What do I do if my Trial Balance Doesn't Balance?
Summary
The following article explains some simple checks that you can make if your Trial Balance does not balance.
More Information
Obviously, you would hope that it was impossible for your Trial Balance to go out of balance, but there are circumstances where this can happen.
Those circumstances include a damaged file; locked records; a machine is switched off at the wrong moment; a nominal code is deleted at a particular moment.
Please carry out the following checks and then Contact your Platinum dealer or our support team on 0116 230 1500 or by using our website support contact page.If you have a current Platinum software maintenance contract a team member will review your comments and look into the issue for you.
Checks to make
- Go into the User Monitor Screen to ensure any locked users are cleared. If you find any critical users please see How do I clear Highlighted Locked Users?. Having done this, check the Trial Balance again.
- If it is still out of balance, please investigate the following.
- Work out the difference between the credit and debit columns on the Trial Balance and see if that amount seems familiar. This may help to identify a specific journal which is causing the imbalance.
- If you have not run the Audit Trails & Cleardowns to the Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet for any month in the current year, find the last trial balance that you have that does balance. Move the Financial Period back to that month and run the Trial Balance again. Check that this does balance.
- If it does balance, check the figures against your original Trial Balance and make sure that they are the same. This will indicate a problem with the transactions posted since the original was printed.
- If it does not balance, then this indicates a problem with the Balance Sheet codes where the balance held for each nominal code does not balance with the transactions posted.
Having done this, please Contact your Platinum dealer or our support team on 0116 230 1500 or by using our website support contact page, mentioning that you have performed the above steps.
See also
- Recommended accounting routines
- How to process a month end
- How do I process a year end?
- Why do my Debtors/Creditors not Agree to my Balance Sheet?
- Why do I Have a Figure in "Profit this Period" on my Balance Sheet?
- How do I clear locked users?
