Run and understand the Customisable Trial Balance

Summary

How to Run and understand the customisable Trial Balance in Sage Accounting.

Resolution

When to run the customisable 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: If you're missing something, find out more in Changes to Reporting.

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 Reporting, select Trial Balance.

How the new Trial Balance is different

The new Trial Balance report:

Contain's three pre-configured 'Default views' to view your Trial Balance data
Offers predefined date ranges for each default view with clear descriptions, ensuring report data clarity
The option to Summarise profit and loss values is always on
Show's your 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 can pick how to display the date range-using column options. You can show totals by Month, Quarter, or as a cumulative Total. The old Trial Balance report, however, always shows data as a cumulative Total.

Configure the new Trial Balance to match the current report using options in the Customise report panel.

The new report allows customisation like previous year and period comparisons with variances. You can also choose the order of showing periods. Also, it can display totals by analysis types or a side-by-side comparison of analysis types.

How to use the Trial Balance

Report on different periods or date ranges

We’ve made three default views for the report, covering the periods most businesses usually need. Or, you can 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 trial balance for current financial year quarters with columns for opening balance and year to date

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 extra comparison columns to gauge your business's performance against the previous period or year. This provides insight into ongoing financial trends.

Include a column on the right with figures from the previous period or year. Add a difference column-showing percentage, amount, or both.

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 you're comparing periods, check out the opening and closing balances. Keep an eye on how things change over time and compare the closing balances.

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 balance sheet values as cumulative totals from year start to each period's end.

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, year to date, or comparing with a previous year, Profit and Loss balances summarise totals. They don't detail individual ledger account balances.

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.

When you run the new Trial Balance, £800 shows as a summarised Profit and Loss line. Individual balances for Sales - Product and Sales - Service won't show.

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:

For an amount across accounts or months, the Nominal Activity Summary report opens to review balances
For a single account in a month, the Nominal Activity Detailed report opens to review its transactions.

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 the report and save it to run again later. You can find your named report on the Custom tab

Export. To save a copy for your records or to share with others. You can choose PDF, CSV, or Excel format