GL to Trial Balance
Reconcile the general ledger to the client's own trial balance, account by account, and test this year's opening balances against last year's closing. Needs the client's trial balance.
- General ledger alone
- Compares with last year
How the result is read
The general ledger is the population every journal-entry test samples; if it is short, every conclusion drawn from it is short too. Reconciling each account's ledger closing balance to the client's trial balance is the completeness test on information produced by the entity (AU-C 500, PCAOB AS 1105, ISA 500). Loading last year's trial balance as well tests the opening balances (AU-C 510, ISA 510): this year's opening must equal last year's audited closing.
The worksheet, on the demo engagement
GL to Trial Balance, as the application draws it for Harrow Precision Engineering Ltd, the fictional demo engagement — one row per account, plus the trial balance total.
Illustration. Accounts Receivable differs by 17,680 — the ledger export stops before the last invoice run; Ask My Accountant has a balance the ledger never posted.
Result grid4 rows
| Account | Name | TB closing | GL closing | Difference | TB opening |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1000 | Checking | 152,340.12 | 152,340.12 | 0.00 | 98,112.40 |
| 1200 | Accounts Receivable | 488,910.00 | 471,230.00 | 17,680.00 | 402,115.00 |
| 6990 | Ask My Accountant | 3,250.00 | 3,250.00 | ||
| Total | Trial balance total — must be nil | 0.00 |
In the application
GL to Trial Balance is filed under Planning & analytics, index letter A. "Run all analyses" runs it with every other analysis the ledger can answer. The worksheet states the population it tested on its face — or "Not applicable" with the reason when a column it depends on is empty — and the Excel workbook the engagement exports files it under A, beside an index of the source files with their SHA-256 fingerprints.
Read it with
Run your next audit file test without the Excel crash.
One free engagement to evaluate, valid 60 days. The ledger never leaves the machine.
- 20 minutes
- Runs on a fictional engagement
- No client data required