Trial Balance

Overview

The Trial Balance displays a list of all the accounts with their respective debit or credit balances. It is the first step in the financial statement preparation process, highlighting potential errors or discrepancies.

Navigation: Main Menu > Accounting > Financial > Menu (button) > Trial Balance.

Table of Contents

Buttons Explained

  • View: Generates a Trial Balance according to the selected filters.
  • Output: Outputs the Trial Balance in PDF format. The output options are Print, Preview, and Email.
  • Menu:
    • Reset Data Filters: Resets any changes to the data filters.
    • Hide decimal values: Toggles showing or hiding decimal values.
    • Views
      • Dashboard
      • Statement of Profit or Loss
      • Statement of Financial Position
      • Trial Balance
    • Layout & Grids
      • Email Excel
      • Export Grid
      • Save
      • Save (All Users)
      • Restore Default (All Users)

Filters Explained

  • Financial Year: A dropdown list of available financial years for selection.
  • Period: Select Start and Ending Months within the selected financial year.
  • Report: A dropdown list with custom-created Accounting Reports.
  • Filter: Select All to display all the accounts. Select Profit or Loss or Financial Position to only show balances for accounts that appear on the respective statements.
  • Show all Accounts: A checkbox. If checked all the accounts are displayed, including those with zero balances.
  • Order by Acc No.:  A checkbox. If checked accounts are ordered by Account Number (if account numbers are used).
  • Radio buttons:
    • Accounting: Displays a conventional Trial Balance.
    • Categories: Displays the balances per accounting category.
    • Transaction: Displays a list of transactions for the selected period.

Fields Explained: Accounting (radio button)

  • Field Chooser (*): Allows users to add or remove columns.
  • Report: Displays whether the account appears on the Statement of Profit or Loss (Profit or Loss) or the Statement of Financial Position (Financial Position).
  • Category: The accounting category the account belongs to.
  • Account Group:  Displays the main account names if an account has sub-accounts.
  • Account: Displays the Account Names.
  • Acc No.: Displays the Account Number.
  • Opening: Displays the Opening Balances (i.e. balances from the previous financial year).
  • Movement: The net effect of all the transactions in that account for the selected period. Net credit movements are shown as negative numbers.
  • Debit: The Debit balances of all the accounts.
  • Credit: The Credit balances of all the accounts.
  • Menu (...): A context menu with the following options:
    • Add Financial Statements Notes: Opens an interface allowing a note to be typed. The note can be viewed and edited from the Dashboard.
    • View Detailed Ledger: Opens the selected account's detailed ledger.

Fields Explained: Categories (radio button)

  • Field Chooser (*): Allows users to add or remove columns.
  • Report: Displays whether the account appears on the Statement of Profit or Loss (Profit or Loss) or the Statement of Financial Position (Financial Position).
  • Category: The applicable accounting category.
  • Opening: Displays the Opening Balances (i.e. balances from the previous financial year).
  • Movement: The net effect of all the transactions in that category for the selected period.
  • Debit: The sum of all the Debit balances in that category.
  • Credit: The sum of all the Credit balances in that category.
  • Balance: The debit (positive) and credit (negative) balances with a total at the bottom.

Fields Explained: Transaction (radio button)

  • Field Chooser (*): Allows users to add or remove columns.
  • Report: Displays whether the account appears on the Statement of Profit or Loss (Income Statement) or the Statement of Financial Position (Balance Sheet).
  • Category: Displays the accounting category the account belongs to.
  • Account Group: Displays the main account names if an account has sub-accounts.
  • Account: Displays the Account Names.
  • Acc No.: Displays the Account Numbers.
  • Contra Account: The Account for the other side of the transaction.
  • Contra Acc. No.: The Account Number of the contra account.
  • Type: A code indicating the source Transaction Type.
  • No.: The Transaction Number.
  • Trans Date: The Date entered for the transaction.
  • Period: The Period into which the transaction was posted.
  • Company: The name of the Customer or Supplier.
  • Item: The sequential number allocated to each item on a transaction.
  • Reference: The transaction's reference field.
  • Debit: The amount that was debited.
  • Credit: The amount that was credited.
  • Menu (...):  Shortcut to display the original transaction.

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