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The default on the trial balance report is one year. This should be customizable to make it easier for reporting extended and shortened accounting periods. It would also help more complex and larger businesses using Xero for their quarter/month-end reporting and analysis.

Trial Balance - Start dates

The TB needs to have start dates please!

A TB is a list of balances from both the P&L and BS.

The P&L needs start dates as well as ending dates as it is compared to a "video". The Balance Sheet only needs an ending date as it is a snapshot or a "photo".

Therefore the two selections for the TB in Xero are messed up/ wrong/ misleading/ liable to cause errors:(add your own term here)

End of last month

End of last quarter

Both of these give you the figures for the whole of the Year to Date.

So pls pls pls sort this bug out, sorry this "idea" out soon as it's not an "idea" but rather a bug or error in programming that someone overlooked when releasing this version of the TB to the public.

(If this hasn't got a lot of votes, it doesn't matter, it doesn't mean it's not an important idea!)

Thanks

As the idea for this original request is now closed I would like to repost. The trial balance is an important part of the accounting process. It is a different report than a general ledger report and takes more work to produce. It would not be a difficult process for Xero to be able to add in the date range selector tool. Given that you have also taken away the ability to provide an exempt report layout as well, I must question why you are downgrading features that accountants use as part of their practice. Regards Lisa.

There is a decent enough work-around if you're only after movements for a period (and not comparatives/YTD, in which case I'd point you in the direction of the new standard TB report Template)

1) Reports > Account Transactions (New version).
2) Under "Accounts" select "All"
3) Under "Grouping/Summarising", select "Summarise by....Account Code & Name)
4) Under "More", de-select "Show opening and closing balances/Asset, liability & equity"
5) Under "Columns" de-select all apart from "Debit" and "Credit"
6) Click "Update" for Great Success!!

P.S. this also works when you want a period TB for any non-standard date ranges. (eg. if a merger/acquisition occurred part-way through the year and you want to examine pre/post figures).

Cannot believe it has been we are still having the discussion. Why has this not been addressed by zero.

Should be a standard.

Does anyone know how to resolve the issues? I have a client whose accounting year-end date changed from April to December. When I run the reports in Xero, it gives me the figures for the last 12 months however I only need figures for the last 9 months.

The old reports showed the column for the month only which was useful and has been omitted from the new reports. Frustrating as I used the month only option lots to get a sense check. I agree with many of the comments already posted that a date range would be extremely useful.

It is not just needing a flexible date range. It is needing to produce a TB with no opening figures included (a transactional TB) as very few accountants do journals in Xero which leaves Xero not in sync with my clients accounts.

Once again, Xero is unable to provide what is a basic BASIC thing in any other accounting package that you would care to name.
I can prepare a P&L for any period I need or, similarly, a balance sheet but a basic report like a trial balance that is then used to create these reports? No, Xero can't handle it...too hard. More important things to worry about like the font of the drop down tab headings.
I received a "personal" note from the new CEO today. She seems keen to help - maybe you could get her to give the "developers" a hand because they seem to be stuggling with the simple stuff.

Don't understand from an accounting point of view why this isn't a standard report.

MYOB has it standard? Finding the reports in Zero frustrating.

We really need to have this where client's change year ends as it is difficult to default on the current year end period.

This has been a feature in the past as we had a custom report created in the past 2 years with custom data range but it looks like Xero has dropped this feature and you cannot copy the old report to the new company. we have a longer accounting period for the first year of trading and it will involve a lot of manual work to set upmonthly report that was previously run via just one update click

This is very helpful, almost integral in reporting for some clients.

I have viewed the new trial but feel it lacks the reporting ability of the old one.
Specfically the date, its not from, to. This is useful when reconciling GST and you can have the trial balance for the GST period. You are only dealing with the transactions for that GST period.
Next is the month to date, very useful for certain clients. If the from, to date can be included it would get around this

For the Balance Sheet accounts there is obviously no change. For the P&L, just run it to cover the number of months you need. That should get what you need ?

Very useful for practices who intergrate their xero TB directly to their compliance software (tax calc or IRIS for example), when preparing either the initial period of trading or an extended accounting period.

Please can we have the ability to enter a date range when running a trial balance

To add a column at the far left that would be beginning account balances and a column to the far right that would be the ending balances for the period being run.

Useful for clients in their first year who have a longer than 12 month period