Skip to main content

Trial balance

The Trial balance is a fundamental financial inquiry that provides a comprehensive summary of the debit and credit balances across your ledger accounts for a specific period. It is primarily utilised by financial controllers and accountants to verify the mathematical accuracy of the ledger, detect posting anomalies, and serve as the foundational data source for generating formal financial statements.

Report parameters​

To generate the inquiry, navigate to General ledger > Reports > Trial balance. Prior to calculation, you must configure the report parameters to define the exact scope and granularity of the data:

  • From date / To date: Defines the specific fiscal period or custom date range you wish to analyse. Only fully posted transactions falling strictly within this date boundary will be included in the period's debit/credit calculation.
  • Financial dimension set: This is the most critical parameter for analytical reporting. It dictates exactly how the ledger balances will be aggregated and hierarchically grouped. For example, selecting a set defined as Main Account + Department will aggregate balances first by the main account, and then sub-group them by the associated department. (Refer to the Financial dimension sets guide for configuration details).

Calculating balances​

Once your parameters are established:

  1. Click Calculate balances on the Action Pane.
  2. The system's reporting engine will query all posted vouchers matching the date criteria and aggregate them instantaneously according to your selected dimension set hierarchy.

Analysing the results​

The resulting grid provides a highly structured, analytical view of your financial position. Crucially, all monetary amounts displayed within this inquiry are presented exclusively in the ledger's designated accounting currency.

A standard trial balance inquiry will display the following columns (with the first column dynamically reflecting your chosen dimension set):

  • [Dimension Name] (e.g., MAINACCOUNT): The fully resolved dimension combination (e.g., 1000) constructed based on your selected Financial dimension set.
  • Name: The descriptive name of the primary account or dimension combination.
  • Opening balance: The net carried-forward balance existing strictly prior to your specified From date.
  • Debit: The sum total of all debit transactions posted within the specified date range.
  • Credit: The sum total of all credit transactions posted within the specified date range.
  • Closing balance: The final net result, calculated as the Opening balance plus the period's net movement (Debits minus Credits).

(Note: If you identify a balance that requires auditing, the Trial Balance serves as a launching point. You would typically drill down into the detailed Voucher transactions to inspect the granular journal entries composing that specific balance).