How to use the Trial Balance report

Summary

How to use the Trial Balance report in Sage Accounting to view general ledger account balances for a specific date range.

Description

The Trial Balance report shows each general ledger account’s debit and credit totals. It helps identify incorrect balances and supports forecasting and analysis. Compare current and prior year balances to guide budgeting and decisions. Export the report in PDF or CSV format for analysis.

Resolution

Running the report

You can run the report anytime to view ledger balances or perform analysis. Change the reporting period and criteria as needed. Go to Reports, Trial Balance to open the report page and set the criteria.

Viewing balances as of a specific date

Select As of in the Period field and enter a date to view balances up to that date. The report includes balance activity from the account start date through the selected date.

EXAMPLE:

You started using Accounting on January 15, 2018. To view balances as of June 29, 2020, select As of and enter 06/29/2020. The report shows balances from January 15, 2018 through June 29, 2020.

Use analysis options to review movements

Select a period in the Period field:

This year
Last year
This financial year
Last financial year
This month
Last month
This quarter
Last quarter
Custom: Enter a date range in the From and To fields

View beginning and ending balances

Choose one option:

This period only	Shows movements in the selected period without beginning and ending balances.
Show beginning & ending balances	Includes entries before the selected period, including prior fiscal year entries.

Select As of to make the Summarize retained earnings values option available.

Summarized Retained Earnings example:

Your fiscal year ends on December 31. You posted three invoices to Sales Income: $500 this month, $200 last month, and $100 last fiscal year.

Without Summarize retained earnings, the report shows $500 for the current month, $300 in Beginning Balance, and $800 in Ending Balance
With Summarize retained earnings, the report shows $500 for the current month, $200 in Beginning Balance, and $700 in Ending Balance
The Retained Earnings line shows $100

Expand the Retained Earnings line to view $0 in the month column and $100 in both Beginning and Ending Balance columns.

Other criteria

Hide zero balance accounts	This excludes zero-balance accounts by default. Clear this option to include accounts with activity that nets to zero.
Show GIFI codes	Includes GIFI codes from your chart of accounts.

Drilling down into report data

Select any balance in the Debit or Credit column to view the related transactions.

For Balance Sheet accounts except Retained Earnings, the Detailed General Ledger report opens
For Retained Earnings, the Profit and Loss report opens with summarized balances

Select Back in your browser to return to the Trial Balance report.

Find and correct errors

Unexpected ledger balances indicate missing, duplicate, or incorrect postings. Drill down to identify the issue. To correct errors, amend the transaction, or create a journal entry.

When creating a journal entry:

Select the affected ledger account on the adjustment side.
Use the opposite entry type from the error.
Ensure multiple lines total the incorrect amount.