click 'New Worksheet' and then click 'Finish.'
7. Left-click the 'Name of Account' field and drag and drop it into the 'Row' field area.
8. Left-click the 'Debit/Credit' field and drag and drop it into the 'Column' field area.
9. Left-click the 'Amount' field and drag and drop it into the 'Data' field area.
10. Click the 'Pivot Table' button located in the toolbar and select 'Table Options.'
11. Remove the check mark from the 'Grand totals for rows' check box. Click OK.