Help › Bookkeeping
Read your Trial Balance
The Trial Balance lists every account that carries a balance and proves the books balance: total debits must equal total credits.
- Go to Ledger › Reports and open the Trial Balance tab.
- Pick the period at the top. The balances are cumulative as of the end of that period, so a shorter period still includes every account's opening balance.
- Read down the Debit and Credit columns. The green Trial balance is balanced banner is the check the report must pass; if it reads off by an amount instead, a journal entry does not balance.
There are two column layouts and an optional grouping, all toggles at the top of the report. It opens in the Standard layout, flat.
- Standard shows each account's ending Debit or Credit balance. Switch to Working to see three columns instead: Beginning (the balance before the period started), Net change (the movement during the period), and Ending (the balance at the period end). In the Working view a credit balance is shown in parentheses, and Beginning plus Net change always equals Ending.
- Group by type folds the list into sections (Assets, Liabilities, Equity, Revenue, Expenses) with a subtotal on each section header. Click a header to collapse or expand that section.
To find one account on a long report, type into the search box at the top. It matches the account number, name, type or balance, and every word you type has to match. Searching only changes which rows are listed: the Totals row, every section subtotal and the balanced banner keep the figures for the whole report, and a note above the table says so while a search is on. Clear the box (or press Escape) to bring every row back.
Click any account row to open the General Ledger for that account and period, where you can see the individual entries behind the balance. Use CSV to download the report; the download matches whichever layout you are viewing, and it always contains the full report rather than the rows a search left on screen.