The Trial Balance in QuickBooks Online

The Trial Balance lists every account in your books with its ending balance as of a date, sorted into a debit column and a credit column, and it exists to prove one thing: that total debits equal total credits. It sits between the detailed General Ledger and the financial statements, and accountants run it to confirm the books are internally consistent before they rely on the numbers.

What the Trial Balance shows

The report has one row per account, with each account's ending balance placed in whichever column it belongs to. Asset and expense accounts normally carry debit balances, while liability, equity, and income accounts normally carry credits. At the bottom, the two columns are totaled, and in a correct set of books those totals match. Because double-entry bookkeeping records each posted transaction as equal debits and credits, the columns tie out when the posted entries are in balance. That is a consistency check, not a completeness check: a transaction left out entirely can still leave the two columns equal. Unlike the General Ledger, the Trial Balance shows no individual transactions, only the balance each account has arrived at.

Cash basis vs accrual basis

The Trial Balance varies with the accounting method. On the accrual basis it includes the accounts receivable and accounts payable balances that accrual accounting records, so those accounts appear with their totals. On the cash basis those balances largely drop out, because unpaid invoices and bills are generally not recognized until money moves. The account balances shift accordingly, and the report reads differently on each method. QuickBooks switches the basis with a toggle and re-runs the report, which is why a complete archive keeps the Trial Balance in both.

Why a CPA or auditor asks for it

The Trial Balance is a CPA's starting point at year-end. From it they build adjusting entries and assemble the Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss, so it is often the first file an accountant requests. It also ties to the General Ledger: each balance on the Trial Balance is the sum of that account's ledger activity, so an auditor can drill from the summary balance down to the transactions that produced it and trace any figure back to its source.

How to run and export the Trial Balance in QuickBooks Online

1. Go to the Reports menu and type "Trial Balance" into the report search box, then open it.
2. Set the report date. Because the Trial Balance is stated as of a date, run one report per fiscal year-end to keep the position at the close of each year.
3. Set the accounting method to Cash or Accrual near the top of the report, and run it.
4. Use the export control at the top of the report to export it to Excel or PDF. The file downloads to your computer.
5. Switch the accounting method to the other basis, run the report again, and export that version too.

Because the Trial Balance ties the ledger to the statements, keeping it alongside the General Ledger is what lets an accountant verify that the two agree. Our guide to exporting all your data from QuickBooks covers how these reports fit with the rest of your records.

Keeping the Trial Balance after you cancel

The Trial Balance is part of your Books Backup archive, captured in both cash and accrual basis. A cancelled paid QuickBooks Online company stays read-only for 12 months and is then permanently deleted, a trial only 90 days, and the IRS generally expects business records to be kept for at least three years, and longer in some situations. Because it summarizes every account and proves the books tie out, a saved Trial Balance is what lets an accountant verify a year long after the company itself is gone.

Frequently asked questions

What if debits do not equal credits?

In QuickBooks the columns generally will match, because the system records every transaction as equal debits and credits. A Trial Balance that would not balance points to a data-integrity problem rather than ordinary bookkeeping, which is one of the things the report is there to surface.

How is the Trial Balance different from the General Ledger?

The General Ledger shows every transaction posted to each account, with a running balance. The Trial Balance shows only each account's ending balance in a single line. One is the full detail, the other is the summary that proves the detail ties out, and an accountant reads them together.

Should I keep the cash and accrual versions?

Yes. The two bases produce different account balances, and an accountant or auditor may need whichever one matches how your return was filed. Exporting the second version takes a moment while the company is open and cannot be done once it is deleted.