Trial balance is a source of information regarding individual components of company assets and capital. It provides information necessary to prepare elements of the financial statement, that is balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statement, etc.
Trial balance is a statement of journal entries on accounts. Turnover is the registry of all business transactions posted on an account. Balance is the registry of CR and DR sides, that is, all turnovers listed on an account in a given accounting period (including also the opening balance).
Trial balance is available from the level of menu Accounting, under [Trial Balance] button.
Trial balance can be displayed as:
Tree – hierarchical structure
List – flat structure
Trial balance
The list contains standard buttons which have been described in article <<Standard buttons>> and, additionally:
[Calculate] – allows for calculating trial balance
[Collapse All] – in case of a tree structure, it allows for reducing chart of accounts to general accounts
[Expand All] – in case of a tree structure, it allows for expanding a chart of accounts to a form including both general and subsidiary accounts
[Journal Entries] – allows for displaying journal entries for selected account
[Clearings] – allows for displaying the list of clearings for selected account in specified range of dates. The list of clearings can be displayed only for an account at the lowest level.
[Trial Balance] – allows for calculating trial balance for selected account
Trial balance is composed of the following columns:
Number
Name
OB DR, OB CR – account balances on the day of opening of accounting ledgers
Turnover DR, Turnover CR – turnover for the reporting period
Subtotal Turnover DR, Subtotal Turnover CR – turnover incrementally from the beginning
Balance DR, Balance CR, Ending Balance – balances at the end of reporting period
Currency – document currency, depends on the settings in the filter
Type (column hidden by default) – account type
Note
Totaling is possible from the level of the list of trial balance only upon selecting a specific currency in the filter of the option All in system currency. If system currency of accounts is different, value 0 is displayed in the summary.
Detailed description of filtering and calculating of can be found in article Trial balance calculation.
Trial balance calculation
The system allows for calculating trial balance for all accounts and for presenting opening balances.
The statement can be calculated for:
Accounting period or partial period
To calculate trial balance, it is necessary to indicate an accounting period (by default, it is the accounting period of the company to which the user is currently logged-in) and select [Recalculate] button. Additionally, if an accounting period is divided into partial periods, then, after selecting the parameter Partial Period and selecting particular partial period from the list, it is possible to calculate statement for a given period.
Range of dates
To calculate a statement for a particular time range, it is necessary to select filter Date From, set the start and the and date and select the [Recalculate] button. Trial balance will be calculated for the selected time range.
Note
So-called expanded balance (two-sided balance) is presented if there are two conditions fulfilled:
Account type: Clearing or Current Liability
An account has subsidiary accounts (it is a general or sub-subsidiary account)
The balance is always presented one-sidedly on a general account (on its lowest level), regardless of its type. It means that, for example, a clearing subsidiary account of a given customer will have the balance presented on one side.
Rules for trial balance calculation
Opening balance
For subsidiary accounts
Opening balance is calculated as a difference between ∑OB Dr and ∑OB Cr of given account
For general and sub-subsidiary accounts
For clearing accounts or accounts of current liability type
OBDr = ∑OBCr of lower level subsidiary accounts
OBCr = ∑OBCr of lower level subsidiary accounts
For regular accounts
Opening balance is calculated as ∑OBDr – ∑OBCr for lower level subsidiary accounts
Note
A negative opening balance is always presented on Cr side as an absolute value.
Change in period
For subsidiary accounts
Change in period is calculated as a total of journal entries registered on appropriate side (Cr/Dr) of given account
For general and sub-subsidiary accounts – regardless of their type
CiPDr = ∑CiPDr of lower level subsidiary accounts
CiPCr = ∑CiPCr of lower level subsidiary accounts
Change in credit balance
For subsidiary accounts
Change in period is calculated as a total of journal entries registered on appropriate side (Cr/Dr) of given account
For general and sub-subsidiary accounts – regardless of their type
CiCBDr = ∑CiCBDr of lower level subsidiary accounts
CiCBCr = ∑CiCBCr of lower level subsidiary accounts
Balance
For subsidiary accounts
is calculated as a difference of (OBDr+CiCBDr) – (OBCr+CiCBCr)
For general and sub-subsidiary accounts
For clearing accounts or accounts of current liability type
BDr = ∑BDr of lower level subsidiary accounts
BCr = ∑BCr of lower level subsidiary accounts
For regular accounts
The balance is calculated as a difference of ∑BDr – ∑BCr for lower level subsidiary accounts
Note
A negative balance is always presented on Cr side as an absolute value. A negative opening balance is always presented on Cr side as an absolute value.
Ending Balance
Ending balance is calculate as a difference Bdr – Bcr
Filtering of trial balance
Detailed description of functioning of the filters can be found in category <<Searching and filtering data>>>
Trial balance list
Additional options of trial balance filtering:
From Account, To Account – allows for defining the interval of account for which the statement should be calculated
Levels – allows for defining levels according to which the accounts used for the statement calculation will be included. Available values: All (list without limits), 1 (accounts from level 1), 2 (accounts from level 1 and 2) etc. Only directory accounts, The lowest level.
Type – allows for filtering of accounts by their type. Available values: Balance sheet and Nominal, Balance sheet, Nominal, Off-balance, Clearing.
Currency – allows for specifying the currency of accounts included in trial balance calculation. When the following option is selected in the filter:
All – the statement is calculated in the currency of the account
All in system currency – the statement is calculated in the system currency (also for the accounts in foreign currency, the values are reported after recalculation in the system currency)
EUR, PLN etc. – the statement is calculated for account in selected currency
Include unconfirmed entries – when the parameter is checked, the statement is calculated on the basis of confirmed and unconfirmed entries. When the parameter is unchecked, the statement is calculated on the basis of the entries transferred to the general ledger (confirmed) only.
Include directory accounts – if checked, the system includes analytical directory accounts while filtering. If unchecked, the system will not include the directory accounts. Upon unchecking of the parameter, the system displays only directory accounts (subsidiary directory accounts are not displayed).
Without accounts with zero activities – allows for calculating the statement only for accounts which have activities or value in the columns Dr OB/Cr OB in analyzed period
Note
In case of selecting the option Without accounts with zero balances in the filter panel, the filtered trial balance will also include an opening balance.
Without accounts with zero balances – allows for calculating the statement only for accounts which have balance in analyzed period
Note
If the parameter Without accounts with zero activities and Without accounts with zero balances are checked, only accounts with balance different than zero are displayed on the list.
Attributes – allows for filtering statement on the basis of attributes on single-sided entries. Selecting the button [Attributes] opens the Attribute conditions window where it is possible to define a filter including single-sided entries with specific values of attributes. In the filter, it is possible to use attributes of textual or list type only.
