Content area
Full Text
In software, the term "trial balance" is sometimes used interchangeably with "writeup." While the two applications are similar, they offer different features and are best used in different circumstances.
Write-up and trial balance packages both allow users to enter clients' general ledger and other financial information, and to produce financial statements. But write-up's major purpose is to produce the clients' primary books of record, which it frequently does by using a subsidiary to perform after-the-fact payroll and fixedassets functions.
Trial balance software is not designed to produce the detailed books and records that a client requires. Instead, it's de signed to serve in a compilation, review or audit situation, to let the engagement team produce the workpapers and statements necessary.
Trial balance software can also be used simply to provide a quick way to perform an entity's year-end closing, with adjusting and closing entries made, final financial statements generated and the closing balances easily transferred into a tax preparation package.
Many practitioners make do with their write-up software, or a spreadsheet, rather than spend the money for a specialized trial balance package. This has resulted in a very limited market for this type of software, and only a few vendors even serve it.
This review looks at the following products: CaseWare 98 from Caseware International; AuditVision from CCH Inc.; Accountant's Trial Balance and WorkPapers Plus, both from Creative Solutions; GoSystem Audit from RIA; and Accountant's Relief from Micro Vision Software. RIA and Creative Solutions are part of the RIA Group of Thomson Financial Services, which also owns Faulkner & Gray, the publisher of Accounting Today.
The most important features to look for in a trial balance package are those needed in your particular practice, with the types of clients you service.
The cornerstone of a TB package is its trial balance capabilities, which involve not only the types of working and adjusted trial balance reports it generates, but what you have to go through in order to get them produced.
Client set-up is important, and you may also need the capability of importing balances from write-up or general ledger software. Data entry is another feature to look at, not only as it applies to client set-up, but also when it comes to entering balances and...