Leading Ledger and Non-Leading Ledger in SAP New GL

The following SAP Training Tutorials guide what is leading Ledger and Non-Leading Ledger in SAP New GL, its difference, and their importance in ERP SAP R/3 Systems. General Ledgers are used to record the financial transaction of an organization where the transactions are posted through Journal entries.

SAP Systems provides two types of Ledgers i.e.

  • Leading Ledger
  • Non Leading Ledger

Leading Ledger – In the Leading Ledger, all the postings are taken as primarily and default. It is based on accounting principles that is used for the consolidation of financial statements. Leader Ledger in SAP system is defined as 0L and company codes are assigned to this ledger by default.

Non Leading Ledger – This Nonleading ledger is used for the purpose of reporting like International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and taxation. It is parallel to the leading ledger and based on the local accounting principles. You can activate non-leading ledger for the individual company codes that you plan to use.

Example of Leading Ledger and Nonleading Ledger

  • The Company is located in India and US, where the parent company is located in India.
  • In India, organizations are required to submit final statements from 1st April to 31st March.
  • In US, Companies should submit financial statements from 1st January to 31st December.
  • The main financial reporting is done for the parent company in India is Leading Ledger and for reporting for the US is Non-Leading Ledger.

Leading and Non-Leading Ledger enables you to maintain financial accounts for more than one accounting principle as per company requirements. The parent company from India is required to prepare financial statements as per India GAAP and Company from US is required to Prepare reports as per USGAAP. In some cases transactions may differ as per accounting standards, so you post transactions in a particular ledger instead of both ledgers.