How to View Your Trial Balance in FreeAgent (Step-by-Step Guide)

A trial balance lists the balances on your bookkeeping accounts, such as sales, expenses, bank accounts and liabilities, in debit and credit columns. It is a useful starting point for checking your records, not proof that every transaction is correct. If you need help reviewing the figures, our FreeAgent accountants support businesses in Essex and across the UK.

1. Log in to FreeAgent. Open the correct business account, particularly if you have access to more than one business. If reports are unavailable, ask your account administrator to check your access level.
2. Open Accounting > Reports. Select Accounting in the main navigation, then Reports.
3. Choose Trial Balance. Look under the Detailed reports section and select Trial Balance.
4. Choose the right reporting date. In the Date dropdown, choose the latest relevant financial year-end labelled As at [date]. Use the year-end you are actually reviewing, rather than automatically choosing today's date. For a specific period, select Custom date range, enter the From and To dates, then select Show this range. A custom range shows transactions within that period without brought-forward balances, so it is not the same as an as-at balance.
5. Read the account rows and debit/credit columns. Each row identifies an account category and its balance for the selected report. Assets and expenses commonly have debit balances; income, liabilities and equity commonly have credit balances, although adjustments can change that. Debit does not simply mean money out, and credit does not simply mean money in. Matching totals do not rule out miscategorised or duplicated entries.
6. Investigate the sales or account breakdown. Click the blue account category link, for example 001 Sales, to see the transaction-by-transaction breakdown in Show Transactions. In some report views, the clickable balance figure opens this report instead. Follow a linked transaction to inspect its original entry where available, checking its date, description and category before making any changes.
7. Export the report. Open Export Report and choose Summary CSV for account-level balances or Transactions CSV for the underlying transaction detail, where these options appear in your report view. Check the selected date before downloading, and share financial data securely. A separate Chart of Accounts CSV is a list of account categories, not a substitute for a trial balance export.

Open 001 Sales or its linked figure, then review the Show Transactions rows behind the total. Compare the same date range with your invoices and investigate missing, duplicated or incorrectly categorised entries. Sales are not necessarily the same as money received into your bank: an invoice and its later payment are different parts of the bookkeeping. Our FreeAgent invoice and payment tutorial explains how they connect.

• Check the accounting year and date. Compare like-for-like reports at the same date. Do not change your business's year-end just to make a report match. FreeAgent recommends splitting a custom range into two reports if it crosses an accounting year-end.
• Check as-at versus custom-range reporting. A period-only report excludes brought-forward balances. That can explain a difference from a year-end trial balance.
• Reconcile before relying on the figures. Explain and review bank transactions, compare bank balances with statements at the same date, and check missing invoices, bills and duplicates. Follow our FreeAgent bank reconciliation guide.
• Allow for adjustments. Opening balances, journals, accruals and later corrections can change the report. Ask your accountant about differences from final accounts rather than deleting entries or posting a balancing adjustment without understanding it.
• Check the report view. Menu names and clickable links can vary with your account and software updates. FreeAgent's official Trial Balance and Show Transactions guides are linked below.

For more practical checks, read our common FreeAgent mistakes guide. Review any unexplained differences before using the report for year-end accounts or tax work.