Running a Trial Balance

Some Of the nominals and ledgers used in this topic may be different to those in your chart of accounts.

The trial balance (TB) lists your income and expenditure nominals (known as trading nominals or profit and loss), followed by your balance sheet nominal.

IRIS Financials uses a double entry system and therefore, the trial balance report should balance to zero to prove that all debits and credits balance. If this is not the case, consider the following:

• Is the establishment/organisation part of a trust and therefore has intercompany/location postings to another location that you are unable to have access to view?

• Has the security been appropriately set up so that you can see applicable nominals and accounts?

1. Select Enquiries, then select Trial Balance from the menu.
   

2. The Trial Balance Criteria dialog is displayed with the General tab automatically selected. Select the nominals you want to include in the trial balance. Select Between from the Nominal drop-down list, select Drill (...) in Value 1 and Value 2, then double-select to select the required nominals from the Select a nominal dialog. To include all nominals for the criteria, including those with no value, select Include All.
   

3. Next, to select the period range for the trial balance, select the Periods tab. Select Period Range, then select Between from the Period Range drop-down list. Select Drill (...) in Value 1 and Value 2, then double-select to select the required period from the Select a period dialog. Select OK to confirm your selections.
   

4. The Trial Balance window is displayed.
   

5. Use the trial balance to compare your actuals with your budgets and check for any large discrepancies or areas that need adjustments, such as accruals, prepayments, deferred income, etc. The trial balance can be changed (rearranging columns, adding/removing columns, etc.) to customise the layout and remove any unnecessary details. For more information, please see Customising Enquiry Displays.

6. When you are happy with the trial balance report, it can be saved for future use without having to select the criteria. Select FAVOURITE, to display the Add Favourite dialog, enter a name for the report in Name e.g. Trial Balance AST (where AST represents the location code), then select OK.