Trial Balance
Written by Brandy Burch
Updated at January 17th, 2025
Also see: Financial Reporting Overview for more information on tabs and menu items at the bottom of the screen.
A Trial Balance is a listing of the accounts in your general ledger and their balances as of a specified date. A trial balance is usually prepared at the end of an accounting period and is used to see if additional adjustments are required to any of the balances. Since the basic accounting system relies on double-entry bookkeeping, a trial balance will have the same total debit amount as it has total credit amounts.
A Trial Balance can be printed by selecting the option from the Financial Reporting Menu.
The User Defined Trial Balance allows you to set up the Trial Balance tailored to your specific needs.
| Trail Balance - General Tab | |
| Report Selection Field | Choose the report desired to run the balance sheet |
| [Click to Edit] Report Definition | This button will lead to the report definitions for the report chosen for viewing or editing. |
| "Print Adjustments on Report, Jrnls" | This field can be used to separate accountant journal entries. |
A Default Trial Balance can also be printed under Reports.
For Sub-Account and Printer tab options see Financial Reporting.
Trial Balance - Sub-Accounts Tab
This tab allows you to run the desired report by a range of Sub-Accounts or selected Sub-Accounts either with or without a financial group.Check the box at the top of the screen if you want a statement for the entire company as well as the Sub-Accounts and/or group selected. To select specific Sub-Accounts to run the report for, click on, or multi-select the desired Sub-Accounts from the "List of All Items" on the left-hand side of the screen. Use the red arrows to move a single Sub-Account from the "List of All Items" to the "List of Selected Items" or vice versa. Use the blue arrows to move multiple Sub-Accounts from the "List of All Items" to the "List of Selected Items" or vice versa.
| Trial Balance-Sub-Accounts Tab | |
|---|---|
| Print A Statement for Entire Company | Checking the box will print a company-wide statement in addition to the report for the Sub-Account(s) or financial group specified. |
| Sub-Table | Specify the Sub-Table that contains the Sub-Accounts to run the report for. |
| Sub-Accounts From/Thru | Enter a range of Sub-Accounts to run the trend report for. Then check the 'Use Range?" box. |
| Spacing between Sub-Accounts | Enter the number of lines desired between Sub-Accounts."99" will put each Sub-Account on a different page. |
| Include Purchaser Info? | Check to include the Purchaser information on the trend report. |
| List of All Items/List of Selected Items |
When the desired Sub-Table is entered in the Sub-Table field, the Sub-Accounts will populate in "List of All Items". If desired, Sub-Accounts can be individually selected and moved to the "List of Selected Items" section. The trend report will then run the report based on the Sub-Accounts selected. The red arrows will move an individual Sub-Account. The blue arrows will move all Sub-Accounts. |
Trial Balance - Financial Groups Tab
The Financial Groups tab allows for the Trial Balance Report to be run by pre-defined financial groups instead of Sub-Accounts.
Choose the desired financial group in the "Print Report(s) for Group#" field. The Group levels define whether the trend report will be created for all tiers of the financial group or only a part of the tiers. Next make a selection to have Pak Accounting check inactive dates on Sub-Accounts before printing. Choose to have everyone checked, Active only, inactive only, or closed this period. Finally, check the box "Limit which Sub-Account(s) to be included in Group, based on dollar comparison" if desired. If this selection is made, additional options will appear.
| Additional Options | |
|---|---|
| Sum of Account(s) in Range From/thru | Select the account range to be included. |
|
Comparison Timeframe: Last Month/Year to Compare Number of month(s) back to use for comparison Includes Sub-Accounts for which: |
Select the last month and year that will be included in the report. Select the number of months prior to the last month/year selected to be included in the report. Select whether All Months must meet criteria, Any month must meet criteria, or Total of the months meets the criteria. The criteria will be set after this option is set. |
| Criteria for: | Select Sum is greater than, Sum is less than, or Sum is not equal. Enter an amount in the Amount field to correspond to these options. |
| Instead of using entire 10 characters of Sub-Account for comparison only use first ( ) characters | Choose the number of characters to use for comparison purposes. |
| Detail List of Limit Criteria being Applied | This will provided a report listing the account/Sub-Account, whether the Sub-Account was included or excluded, and the total amount based on criteria selected. |
NOTE: If you want to compare wells that had lost money in one year, 2022 for example, with 2023 to see if they were now making money, you would enter 12/2022 in the"Last Month/Year to Compare" field. The date on the General tab would be 12/2023. The system will then compare the two years to decide what to print. Additionally, when selecting criteria for an amount (Sum is Greater Than, Sum is Less Than, Sum is not equal), the following must be remembered:
Income has a credit balance. To see if the wells in the previous example made money, select "Sum is less than" and enter an amount in the amount field.
Expenses have a debit balance. To view the expenses select 'Sum is Greater than" and enter an amount in the amount field.
Trial Balance - Printer Tab
The Printer tab allows for print options to be selected.
| Trial Balance-Printer Tab | |
|---|---|
| Page Orientation | Choose to print the report in Portrait, Landscape, or the Printer Default. |
| Override Paper Size to Legal | Check this box for the report to print on Legal paper. |
| Print Color | Check "Yes" or "No" for the report to print in color. |
| Font Size | Select the font size for the report. "Auto" will print the report in an "11" font. |
| Font | Select the font style. |
| Copies | Select the number of copies to print. |
| Collate | Check the box for the report to be collated. |
| Duplex | Please see Duplex Printing for more information. |
| When Exporting to XLS, stack all cost centers onto one sheet. | Check this box to have all cost centers on one worksheet when exporting to XLS. |