Understand your Trial balance report

The Trial balance report in Sage Sole Trader shows the totals for every account in your bookkeeping. Find out what those totals mean if you're new to accounting.

What a trial balance shows

A trial balance is a snapshot of your business finances on a chosen date. It lists every account you use to track money, and shows the total in each one.

You'll see two columns of figures:

• Debit balances on the left (money in)
• Credit balances on the right (money out)

The two columns add up to the same total at the bottom. This is how to tell your books are in balance. 

The five types of account

The accounts on your trial balance fall into five groups:

• Assets, like your bank account or money your customers owe you 
  
  EXAMPLE:

  Nominal code 1200 is the default Cash bank account. 

• Liabilities, like money you owe to suppliers or HMRC
• Capital, the money you've put into the business
• Income, the money your business earns
• Expenses, the costs of running the business

Every transaction you record updates one or more of these accounts.

If a figure looks wrong

The Trial balance pulls totals from the transactions you record in Sage Sole Trader. You can't edit the report itself.

To change a figure, edit the underlying transaction. The Trial balance updates when you save your change.

If a figure doesn't look right, review your transactions.

How Categories relate to the Trial balance

The Trial balance uses a fixed set of bookkeeping accounts. Categories are separate. They group transactions for your Making Tax Digital (MTD) quarterly update and your tax return.

A transaction can have a Category like Non-business income, and still appear in a Trial balance account like Sales. The two views show the same transactions in different ways.