Run and understand the Customisable Trial Balance

Summary

How to run and understand the Customisable Trial Balance in Sage Accounting Start.

Description

When to run the updated Trial Balance report and how to show data for different periods.

If you’re not sure what the Trial Balance report is for, see About the Trial Balance.

NOTE: This topic may describe options you don't have on your report. If you're missing something, find out more about changing the report by looking at About the updates.

Resolution

When to run it

Businesses often run the Trial Balance report at set times in their business cycle or financial year. For example, monthly or quarterly.

You can run it anytime you want to see or analyse all your ledger account balances.

How to run it

By default, the report opens showing data for the current month.

From Reports, select Trial Balance.

How the new Trial Balance is different

The new Trial Balance report:

Three pre-configured 'Default views' to view your Trial Balance data
Predefined date ranges in each default view include descriptions, ensuring clarity on the report's data content
The option to Summarise profit and loss values is always on
You can show totals for selected periods or a grand total
Lets you compare across periods or financial years and track the variance across periods

In the new Trial Balance, you control how the selected date range appears with column options. You can display totals in columns by Month, Quarter, or as a cumulative Total. Unlike the old Trial Balance report, which presents data solely as a cumulative Total.

You can easily configure the new Trial Balance to display the same information as the current report using the options in the Customise report panel.

The new report allows further customisation, an example, including the previous year and period comparisons with variances or choosing the order in which to show the periods. Most importantly, the new report can show totals by analysis types or show you a side-by-side comparison of analysis types in their own columns.

How to use the Trial Balance

Report on different periods or date ranges >

We've created three default views for the report, which cover the periods most businesses want to run the report for. Alternatively, use the Period filter to set your own date range.

Use the Default view at the top of the report

Current month - shows your trial balance for the current month and year to date
Prior year comparison - compare your trial balance with the same period last year
Per quarter - displays the trial balance per quarter for the current financial year, with extra columns for opening balance and year-to-date figures

As at date >

Using the As at date shows your trial balance up to the selected date.

Use the As at date to see where you stand as of today.

Select the Edit icon next to Period on the Customise report panel.
Choose As at date, then enter the date to run the report up to.
Choose Run Report.

Compare with previous periods or years >

Add comparison columns for business performance against the previous or same period in a prior year.

This action adds a column to the right with figures for the previous period or year, along with a difference column.

From the Customise report panel, choose Columns.
Select to add a column for the Previous period or Year.
Choose how to show the variance.
Click Run report.

Include opening and closing balances >

Add columns to show the opening and closing balances.

When comparing multiple periods, including opening and closing balances aids in assessing ongoing business performance. Compare the opening balance, track changes, and compare with the current closing balance.

From the Customise report panel, choose Columns.
Choose Year to date closing balances and /or Opening balances.
Click Run report.

Show values a cumulative amount >

Show values on your balance sheet a running total from the beginning of the year to the end of each period.

From the Customise report panel, choose Columns.
Choose As cumulative over a period of time.
Click Run report.

Summarised Profit and Loss balances >

Including opening balances or year-to-date figures summarises Profit and Loss balances from previous years.

For example, your financial year ends on 31 December. You enter two sales invoices: one for £500 for Sales - Products and one for £300 for Sales - Services. This makes your profit for the year £800.

The new Trial Balance summarizes £800 on the Profit and Loss line instead of showing separate Sales ledger accounts

Drill down balances

If you see balances you want to investigate, you can drill down on the balances to see details.

Select any underlined balance to see what makes it up. If you drill down on:

An amount that spans many accounts or months, the Nominal Activity Summary report opens for you to review the balances. See About the Nominal Activity report for more information
A single account for a month the Nominal Activity Detailed report opens for you to review the transactions made to the account

To return to the original report, close the open report (or reports) or select Back in your browser.

Share your report with others

When you're happy with your report, you can save or export it. Select:

Save as to name of the report and save it to run again later. You can find your name report on the Custom tab
or
Export to save a copy for your records or to share with others. You can choose PDF, CSV, or Excel format