Trial Balance

The Trial Balance lists every account in your Chart of Accounts with its debit or credit balance at a specific point in time. Its primary purpose is to confirm that your books balance — total debits must equal total credits.

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How to View the Trial Balance

1. Go to Reports
2. Select Trial Balance
3. Choose the as of date
4. The report loads automatically

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Report Structure

ACCOUNT                          DEBIT         CREDIT
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Cash and Bank                  AED 45,000
Accounts Receivable            AED 80,000
Inventory                      AED 25,000
Accounts Payable                             AED 40,000
VAT Payable                                  AED  8,000
Sales Revenue                                AED150,000
Cost of Goods Sold             AED 60,000
Salaries                       AED 30,000
Rent                           AED 10,000
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────
TOTAL                          AED250,000    AED250,000

Totals must be equal. If they're not, something has been posted incorrectly.

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What Each Column Means

Column	Shows
Debit	Assets and expenses — accounts that normally carry a debit balance
Credit	Liabilities, equity, and income — accounts that normally carry a credit balance

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When to Use the Trial Balance

• Before closing a period — verify everything balances before running final reports
• After a journal entry — confirm the entry didn't unbalance your books
• When P&L or Balance Sheet looks wrong — use the Trial Balance to isolate which account is off
• Audit preparation — provides a clean summary of all account balances

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Frequently Asked Questions

What if my Trial Balance doesn't balance?
Check for manual journal entries where debits ≠ credits. Acusheet prevents imbalanced journals from being posted, so a mismatch usually points to an incorrectly set-up opening balance or a data import issue.

What's the difference between the Trial Balance and the General Ledger?
The Trial Balance shows one balance per account. The General Ledger shows every individual transaction that makes up that balance.

Why do some accounts show zero?
Accounts with no activity in the selected period show zero. You can typically filter to hide zero-balance accounts.

Does the Trial Balance include draft transactions?
No — only approved (posted) transactions are included.