Trial balance in AccBooks AI

What is a trial balance?

The trial balance is a list of all nominal account codes with their debit and credit balances as at a specific date. The total of all debits should equal the total of all credits — if it doesn’t, there’s a posting error somewhere.

The trial balance is the foundation from which the P&L and balance sheet are derived.

Generating a trial balance

1. Go to Reports → Trial Balance.
2. Select the date or period.
3. Choose whether to show:
   • All accounts (including zero-balance accounts)
   • Active accounts only (accounts with a non-zero balance)
4. Click Generate.

Reading the trial balance

Each row shows:

• Nominal code — the account number.
• Account name — description.
• Opening balance — balance at the start of the period.
• Period debits/credits — movements in the period.
• Closing balance — balance at the period end date.
• Balance type — whether the closing balance sits in the debit or credit column.

The bottom row shows the total of all debit balances and all credit balances. If these don’t match, investigate.

Using the trial balance to spot errors

Credits ≠ Debits: There’s a journal with unequal sides somewhere. Go to Journals → All journals and sort by amount to find orphaned entries.

Account balance looks wrong: Click the nominal code to see all transactions posted to it in the period. Look for:

• Transactions posted to the wrong account.
• Entries with the wrong sign (debit instead of credit).
• Duplicate transactions.

Bank account balance doesn’t match actual statement: There are unreconciled transactions or unposted bank entries.

Comparing periods

Use the Comparative button to show two periods side by side — useful for spotting accounts that have moved unexpectedly.

Period-end close

Before running a trial balance for period-end, make sure:

• All bank feeds are up to date and reconciled.
• All invoices for the period are posted.
• All purchase bills for the period are entered.
• Depreciation journals have been posted.
• Accruals and prepayments are up to date.
• VAT return is prepared (and boxes reconcile to the trial balance).

Exporting the trial balance

Click Export to download as:

• Excel — with individual account rows ready for working papers.
• CSV — for import into other analysis tools.
• PDF — for attaching to board packs or passing to auditors.

The Excel export includes a column formula that calculates the difference between debit and credit totals — useful for quickly checking it balances.

Audit trail

Click any figure on the trial balance to drill down to individual transactions. Every transaction links to its source document — bank statement, invoice, receipt or journal. This drill-down chain is what auditors need to verify that figures are accurate and supported.