Trial balance

The trial balance is a report that lists every account in your chart of accounts with its current debit and credit balance. If the total debits equal the total credits, your books are balanced. If they don't, something needs investigation.

Who uses it

You probably won't look at the trial balance during your day-to-day work. It's primarily a tool for:

• Your accountant or bookkeeper — they use it to verify that all accounts are in order before preparing tax returns or financial statements
• Troubleshooting — if your P&L or balance sheet looks wrong, the trial balance helps pinpoint which account has an unexpected balance

Running the report

1. Go to Accounting → Reporting → Trial Balance.
2. Set the date range or as of date.
3. The report shows every account with its opening balance, debits, credits, and ending balance.

What to look for

• Total debits = Total credits — if these don't match, there's a data integrity issue. Contact your accountant.
• Unexpected balances — an expense account with a credit balance, or a revenue account with a debit balance, usually means something was posted to the wrong account.
• Zero balances on active accounts — if your bank account shows zero and you know there's money in it, transactions may not be posted yet.