Turning a general ledger export into a trial balance
How Achekam adds up a client's general ledger export, including Pastel and Evolution layouts, into a trial balance, and what happens when totals disagree.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Accountants & audit firms in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Sometimes a trial balance is the one report a client cannot produce. The bookkeeper has left, the package licence has lapsed, or the version installed prints a trial balance that does not agree with anything. What the client can usually still produce is the general ledger: every account, every transaction, every running total, exported in whatever layout the package uses.
A general ledger is more work to handle than a trial balance, but it is also better evidence, because the balances can be rebuilt from the transactions rather than taken on trust. This article explains how Achekam turns a ledger export into a trial balance, how it checks the result, and what to do when the numbers do not agree.
Package export layouts, including Pastel and Evolution
A firm can upload a general ledger in the layout its accounting package exports. Achekam reads CSV, .xlsx and .xls files, including exports from Pastel and Evolution, which many South African practices meet every week.
There is no need to reshape the file first. Layouts differ in where they put account headings, how they show opening balances and whether debits and credits sit in one column or two. The point of reading the package's own layout is that the firm uploads what the client sends, untouched. That matters later: if a question arises, the file on record is the client's export, not a version someone edited by hand.
Adding the ledger up
Achekam adds the ledger up, account by account, into a trial balance. Investopedia's explanation of the trial balance describes it as the listing of ledger balances used to check that total debits equal total credits. The result is a trial balance built from the transactions themselves, which then goes forward like any uploaded trial balance. Before relying on it, agree the period: a ledger exported for the wrong dates adds up perfectly and is still the wrong year.
Every printed total checked
Most ledger exports print a total for each account, either a closing balance or a running total at the end of the account. Achekam checks every printed account total against its own sum of the account's lines.
Agreement on every account is what makes the rebuilt trial balance trustworthy. It shows that the file was read completely, that no lines were dropped or doubled, and that the export itself is internally consistent.
Differences named, never quietly fixed
Where a printed total and Achekam's sum differ, the difference is named: which account, what the export says, what the lines add up to. It is never quietly fixed: no balance is nudged to make the two agree.
That is deliberate. A difference is information, and the cause decides the right response:
| Likely cause | What it suggests | Response |
|---|---|---|
| Export cut off part-way through an account | The file is incomplete | Ask for a fresh export |
| Opening balance missing or shown differently | The layout carries the opening figure elsewhere | Check the export settings with the client |
| Transactions posted after the export was run | The client's books moved on | Ask for an export at a fixed date |
| A genuine error in the client's ledger | The package's own totals are unreliable | Investigate with the client; consider adjustments |
Any adjustment the investigation leads to takes the controlled route. Journals proposed from documents, bank lines or adjustments are only candidates in Achekam, and only a person can approve and post one; AI is refused both steps.
When to ask the client for a fresh export
Some differences are worth investigating; others are a sign the file is not fit to use. Ask for a fresh export when:
- several accounts disagree, not just one;
- the differences look like missing pages or rows rather than individual errors;
- the export's period does not match the year end you asked for;
- the client was still posting while the export ran.
When you ask, be specific: the full general ledger, for the exact period, with opening balances, exported from the package in its standard layout as CSV or Excel. A precise request usually produces a clean file the second time. Keep the first export on file as well, with a note of why it was replaced, so the record shows what the client originally sent.
From ledger to mapping
Once every account agrees, the trial balance moves on to mapping. Achekam suggests where each line belongs, from the file's own mapping column, earlier mappings, AI or keyword rules, and no suggestion becomes an approved mapping until a person approves it.
For a client whose whole ledger you are bringing into Achekam rather than just its balances, the migration route is different: a firm can bring a client's ledger across from its exported CSV or Excel files, in named steps through to cut-over. That is a bigger project than a year-end trial balance and suits clients moving their books onto Achekam.
A short routine for ledger exports
- Upload the client's export exactly as received.
- Read the list of named differences before anything else.
- Decide for each: fresh export, client query or proposed adjustment.
- Agree the rebuilt trial balance's totals to any summary the client has.
- Keep the original export on the file.
- Move to mapping only when every account agrees or every difference is explained.
Choosing the better source
Where a client offers both a printed trial balance and a ledger export, the ledger is often the better choice: it can be checked account by account in a way a summary cannot. For files that are already trial balances, see uploading a client's trial balance: what is read; for the step after, see mapping trial balance lines: suggestions and approvals.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
