The trial balance lists all debit and credit account balances in the general ledger for a selected period. The debit balances should at all times be equal to the credit balances. This account balances will include posted Batches (Journals), updated documents (Invoices, Credit Notes, Purchase or Goods Received Notes and Stock or Goods Returned documents) and Point-of-Sales Invoices for which the Shift is closed. Any Unposted Batches and Documents will be excluded from the trial balance. When analysing the trial balance, you need to take note that there may be some errors, which a trial balance may not reflect .

The trial balance is generated in the Trial Balance Options screen on which the following selections will determine the format and the information included in the trail balance:

1. Periods - The Accounting Periods for a Financial Year using This Year or Last Year Search or lookup facility.
   
   
2. Select to display sub-accounts or only the main accounts - if the sub accounts is not selected, the balances for the sub accounts will be summarised and listed for the main accounts.
   
   
3. Select to include zero balances - this will list your chart of accounts and will display balances for only those accounts with balances.
   
   
4. Sequence - select to display the accounts in the trail balance according to the Account number, Account description, account type (Income / Expenses) or Account Groups 1 or 2.
   
   
5. Select to view this year or last year balances.

The following is an example of a trial balance generated for the current financial year (This Year):




The trial balance consists of 4 sections in 8 columns and is as follows:

1. Account Number and Description - The 1^st column list the Account code or Account number and the 2^nd column displays the account name or description. If an account is created as an Income or Expense account in the Edit - Accounts - General Ledger menu option, an asterisk (*) will be displayed between the account number and account description. You may change the sequence in which these accounts are listed.
   
   
2. This Year - The 3^rd column -list the debit account balances and the 4^th column lists the credit balances. If you have selected the Last Year Only option, This Year heading will be displayed as Last Year and the balances will be listed for the previous financial year (Last Year). If you have closed a financial year, and you have not yet posted any batches or journals or have not updated any documents to the ledger, in the new financial year (This Year), no balances will be listed for the income / expense accounts and the balance sheet account types will be the same transactions.
   
   
3. Budget - The 5^th column list the debit account balances and the 6^th column lists the credit balances. Debit balances (usually for expense accounts) and Credit balances (usually for income accounts) are listed for those accounts for which budget figures have been entered in the Edit - Budgets menu option.
   
   
4. Last Year - The 7^th column list the debit account balances and the 8^th column lists the credit balances if the financial year is closed in the Tools - Global Processes - Do Year-end menu option or if any transactions in batches or documents have been posted to Last Year.
   
   

At the bottom of each This Year, Budget and Last Year the Net Profit figure will be displayed. This figure is the displayed if the Income Account balances are more than the Expense Account balances. Should the Expense Account balances exceed the Income Account balances, the Net Profit description will be displayed as Net Loss.

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Individual Debtor Account balances are summarised and a total of all the Debtor Account balances are displayed in the Debtors Control Account in the trial balance. To view a list of the individual Debtor Account balances, you need to generate a Debtor Age Analysis report.

Individual Creditor Account balances are summarised and a total of all the Creditor Account balances are displayed in the Creditors Control Account in the trial balance. To view a list of the individual Creditor Account balances, you need to generate a Creditor Age Analysis report.

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Should the trial balance not be in balance, a difference will be displayed. This means that some of your data may have become corrupted. You need to do a Data Re-index (Rebuild Database). If the differences or corruption is not yet fixed, you need to Restore the Set of Books from a previous backup.

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The amounts which are displayed in <> indicates a credit or negative figure. You may change this negative amount indicator to a minus sign (-) to prefix your amounts or set it to display a D (for Debit) or a C (for Credit) in the Setup - Preferences - Data Parameters menu option.