Read Your Balance Sheet & Cash Flow

Last updated: 2026-07-09 Summary:

The Balance Sheet is a snapshot “as of” one date; the Cash Flow statement covers a date range.
Both render from posted journal entries — the same source as the P&L and Trial Balance, so they always tie out.
“Compare prior” means something different on each report — one month back on the Balance Sheet, the previous equal-length period on Cash Flow.

This tutorial picks up where Run a Profit & Loss report leaves off. The P&L tells you whether you made money over a period; the Balance Sheet tells you what you own and owe on a given day; the Cash Flow statement tells you where the cash actually moved. Together they are your three core financial statements.

Prerequisites

Posted transactions exist for the dates you want to look at. Both statements are empty until there are posted journal entries — drafts never appear.
You have the View financial statements permission (reporting:financial-statements). Without it the whole Reports area is hidden.

Read your Balance Sheet

Go to Reports → Report Hub and open Balance Sheet (or pick it straight from the Reports sidebar).
Choose the as-of date. This is a single date, not a range — the Balance Sheet is a snapshot of that one day. It defaults to today.
The statement renders in three sections — Assets, Liabilities, and Equity — each as its own card with a section total and a bar showing its share of total assets.
The three KPI tiles at the top — Total Assets, Total Liabilities, Total Equity — are the headline numbers.
Click any account row to drill into that account’s ledger and see the entries behind the balance.
Check the Balance Check footer: it confirms Assets = Liabilities + Equity and shows a green “Balanced” mark. If it says “Out of Balance,” that points to a data problem worth finding, not a display quirk.

To compare against a prior point in time, tick Compare prior period. On the Balance Sheet the prior column is exactly one month before your as-of date (a quick month-over-month look), not the same date last year.

Read your Cash Flow statement

From Reports → Report Hub, open Cash Flow.
Choose a date range (from / to). Cash Flow covers a span of time; it defaults to the start of your fiscal year through today.
The statement groups movement into the three standard activity sections — Operating, Investing, and Financing. Rows here are plain-language categories (Customer Payments, Vendor Payments, Payroll, Inventory, Asset Purchases, and so on), not individual accounts, so these rows don’t drill down.
Read it top to bottom: the Net Cash Change is the headline movement, then Beginning Balance and Ending Balance show where your cash started and finished for the period.
The KPI tiles — Net Operating, Net Cash Change, Ending Balance — summarize the same figures.

Tick Compare prior period to add a prior column. On Cash Flow the prior period is the immediately preceding period of equal length (a January 1–31 range compares against December 1–31), so the comparison is like-for-like.

Export

Both statements export from the toolbar to PDF, Excel, or CSV — use PDF for sharing, Excel/CSV for further work.

Tie-out (recommended)

Everything renders from the same posted entries, so your statements should agree with each other:

The Balance Sheet balances (Assets = Liabilities + Equity).
The Cash Flow ending balance reconciles to your cash and bank accounts.
The GL Trial Balance ties to the P&L and Balance Sheet.

A mismatch means an unposted or mis-mapped entry worth chasing down — not a report bug.

Where people get tripped up

“Compare prior” isn’t year-over-year. It’s one month back on the Balance Sheet and the previous equal-length period on Cash Flow. If you want a specific comparison window, set the dates yourself.
As-of vs range. The Balance Sheet asks for one date (a snapshot); Cash Flow asks for a range (a period). Picking the wrong control is the usual reason a number looks off.
Empty statement. If a statement is blank, the entries for that period aren’t posted yet. Post them, then regenerate.
“Out of Balance.” The Balance Check footer is a data-integrity signal. Don’t paper over it — find the entry that doesn’t balance.