Trial balance
The trial balance lists every account with its debit or credit balance as at a date. Total debits must equal total credits.
Include zero-balance adds accounts with no movement. Leave it off for a working review; turn
it on when checking that the chart itself is complete.
The trial balance is run as at a date, not for a range — it is a position, not a flow.
Profit and loss
Income less expenses over a date range. The statement groups by account class, so its usefulness depends directly on how the chart of accounts is designed. Total expenses include non-operating expenses and tax, so the bottom line is the actual result rather than an operating subtotal. Read it with:- Comparatives — this period against the last, or against budget. See Budgets.
- Attention on the unusual — a category that moved sharply, or one that did not move at all when it should have.
Balance sheet
Assets, liabilities and equity as at a date. Things to check every period:Drill-down
Statement lines are not dead ends. From a line you can drill into the journal lines that produced it, and from a journal line to the source invoice, payment or expense. The journal detail shows the journal id, the posting key and, where applicable, the reversal journal. Use Open in Journal entries to move from a summarised figure to the underlying entries. This is the fastest way to answer “why is this number what it is” — far faster than exporting to a spreadsheet and re-deriving it.Supporting ledger reports
See Reports for the full catalogue.
Running statements correctly
1
Confirm the branch
Statements are branch-scoped. An unexpectedly small profit is usually one branch, not a bad
month.
2
Choose the right basis
Trial balance and balance sheet are as at a date; profit & loss is over a range.
3
Close the period first for final numbers
Statements over an open period can still change. See
Accounting periods.
4
Reconcile before you circulate
Receivables to aging, cash to bank, deposits to the deposits module.