The general ledger is the master record of all financial transactions in a business. Every account — cash, receivables, payables, revenue, expenses — has its own page in the ledger, showing all debits and credits.
Think of it as the central hub of your accounting system. Journal entries flow into the ledger, and the ledger feeds into financial statements like the income statement and balance sheet.
For example, every time cash comes in or goes out, the cash account in the general ledger gets updated. At any point, you can check the ledger to see the current balance of any account.