Creating a trial balance

Overview

A trial balance verifies that total debits and credits match, confirming your books are balanced. It helps you identify posting errors, validate balances in key accounts like premiums, claims, receivables, and payables, and prepare accurate financial statements.

Running a trial balance — and reconciling it to your Accounts Receivable (AR) and Accounts Payable (AP) reports — is a critical month-end step. Together, these reports help you identify discrepancies, maintain compliance, and ensure your financial records are audit-ready. This article explains how to:

• Run a trial balance

• Create an Accounts Receivable (AR) report

• Create an Accounts Payable (AP) report

• Reconcile differences

Run a trial balance

1. Navigate to the Reports tab, then click All Reports.

2. Search and select Trial Balance.

3. Click Edit.

   

4. Ensure the following fields are in the report:

   1. Financial Cube Name

   2. Transaction: Transaction Name

   3. #Amount

   4. Account

   5. # Opening Balance

   6. # Current Period

   7. # Year to Date

5. Click the dropdown on the Save button and click Save As to save the report.

6. Give the report a name, then click Save.

   

Create an Accounts Receivable (AR) report

Use the AR report to break down the total receivable balance into customer, policy, or transaction-level detail. This helps confirm the AR balance shown on the trial balance is accurate.

1. Navigate to the Reports tab, then click All Reports.

2. Search and select Detail of AR - All Accounts.

3. Click Edit.

4. Ensure the following fields are in the report:

   1. Financial Cube Name

   2. Transaction: Transaction Name

   3. #Amount

   4. Account

   5. #Opening Balance

   6. #Current Period

   7. #Year to Date

5. Ensure the following filters are applied:

   1. All Financial Cubes

   2. Created Date: All Time

   3. Cube Type: not equal to Current Year Earnings

   4. Ledger Type: equals Transactional

   5. Accounting Period: Accounting Period Name YYYY-MM

   6. GL Account Name: contains 1200

6. Click the dropdown on the Save button and click Save As to save the report.

7. Give the report a name, then click Save.

   

Create an Accounts Payable (AP) report

Use the AP report to review what the agency owes and confirm the payable balance shown on the trial balance.

1. Navigate to the Reports tab, then click All Reports.

   1. Search and select Detail of AP - All Accounts.

2. Click Edit.

3. Ensure the following fields are in the report:

   1. Financial Cube Name

   2. Transaction: Transaction Name

   3. # Amount

   4. Account

   5. # Opening Balance

   6. # Current Period

   7. # Year to Date

4. Apply filters:

   1. All Financial Cubes

   2. All Time

   3. Cube Type: not equal to Current Year Earnings

   4. Ledger Type: equals Transactional

   5. Accounting Period: Accounting Period Name YYYY-MM

   6. GL Account Name: contains 2000

5. Group results by Account.

6. Click the dropdown on the Save button and click Save As to save the report.

7. Give the report a name, then click Save.

Reconciling differences

At month end or during an audit, reconcile the AR and AP reports to the trial balance.

• Compare the total AR report balance to the Accounts Receivable account on the trial balance.

• Compare the total AP report balance to the Accounts Payable account on the trial balance.

If the totals match, your subledger and general ledger are aligned. If they do not match, review for:

• Journal entries posted directly to AR or AP

• Unapplied payments

• Data sync issues

• Timing differences between periods

Resolving discrepancies before closing the month helps ensure accurate financial statements and audit-ready reporting.