Feature catalogue

Tracing a ledger account

Trace answers one question: what moved this general ledger account over a period, and where did it end up? It shows the opening balance, every entry that touched the account, and the closing balance — with a running balance on each row.

You can trace several ledger accounts at once. Each becomes a column, so a posting that hit three accounts is legible on one line instead of three separate searches.

Opening the trace

Trace sits beside Balances and Entries in the Accounting group. It is available on an account, on an operating entity, and on a cost centre.

You can also reach Trace from a balance. On the Balances panel, select the search icon on any row and that ledger account’s trace opens with the account already chosen.

Reading the grid

Rows are entries, ordered by the date they were traded. Columns are the ledger accounts you are tracing.

Column What it shows
Trading date The date the entry was traded. This is the order the balances build in.
Value date The date the entry takes effect for interest. Information only here.
Transaction, Counterparty, Account What the entry was and whose it is.
Cost centre The cost centre the entry carries.
One column per traced account That account’s balance after this entry.

A cell is empty when the entry did not touch that ledger account. The opening row sits above the entries and the closing row below them, so the period reads top to bottom.

A worked example

A loan’s principal account opens a month at 600, takes an advance of 400, then another of 250.

Row Movement Balance
Opening balance 600
Advance 400 1,000
Advance 250 1,250
Closing balance 1,250

Opening plus the movement equals closing, and every figure is in the operating entity’s accounting currency.

Why the columns cannot be sorted

Every other table in the app lets you sort by any column. This one does not, and that is deliberate.

A running balance only means something in the order it was accumulated. Sort the same rows by amount and every balance in the grid becomes a number that was never true. So the column headings offer no sort at all.

Dates and currency

Trace is stated in the operating entity’s accounting currency throughout. Each row still shows the entry’s own currency, its amount in that currency, and the rate used, so a foreign-currency entry is readable without leaving the screen.

Balances build on trading date, which is what the books are keyed on. An entry traded inside the period but value-dated before it starts is counted in the period’s movement, not in its opening. This is why a closing balance in Trace always equals the figure the Balances panel reports for the same ledger account.

Changing the period

While you have not chosen the accounts yourself, changing the period recomputes which are traced: widening brings in the accounts the wider period reaches, and narrowing drops the ones it no longer does. Browsing dates does not mean re-picking columns.

The moment you use the picker, your choice is fixed. Changing the period then leaves your columns alone.

Narrowing to one cost centre

On a cost centre, Trace shows only the entries that centre carries, and the opening and closing balances count only those entries.

Without narrowing, a ledger account’s balance is its total across every cost centre, and each row names the centre its own entry carries. Total on the face, split on demand.

Exporting

Select Export to download the grid as it appears: one row per entry, carrying a balance and a movement for each traced account, with the opening balances above the entries and the closing balances below them. It is the screen, reconcilable in a spreadsheet.

A very long period may show more entries than one page holds. When it does, the screen says so and the export says so too — the balances are still the whole period’s.

Trace or Entries?

Both list entries, and they answer different questions.

Use When
Trace You want a balance. You are following one or more ledger accounts over a period and need the figures to tie.
Entries You want to find something. You need search, sorting, and every entry for the scope regardless of which ledger account it touched.

Trace is ordered and cannot be re-sorted, because its balances depend on the order. Entries sorts and searches freely, because it does not carry a running balance.

What your organisation configures