Viewing the Trial Balance & Nets Report

The Trial Balance Report shows the balances of all accounts in the chart of accounts (assets, liabilities, equity, revenue and expenses) for a specific period, with the balance before the period, the balance of the period’s transactions, and the balance after it. It helps you check that your accounts balance and find the source of any balance shown in it.

View the Trial Balance Report

1. From the main menu, go to Reports → Accounting Reports.
2. Click Trial Balance Report.
3. Set the filters you need, as described in the next section.
4. Click Show Report.

You can then click Print, or open Export Options and choose Export to CSV, Export to Excel or Export to PDF.

Report filters

Filter	Description
Date Range	The period whose transactions you want to see. You can choose a ready range such as Last month or Year to date.
Account Type	Filter by a main account (Main Account) or by sub-accounts (Sub-Account).
Main Account / Account	Show only one main account and the accounts under it, such as Expenses. When you choose Sub-Account, the filter becomes Account, and you can choose one or more sub-accounts.
Accounts Branch	Appears only if Specify Account Branches is enabled in the branch settings.
Added By	Show transactions added by a specific employee.
Journals Branch	Show the journal entries of one or more branches.
Display All Accounts	Choose Display All Accounts, Display All Accounts with Transaction, Hide Zero Accounts or Hide Zero Balances.
Levels	How many levels of the account tree appear in the report, from Level 1 to Level 5.
Cost Centers	Show the transactions of one or more cost centers, or choose Without cost center.
Balance Before	Display Net Balances (the default) shows the net balance before the period on one side only. Display All Balances shows the total debit and total credit separately.

Report columns

Each account appears with its Name and Code, and two columns (Debit and Credit) in each of the following parts:

Column	Description
Balance Before	The account’s balance from all entries before the period’s start date. It’s calculated only when you set a start date for the period.
Transaction Balance	The total debit and credit transactions on the account during the selected period.
Balance After	The account’s closing balance at the end of the period (Balance Before + Transaction Balance).

Where do transactions and expenses in the trial balance come from?

The trial balance doesn’t read figures from invoices or expenses directly. It adds up journal entries only. Every transaction you record in the system, such as an invoice, an expense or a payroll, creates an automatic journal entry on the related accounts, and that entry is what appears in the trial balance. It also includes the manual journal entries you add yourself from Journal Entries.

Sources of transactions on expense accounts

Transaction in the system	Account shown in the trial balance (by default)
Expenses (payment vouchers)	The account you chose in the expense, or the expense category’s account, otherwise Other Expenses. The credit side is the treasury.
Sales invoices (cost of sales)	Cost of Sales when you sell stock products, against the warehouse account. Entry source: Invoice Sales Cost.
Purchase invoices	Purchases (or the product’s custom account), and Purchases Shipping for shipping costs. If the products are stock items and have been received, the amount may be posted to the warehouse account instead of Purchases.
Payrolls	Each salary component’s account if you set one, otherwise Salaries and Wages, against Payroll Wages.
Asset depreciation	The asset’s depreciation expense account under Depreciation Expense, against Accumulated Depreciation.
Invoice and POS payments	Payment method fees under Payment Fees (one account for each payment method that has fees).
Discounts on invoices and POS	Discount Allowed, depending on the account routing settings.
Invoice adjustment	Adjustment.
Sales invoice shipping	Sales Shipping.
Cheque deposits	Deposit Fees, if there are fees.
Currency differences	Foreign Exchange Gains and Losses when you collect or pay an amount in a foreign currency at a different exchange rate, or transfer between treasuries in different currencies.
Stock requisitions and manual stock transactions	The account you chose in the transaction when issuing goods, otherwise Other Debit.
Manual journal entries	Any expense account you choose yourself in the entry.

Sources of transactions on other accounts

• Revenue: from sales invoices, receipt vouchers and other income.
• Clients and suppliers: from invoices, purchase invoices, refunds, their payments and credit notes.
• Treasuries and banks: from payments, receipt and payment vouchers, transfers between treasuries, and cheques.
• Inventory: from purchase and sales invoices, stock requisitions, stock transactions and manufacturing orders.
• Assets: from adding, depreciating, selling, writing off and revaluing assets.

How do I find the source of an account’s balance?

To see the transactions that make up an account’s balance, such as an expense account:

1. Open the Trial Balance Report and set the same period and branch.
2. Expand the Expenses account by clicking the + sign next to it, or use the Level 1 to Level 5 buttons above the table, until the account you need appears.
3. Click the account name. The Ledger report for that account opens with the same filters and shows every transaction on it with the date, description, debit, credit and balance.
4. Click the journal entry number next to the transaction to open the entry.
5. On the entry page, click View Source to open the original transaction, such as the expense, invoice, purchase invoice, payroll or asset depreciation.

You can also find the source from the transaction description in the ledger, such as Expense # followed by the expense number, or by filtering Journal Entries with the Source filter.

Notes

• The report uses approved journal entries only. Draft entries don’t appear in it.
• If you recorded a transaction and it doesn’t appear in the trial balance, check that it created a journal entry and that the entry’s date and branch are within the report filters.
• If an expense appears on an unexpected account, open its source as described above, and review the account chosen in the transaction or the account routing settings.
• Amounts appear in the account’s base currency, after converting transactions made in other currencies.
• To show expense accounts only, choose Expenses in the Main Account filter, or review the Chart of Accounts.