Difference between trial balance and the account report

LTG2 · ‎September 29, 2022

Hi,

I am working on a file and noticed that on the trail balance the balance for wage expense is $2,166.66. This did not make any sense since there were a number of credits to the bank account for payroll which were clearly in excess of this amount. So, I went into the Chart of Accounts and ran a report for the account which showed that the balance was in fact $21,666.60. All the transactions on this report matched the timing of the dates of the credits to the bank account. So, why does my trial balance show a different amount? And how do I fix it? And yes, I have triple and quadruple checked that I am entering the correct dates when I run the TB and the account report.

AlcaeusF · ‎September 29, 2022

Hello @LTG2,

Thank you for posting here in the Community. I'm here to help you figure out why the Trial balance shows a different amount in QuickBooks Online.

Your business should have an accurate balance at the end of each financial year. The Trial balance report presents the totals of all transactions in every account in your Chart of Accounts.

First, I recommend re-totaling your ledger credit and debit columns to check if they balance. You can click the amounts shown in the report to expand and dig deeper into the data.

Accounting errors like incorrect balances occur at any stage of the accounting process. Following are the accounting process stages you can follow to check to locate the error:

Sum up the subsidiary books
Recording of journal ledger in journal entries of the transaction Calculating the balances of the various accounts
Carrying the balance of the accounts to the trial balance sheet
Balancing the trial balance columns

Additionally, I want to share this article from our QuickBooks Blog website about Trial balance. It'll help you further with balancing the report on your QuickBooks. Here's the link: Trial Balance: post closing, adjusted Trial Balance Examples.

I've also attached an article you can use as a reference on how to get a copy of your reports in QuickBooks: Export your reports to Excel from QuickBooks Online.

Get back to me if you need more assistance balancing your accounts or running reports. I'll keep an eye on your response. Take care.

LTG2 · ‎September 30, 2022

Thanks for the response, but I don't think I explained the situation very well.

The trial balance in QBO balances, I had already entered it into CaseWare. The problem arose when I started working on the income statement balances. I noticed that wages account balance didn't seem right, it was only about $2100.00. When I ran the GL report the balance in this account was about $21,600.00. I am positive I entered the time parameters correctly when I ran the reports, in fact I ha a co-worker look at it and he got the same results. I then noticed there were a number of income statement accounts on the Trial Balance which did not agree to the GL. In all cases the Trial Balance balances were considerably lower then the GL balances. There was no problem with the balance sheet accounts.

So, I believe it has something to do with how our client set up dates in QBO. His fiscal year is Feb. 01 to Jan 31. However, when I try to open the trial balance and I choose "Last year" from the drop down menu when I customize the report, it populates Jan 01 to Dec 31, I have to type in the proper dates in order to get the trial balance for the fiscal year. I believe this issue is connected somehow to the problem I'm having, since the Trial Balance doesn't seem to be picking up all the transactions in the fiscal year.

Can you please let me know how I should fix this problem? For now, I have entered the GL closing balances into CaseWare instead of the Trial Balance.

Thanks,

Laurel

CharleneMaeF · ‎September 30, 2022

Thanks for getting back on this thread, Laurel.

Some transactions may have been credited or debited incorrectly. That could be one of the reasons why your Trial balance and General Ledger reports don't match.

To fix this, I'd recommend opening the reports using the same accounting method. Then, check each account to ensure the transactions are posted correctly.

Here's how to change the method used on an individual report:

Go to Business overview and select Reports.
Select a report.
Select Cash or Accrual under the Accounting method
Select Run report.

For the Fiscal year, you can either set the Report period to a custom date or change the financial reporting period in the settings. When changing the fiscal year, it does not change any data. Only the report dates are affected.

To modify the reporting period, follow these steps:

Go to the Gear icon > Account and settings.
On the left panel, click the Advanced tab.
In the Accounting section, select the month from the First month of fiscal year drop-down menu.
Hit Save and then Done.

Additionally, I've added these articles that'll help you personalise your reports in QuickBooks Online:

I'd appreciate it if you'll keep us posted if you need additional assistance managing your reports. We want to make sure your books are accurate.