Every account with its opening balance, the movement in the period and the closing balance, arranged under your account groups, with a check that total debits equal total credits.
When to use it
At any month or year end, and before you prepare the Profit & Loss or Balance Sheet.
Before you start
- Vouchers for the period are entered and posted. A draft is not counted.
- Accounts are placed under the right account group, otherwise they land under Unclassified.
- You need view access to the Finance reports.
Where to find it
Reports > Finance > Trial Balance.
The filters
| Filter (on screen) | What it does | Required |
|---|---|---|
| From Date | Start of the period this report covers. Defaults to the start of the active financial year. | No |
| To Date | End of the period this report covers. Defaults to today. | No |
| Balance Basis | Standard sweeps last year's profit into Reserves, as most packages do. Since Inception keeps the full cumulative figure. Period Only starts every income and expense account at nil on your From date, even mid-year. | No |
Running the report
- Open Reports > Finance > Trial Balance.
- Set From Date and To Date, or keep the financial year the dates default to.
- Leave Balance Basis on Standard unless you specifically want the since-inception view.
How it works
- Rows are grouped down the account tree, each group carrying its own subtotal, with a grand total at the foot.
- Closing equals Opening plus Transaction, on each side. Opening is worked out from everything posted before your From Date, so a one-week window still shows the full balance brought forward.
- The opening is calculated, not read off an opening-balance voucher. That is why moving From Date moves the opening figure. It is meant to.
- Balance Basis changes only how last year's profit is presented. On Standard, income and expense accounts start the financial year at nil and the prior result appears as Reserves, which is what an accountant expects to see. On Since Inception those accounts carry forward everything ever posted to them. On Period Only they start at nil on your From date even in the middle of the year, and everything before it (last year's result and this year's so far) shows as one line, Reserves & Surplus (P&L before this period). The grand total ties every way.
- If the grand total of Closing Debit does not equal Closing Credit, the report says so. That means a posted voucher is itself unbalanced. Find it through Books Health Issues rather than searching the Trial Balance.
- An Unclassified heading means an account is not filed under any group. Fix the account's group in the Ledger master and it moves into place.
Tips and common mistakes
- For a full-year figure, set From Date to the start of the financial year. Starting a few days in quietly drops the opening entries of the year.
- Compare like with like: a Standard run and a Since Inception run will disagree on the profit and loss accounts by design.