The Trial balance gives a listing of all accounts, with their balances entered as debits or credits in columns. This makes it possible to evaluate whether or not the total debits for the period cited are in balance with the total number of credits generated for the same period. When a true trial balance exists, the total credits and total debits will be equal.
The Loan Performer Trial Balance shows the opening Debits and Credit balances, the Transactions during the period and the ending Balance at the end of the period selected.
How to view the Trial balance
To view the trial balance you got to Accounts/Financial Reports/Trial balance. A screen that looks like one below appears:
From Date: In the drop down box, select the appropriate date when the Trial Balance report will start, e.g., "01/01/2020" and in the till Date drop down box select the date when the Trial Balance report will end e.g., "31/12/2020".
Currency: From the drop down list select the currency in which the report should appear, e.g., "UGX".
Note that Loan Performer offers the flexibility of displaying the report in different currencies.
Check if only non-zero balances: When this option is selected, the trial balance will display only those accounts that have balances otherwise if unchecked all the accounts including those with zero balances will also be displayed.
From Product: Select the Product from which the trial balance will start and in the till product option, enter the product on which the trial balance is to stop or tick the Check for all option to generate the trial balance for all products.
From Donor: Select the Donor from which the trial balance will start and in the till Donor option, enter the donor on which the trial balance is to stop or tick the Check for all option to generate the balance sheet for all donors.
From Branch: From the drop down box, select the branch from which the trial balance will start and in the till Branch the branch that the report will stop or tick the Check for all options to generate the trial balance for all branches. When Check for all options is selected, then trial balance will be generated for all branches for Corporate Databases.
From Cost Centre: From the drop down box, select the Cost Centre from which the trial balance will start and in the till Cost Centre, where the report will stop or tick the Check for all options to generate the trial balance for all cost centers.
From Debtor: From the drop down box, select the Debtor from which the trial balance will start and in the till Debtor the debtor that the report will stop or tick the Check for all options to generate the trial balance for all debtors.
From Creditor: From the drop down box, select the Creditor from which the trial balance should start and from the till Creditor drop-down the creditor that the report should stop or tick the Check for all option to generate the trial balance for all creditors.
Only Transactions in closed periods: If you tick this checkbox then the Trial Balance will display only balances up to the most recently closed period thus excluding balances from the current open period.
Include Off-Balance Sheet Accounts: If you tick this checkbox then the Trial Balance will display the Off-Balance Sheet items as well.
Note: By default Loan Performer does not include off balance sheet items in the Trial Balance.
In Loan Performer all Accounts are categorized under Main Groups, e.g., "Assets, Liabilities, Income or Expenses" and under each category they are further categorized as under Sub groups, e.g., "Current Assets, Current Liabilities etc.". You therefore have the option of viewing the Totals of the Trial Balance as a Plain Listing, Totaled under Main Categories or further displayed as Totals of Main Groups and Sub Groups. See below
Plain Listing: Under this option the Trial Balance will display a listing of all the accounts without giving the totals for the respective Groups and Sub groups that you have in your Chart of Accounts.
Sub totals on Main Groups: Under this option the Trial Balance will display a listing of all the accounts giving totals of the respective Main Groups, i.e., "Assets, Liabilities, Income, and Expenses":
Sub totals on Main Groups and sub groups: Under this option the Trial Balance will display a listing of all the accounts giving totals of the respective Main Groups, Sub Groups and the Grand Total for all displayed accounts.
Show account numbers for headers and sub-headers: When you tick this checkbox, the Trial Balance will display account numbers for both the headers and sub accounts.
Select any other required additional options or use the default selections. For additional information on these options you can refer to Accounting Report Formats.
LPF offers you different format in which you can generate the reports e.g. .pdf, .xls, .dbf etc. If you don't have adobe application installed on your machine select another format.
In addition, you have the two options View and Print which enable you to look at the report before printing it. If the applications that allow you to see the report in the different formats mentioned above are not installed in your computer, you may send it directly to the printer and look at the hard copy.
Click on the OK button to generate the trial balance that will look as follows:
