8. Preparing key financial reports

After you have completed the first seven steps in the closing checklist, you are ready to prepare financial statements. There are three primary financial statements you will need to prepare:

• The trial balance
• The balance sheet
• The income statement (profit and loss report)

In the online chapter, Chapter 18, Business Overview and Cash Management Tools and Reports, available online using this link: https://packt.link/supplementary-content-9781836649977 you can find out what the balance sheet and income statement reports are, how to interpret the data, and how to generate these reports in QuickBooks. Your accountant, or CPA, will also request a trial balance report. A trial balance report lists all of the debits and credits recorded in QuickBooks for the period. If everything has been recorded properly, debits will always equal credits on this report.

Follow these steps to run a trial balance report in QuickBooks:

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