Trial balance
Opening, period debit and credit and closing per ledger or per group for a fiscal-year range, on a grid you can sort, resize and filter by column, with the report's totals in the footer and CSV export.
Trial balance
Every ledger's opening balance, its debits and credits in the period, and its closing balance, for a date range inside one fiscal year. Use it at month end or year end to check that the books balance and to see where each account stands. You can also roll it up by account group.
Where to find it
Open Accounting > Reports in the sidebar and choose the Trial balance tab. You need the View permission on Reports and on Books, as described on the Ledger report. The Books switcher at the top right chooses the books.
Before you start
The books need a fiscal year (see Fiscal years). For the report to balance, the Opening balances of the year must balance too.
What you see
Filters across the top:
- Fiscal year: the year to report on. It starts on the year that holds today.
- From and To: the range, which must lie inside the chosen year. They start from the first day of the year to today. Picking another year sets the range to the whole of that year (or up to today for the current year).
- Include zero balances: also list ledgers with nothing in the range.
- Ledgers / Groups: one row per ledger, or rolled up the group tree.
A summary line reads "FY <name> · <from> to <to> · <n> of <n> ledgers" (or "groups"), followed by " match the filters" once a column filter narrows the list, with a badge:
- Balanced (green): total debits equal total credits, both at the opening and at the close;
- Not balanced: check opening balances (red) otherwise.
The grid lists one row per ledger (or group), 50 to a page, with the columns Code, Ledger (or Group), Group (or Nature), Opening, Debit, Credit and Closing. Balances read "12,000.00 Dr" or "12,000.00 Cr".
- In the Ledgers view, each ledger name links to its Ledger report for the same range, with "retired" under a retired ledger.
- In the Groups view, groups are indented under their parents. Top-level groups carry their nature badge (for example Asset or Income), and groups that count towards gross profit carry a Direct badge.
Under each header is a filter cell: type into Code or Ledger to keep the rows that contain that text; Group (or Nature) is a list of the values present ("Any group" / "Any nature" clears it); Opening, Debit, Credit and Closing take an amount with the operator menu (is equal to, greater than or equal to, less than or equal to…). Opening and Closing sort and filter on the signed balance, debit positive and credit negative, as the note under the grid says.
The footer row carries the whole report's totals whatever the filters: "Totals", the opening as "Dr <amount> / Cr <amount>", the period debits and credits, and the closing the same way. When nothing was posted in the range the grid reads "Nothing posted in this range. Tick "Include zero balances" to list every ledger."; when the filters leave nothing it reads "No rows match the filters."
What you can do
Sort, resize and page
Click a column header to sort by it (click again for the other direction); drag the edge of a header to resize the column. The pager under the grid moves between pages and offers 10, 20, 50 or 100 rows a page. Switching between Ledgers and Groups starts again from the first page, sorted by code.
Filter a column
Fill the filter cell under a header; filters combine, the summary line counts what they leave, and the footer totals stay the whole report's. Clear a text or amount filter with its clear button, a list with its blank entry.
Ledgers / Groups
Export CSV
Downloads the rows the current filters leave, in the grid's order, with the columns Code, Name, Group (or Nature), Opening, Period debit, Period credit and Closing, and a final Totals row with the whole report's figures.
- When it's greyed out: until the report has loaded.
Things to know
- Read straight from the vouchers. The report adds up posted vouchers (including reversed ones and their reversals) and the year's opening balances. Drafts don't count.
- Why it can show Not balanced. Every voucher must balance before it can be posted, so an imbalance comes from the opening balances brought forward. Check them on Opening balances.
- One fiscal year at a time. A range that runs outside the chosen year is refused with "The range must lie inside fiscal year <name>".
- After a year close the trial balance includes the closing journal, so income and expense ledgers show as cleared into the profit and loss account. The Profit & loss and Balance sheet leave the closing journal out.
- The footer totals are printed without the thousands separators used in the rest of the table.
Related
Related
- Ledger reportScreen
The ledger of one account between two dates: opening balance, every posting with a running balance, and closing balance, with CSV export.
- Profit & lossScreen
Income against expense for a range inside one fiscal year, with gross profit, net profit or loss, and CSV export.
- Balance sheetScreen
Assets against liabilities and equity as of a date, with the year's profit to date carried into equity and a check that the two sides agree.
- Opening balancesScreen
The balances brought forward into a fiscal year, one amount and side per ledger, typed in one table and saved as a whole, with running debit and credit totals.
- Chart of accounts: GroupsScreen
The reporting groups of the chosen set of books as a tree under the five classes (asset, liability, equity, income, expense); add your own groups and delete empty ones.
- ConsolidatedScreen
One trial-balance-style view across every active set of books in your organization, matched by the organization's template ledgers or groups, with an optional project cut.
- Fiscal years, periods, locks, opening balances and the year-end closeConcept
Each set of books runs in fiscal years of twelve monthly periods; a voucher can post only into an open year and an unlocked period, opening balances carry each ledger's balance into a year, the year-end close moves income and expense into Profit & Loss Account by a closing journal and writes the next year's openings, and a monthly balance cache is kept as a cross-check.
- Review the month and lock the periodHow-to
At month end, read the day book for the month, check that the trial balance is balanced, check key ledgers such as the bank, cross-check the period balances, and then lock the month on the books' Fiscal years tab so nothing more posts into it.
- "Not balanced: check opening balances": the trial balance or balance sheet shows a differenceTroubleshooting
Posted vouchers always balance, so a gap on the trial balance or balance sheet comes from the opening balances typed for the year; balance them on the Opening balances tab, then rebuild the period cache so Period balances agree.
- DashboardScreen
The page you land on after signing in: shortcuts to common jobs, a queue of what is waiting on you, the headline figures and one card each for projects, sales, stock, receivables, construction and the RERA accounts.