Validating the financial reports is important to ensure they include all G/l accounts and balances. Validating your financial reports is accomplished by comparing three key reports: the Trial balance, the Balance Sheet and the Income Statement..

Inform contains the following financial reports:
- Trial Balance: this is a listing of all General Ledger accounts and balances at a point in time; usually the last day of the requested accounting period.
- The Trial Balance will always serve as the basis for all other reports. In the absence of a completed Balance Sheet or Income Statement use the Trial Balance as the foundation.
- Producing the Trial Balance requires that a single accounting period be selected for all accounts and source codes
- To generate a trial balance, in the G/L inquiry screen.select the accounting period, select SEARCH and TRIAL BALANCE
- Balance Sheet: this report indicates the ownership position at a point in time; usually the last day of the requested accounting period. The content represents the Accounting Equation:
- A balance sheet can be generated from this menu: Accounting>General ledger>Financial Reports. Select the spy glass to select the report.
- Income Statement: this report shows the performance of the business for a period of time, usually a single accounting period. Comparisons are often made from the current year to the prior year. Other metrics, such as percentage of overall revenue, are useful as well.
- An income statement can be generated from this menu: Accounting>General ledger>Financial Reports. Select the spy glass to select the report.
- Run a Trial Balance for a specific accounting period. Note the P&L amount on the last page of the report. The Trial Balance indicates a profit if the value is in the Credit column; otherwise it is a loss. The P&L amount is what needs to be validated on the balance sheet and the income statement.
- Ensure that assets = liabilities + stock holder's equity
- Ensure that the P&L amount from the Trial Balance agrees to the net income/loss in the retained earnings section.
- Ensure that the P&L amount from the Trial Balance agrees to the YTD net income/loss on the income statement.
Assets + Liabilities = Owners Equity
Validating the Financial Reports
2. Validate the Balance Sheet
3 . Validate the Income Statement

- The G/L Chart of Accounts should be structured in a logical order.
- If there are Balance Sheet accounts numbered higher than the P&L Break account, or Income Statements accounts with a lower number, the results will be inaccurate.
- The account used as the P&L Break Account must occupy a value higher than the last Balance Sheet account and lower than the first Income Statement account. This account should never have any transactions or balance.
- Each G/L account must live in a group for placement on the report. If an account is omitted from a group, or included in more than one active group, the results will be unfavorable. Run a report in the GL account screen to review the G/L accounts and GL groups.
- Balance Sheet accounts must have a category group to define report position.
- Income Statement accounts must have a category group to define report placement, plus the “IS” summary group to calculate income or loss for the period and update the Balance Sheet.
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In the report structure of the financial report (setup tab>report settings)
- Check the financial report structure for missing or duplicated groups
- Check the report structure for missing levels in the formula hierarchies. If you are inconsistently using Subtotals, Totals and Grand Totals, the results may be unfavorable.
- Ensure all groups are included in the financial statements by running a report in the G/L group screen that includes the G/L groups and the reports.
- If there are unresolved differences, try exporting each report to Excel. You can then compare the year to date values for all accounts to find the duplication or omission.
- To export unformatted content (.csv), run the report to the screen and choose Print. Choose Save and select .csv format.
- To export formatted content (.xls), run the report to the screen. Right-click anywhere in the data portion of the window (known as the “grid”) and choose Export to Excel.

- Navigate to Accounting > General Ledger > G/L Account to edit a single account at a time. Use the Report button to view a list of accounts and groups. Select EDIT to update the GL group.
- To edit several accounts at a time, go to Accounting > General Ledger > G/L Group. Select EDIT to update the GL group.
- To produce a list of Groups with member accounts, click Report.
Adding a group to a financial report
For information on updating the financial reports see Create financial reports