Trial Balance

The Trial Balance lists every account that has a balance on a given date, with that balance in either the Debit or the Credit column, and totals both columns. Because every entry in SeroBooks has equal debits and credits, the two totals must agree. The Trial Balance is the report your accountant asks for first at year end, and the quickest check that the books are sound before you run the financial statements.

Opening it

• Reports ▸ Accountant & Taxes ▸ Trial Balance.
• Ctrl+Shift+T from anywhere in SeroBooks, or search "trial balance" in Go To / Look Up (Ctrl+K). (Ctrl+T on its own opens the Memorized Transaction List, as in QuickBooks Desktop.)
• Reports ▸ Accountant & Taxes ▸ Adjusted Trial Balance opens the adjusted version (see Adjusted Trial Balance).

Run a trial balance for a date

1. Open the Trial Balance. It shows the books as at today.
2. Click Period and choose a period that ends on the date you want, for example Last year for last year's closing balances, or Exact dates for a specific day. Click Apply.
3. Check the banner at the top. It should be green and read Balanced.
4. Read the accounts. Double-click any account to see the lines that make up its balance.

As at a date, not over a range

A trial balance is a snapshot on one day. SeroBooks adds up everything posted to each account from the very first entry up to the end of the period you chose. The start of the period does not change the figures, which is why the title reads as at 2026-09-25 rather than showing a range.

The screen

• Period chooses the date (the end of the period). Refresh reads the books again.
• The line under the title reminds you that the figures are read straight from the ledger and nothing on the screen changes them.
• A warning banner may appear above everything when some documents have not reached the ledger, for example 3 document(s) not posted. A trial balance still balances when a sale is missing, because both of its sides are missing, so this banner is the only thing that would tell you.
• If a refresh fails, an amber note says the figures are from an earlier read.

The balance banner

The columns

Each account's balance appears in one column only; the other is left blank so the report reads by column. Accounts whose balance is zero on the date are left out. Click a column heading to sort by it.

The footer reads Double-click an account for its ledger (or select the row and press Enter) and shows Total debits and credits. When there is nothing posted up to the date, the table says No journal entries in this period.

Drilling into an account

Double-click an account to open its ledger for the period on screen. The page shows:

• Opening, Movements (the number of lines) and Closing figures at the top.
• Every line in the period: Date, Document (the document or entry number), Details (the customer or vendor, the kind of posting and the memo), Debit, Credit and a running Balance.
• Refresh to read it again.

Double-click a line from an invoice or credit memo to open that document. For the account's full layout with the other side of each entry, use the General Ledger limited to that account.

Exporting and printing

The table's export saves the Trial Balance titled As at [date]. See Print, export and email a report.

The Report Centre version

The Report Centre also has a Trial Balance report in Accountant & Taxes (Debits and credits, and proof they agree.). It takes one As of date and shows Code, Account, Debit and Credit with a TOTAL row. If the books do not balance, it adds the note THE LEDGER DOES NOT BALANCE — debits exceed credits by …. Each account drills down to Transaction Detail by Account. Use this version when you want to memorize, schedule or email the report; see Running a report.

Adjusted Trial Balance

The Adjusted Trial Balance shows, for each account, the balance before your adjusting entries, the adjusting entries themselves and the balance after them. An adjusting entry is a General Journal Entry with the Adjusting box ticked.

Choose a date range. The balances are as at the end of the range; the Adjustments columns hold the adjusting entries dated inside the range.

A TOTAL row adds up each column. When no entry in the range is ticked as adjusting, the report says No General Journal Entry in this period is ticked Adjusting Entry. Each account drills down to Transaction Detail by Account.

Permissions

The Trial Balance reads the books and changes nothing. Anyone whose role can open the Accounting screens can view it.

Tips

• Run the Trial Balance as at your year-end date before you set a closing date, and give it to your accountant with the General Ledger for the year.
• Adjusting entries your accountant gives you at year end can be entered as General Journal Entries with Adjusting ticked, so the Adjusted Trial Balance shows exactly what changed.
• If a balance looks wrong, double-click the account and read the lines before making a correcting entry.

Common problems

The banner says OUT OF BALANCE. Every entry SeroBooks writes balances, so a difference points to a damaged entry. Open Reports ▸ Accountant & Taxes ▸ Journal, choose a period that covers the problem, and look for entries flagged as not balancing. Open each one and correct it.

Changing the start date does nothing. A trial balance is as at a date, so only the end of the period counts.

An account I know exists is not listed. Its balance is zero on the date, or nothing has ever been posted to it.

The Trial Balance balances but a sale is missing. A document that failed to post is missing from both columns, so the totals still agree. Look for the warning banner at the top of the screen, which counts documents not posted.