---
title: "What is a trial balance?"
slug: "what-is-a-trial-balance"
updated: 2025-09-10T13:49:24Z
published: 2025-09-10T13:49:24Z
canonical: "support.lusid.com/what-is-a-trial-balance"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://support.lusid.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# What is a trial balance?

A *trial balance* is a summary of all general ledger account balances for a particular fund [NAV type](/v1/docs/how-do-i-create-a-fund#understanding-nav-types) between two points in time. [See how to generate a trial balance](/v1/docs/what-is-a-trial-balance#generating-a-trial-balance).

By default, LUSID reports each account on a single line, automatically aggregating all the [journal entry lines](/v1/docs/how-does-lusid-generate-journal-entry-lines-from-economic-activity) representing debits and credits in that account, and providing an opening and closing statement in both local and base currencies. [See how to break down account activity](/v1/docs/what-is-a-trial-balance#using-a-general-ledger-profile-to-break-down-account-activity).

In the LUSID web app, **Total NA**, **Total P&L** and **Total Other** rows are automatically calculated from [appropriate types of account](/v1/docs/how-do-i-add-general-ledger-accounts-to-a-chart-of-accounts#fields), and also a **Grand Total**. Note you must calculate these totals yourself if you create a trial balance using the API or Luminesce.

You can click the **Configuration** icon in the web app (highlighted in yellow below) to show or hide columns, from where an **Add column** button is available to add account properties to the trial balance if you wish:

![](https://cdn.document360.io/d575ad81-c0ed-4980-bbd1-d59ac5c3de82/Images/Documentation/image-YPJBYBDZ.png)

In the LUSID web app, you can click a blue debit or credit amount to drill down into an account and examine the underlying journal entry lines:

![](https://cdn.document360.io/d575ad81-c0ed-4980-bbd1-d59ac5c3de82/Images/Documentation/image-NU5S12VR.png)

## Generating a trial balance

LUSID web appLUSID APILuminesce

Call the [GetValuationPointTrialBalance](https://www.lusid.com/docs/api/lusid/endpoints/funds/GetValuationPointTrialBalance/) API:

```json
curl -X POST 'https://<your-domain>.lusid.com/api/api/funds/MyFundScope/MyFundCode/valuationpoints/trialbalance/$query'
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json-patch+json' 
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer <your-API-access-token>'
  -d '{
  "end": {
    "diaryEntry": "VP-28Feb2024"
  }
}'
```

Navigate to **Fund Accounting > Reports > Trial Balance** and select a **Fund**, a **NAV Type** and, at a mimimum, a **To Calendar Entry**. Note that LUSID then calculates amounts since the last finalised valuation point:

![](https://cdn.document360.io/d575ad81-c0ed-4980-bbd1-d59ac5c3de82/Images/Documentation/image-CMFR0KAJ.png)

You can specify a range of valuation points by enabling **Display Range** and selecting a **From Calendar Entry** to include earlier amounts. Alternatively, you can specify dates by enabling **Ad-Hoc Mode**.

*Coming soon*

![](https://cdn.document360.io/d575ad81-c0ed-4980-bbd1-d59ac5c3de82/Images/Documentation/image(969).png)

## Using a general ledger profile to break down account activity

You can optionally apply a [general ledger profile](/v1/docs/using-a-general-ledger-profile-to-break-down-account-activity-in-a-trial-balance) to a trial balance to break down account activity and aggregate debits and credits at a more granular level. Here, accounts are broken down firstly into their constituent economic buckets (the **Level 1** column), and then into their holding types (the **Level 2** column):

![](https://cdn.document360.io/d575ad81-c0ed-4980-bbd1-d59ac5c3de82/Images/Documentation/image-1IUCI2C9.png)

## Allowing an imbalanced trial balance

A trial balance should balance; that is, the sum of all the credits and debits in the base currency should equal zero. If it does not, an error is automatically reported to FINBOURNE.

You can specify a tolerance level to generate an imbalanced trial balance without reporting an error. To do this, override a system setting in the [LUSID Configuration Store](/v1/docs/how-do-i-override-a-lusid-system-setting).

For example, to allow an imbalance of up to 10 major units of the base currency (ie. dollars or pounds), use the LUSID web app to open the **AborSettings** shared key (in green) and edit the **TrialBalanceValidationTolerance** setting (in red) to specify a value of `10`:

![](https://cdn.document360.io/d575ad81-c0ed-4980-bbd1-d59ac5c3de82/Images/Documentation/image(825).png)

To allow an imbalance of 10 minor units of the base currency (ie. cents or pence), specify a value of `0.1`.