Trial Balance
Verify your books — a point-in-time list of all accounts with their total debits and credits confirming they balance.
Trial Balance
The Trial Balance lists all accounts in your chart of accounts with their total debit and credit activity as of a specific date. Its primary purpose is to verify that total debits equal total credits — confirming that every journal entry was recorded correctly.
Navigate to Ledger → Reports → Trial Balance.
Report Structure
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Account Code | Account identifier from your chart of accounts |
| Account Name | Account name |
| Type | Asset, Liability, Equity, Revenue, or Expense |
| Debit Total | Sum of all debit entries for this account |
| Credit Total | Sum of all credit entries for this account |
At the bottom:
- Total Debits — sum across all accounts
- Total Credits — sum across all accounts
- Balanced indicator — confirms total debits equal total credits
Using the Trial Balance
A trial balance is typically run:
- At period end — before generating income statements and balance sheets
- When discrepancies are suspected — to locate the source of a reporting mismatch
- For external audit preparation — auditors often request a trial balance as the starting point
When Debits ≠ Credits
If the Balanced indicator shows the report is out of balance, there is a recording error. Common causes:
- A manual journal entry was entered with unequal debit and credit amounts
- A transaction was recorded without a corresponding journal entry
- A journal entry was partially reversed via custom code
Use the General Ledger to filter by specific accounts and dates to identify the discrepancy.
Setting the Report Date
Navigate to Ledger → Reports → Trial Balance.
Set the As of Date — balances reflect all posted entries up to end of that date.
Click Generate.
The trial balance is point-in-time only — it shows balances as of the chosen date with no period range. For period-scoped activity, use the General Ledger with a date range.