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: This topic may describe options you don't have on your report. 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 any time 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:

Has three pre-configured 'Default views' to view your Trial Balance data out the box
Includes predefined date ranges for each default view with descriptions, so you know exactly what data you'll get on the report
The option to Summarise profit and loss values is always on
Allows you to show totals for selected periods or a grand total
Lets you compare across periods or financial years and track the variance across periods

The new Trial Balance allows you to decide how the selected date range is shown with column options. Show totals in columns by Month, Quarter, or as a cumulative Total. On the old Trial Balance report, data always shows as a cumulative Total.

The new Trial Balance can easily be set to show the same information as the current report using the options in the Customise report panel.

In addition, the new report allows further customisation. For example, including 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 have created 3 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 views 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 - shows your trial balance for each quarter for the current financial year with an additional columns to show the 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, the enter the date to run the report up to.
Choose Run Report.

Compare with previous periods or years

Add additional comparison columns, to get a flavour of how your business is performing compared to the previous period or the same period in a previous financial year.

This adds a column to the right with the figures for the previous period or previous year, plus a column to show the difference. The difference can be shown as percentage, an 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 comparing multiple periods, including opening and closing balances allows you to gauge the ongoing performance of your business. Compare the opening balance at the start of a years, track the changes across multiple periods and finally compare with your closing balance as at current date.

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

If you include opening balances, year to date, or compare with a previous year, your Profit and Loss balances from previous years show as a summarised total, rather than individual balances per ledger account.

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 on the Profit and Loss line instead of two separate lines with individual balances for the Sales - Product and Sales -Service 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 which spans many accounts or months, the Nominal Activity Summary report opens for you to review the balances
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 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