Know what it is
The trial balance is the base of the financial statements. For each account it shows three figures, each with debit and credit columns: Opening at the start of the range, Movements during it, and Closing (2) at its end.
Run it for your range
Open Reports, then Trial balance. Set From and To and press Run. Balanced (1) appears when total debits equal total credits. Posting refuses any unbalanced journal, so this is always the expected state.
Look for odd balances
A balanced trial balance does not mean every journal is right. Run down the closing balance and ask:
- Is the cash account in credit? Physical cash cannot be negative, so a receipt is probably missing or a payment doubled.
- Is an expense in credit, or revenue in debit? A journal may be the wrong way round.
- Is a balance bigger than you expected from last month?
Open any account
Press an account row to open its statement for the same range, and from there reach the journal. To hand the trial balance to an auditor or accountant, use Export XLSX or Export PDF.
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