What the Balance Sheet shows
Open Balance Sheet, under the "Financials" tools card (or the "Financials" group on desktop). Three tiles at the top give Assets, Liabilities and Net assets. The statement below is in the standard order: Assets — non-current (your equipment and vehicles by kind, each at cost less depreciation, land, and loans you made) then current (inventory, trade receivables, staff advances, anything SARS owes you, and Cash & cash equivalents with each bank and cash account under it); then Equity and liabilities — equity (owner's capital from day one, retained earnings, profit for the period, capital you put in, drawings), non-current liabilities (loans) and current liabilities (trade payables, VAT payable, PAYE and income tax payable, credit cards). VAT payable is the VAT you charged less the VAT you can claim back, so VAT SARS does not allow (entertainment, staff refreshments, a passenger car, a club membership) is not taken off it: it is part of what that purchase cost you, whether you paid it in Money Out or it is a line on a supplier invoice.
An account you've deactivated stays on the sheet, under its own name with Deactivated in grey, for as long as your books say there is still money in it (or, for a card, still owing on it). Deactivating hides an account from your lists and pickers; it doesn't empty it, and its day-one balance and everything logged to it still count. Move what's left into another account with a transfer and the line goes. The Trial Balance and General Ledger show it the same way, marked (deactivated), and it keeps its account number, so no other account's number changes when you deactivate one.
Every line has its account number and the accountant's term, with the plain words in grey under it — "Trade receivables" with "Customers owe you" — so the same sheet works for you and for a bank. Figures are in rand; a figure in brackets is negative. Profit for the period is the same figure as your Profit & Loss for the same dates (tap it to open that statement), and what you made before the period is in retained earnings.
Tap an asset or liability line to see the entries behind it in the General Ledger, for the same dates. An equipment line opens the ledger searched for that kind of asset, because its cost and its depreciation are two accounts.
Pick the day
- Tap the period chip under the title for This month, Last month, Tax year to date, Last tax year or Custom dates (any From and To since your books started), then Show. It opens on Tax year to date, and the dates stay in the address, so a link or a screenshot says what it shows. The Balance Sheet is drawn at the close of the period's last day.
- In the same sheet, Compare with adds a second column: Last year (the default), Period before, or Nothing. A comparison day before your books started gets no column, and the screen says why.
- The sheet is drawn from what had happened by the end of that day: an invoice paid later still shows as owed, and a supplier invoice you hadn't received yet isn't there.
- It needs your start date and day-one figures from Opening Balances first — that is where every balance sheet begins.
What "✓ Balances" means
Worklog works out what's left over (everything owned less everything owed) and your equity (day one's worth plus profit, plus money in, less money out) separately. When the two agree to the cent, every rand since your books started is accounted for on both sides: the chip at the top says ✓ Balances, and Checks & notes shows Assets less liabilities, against equity with a ✓.
When they don't, the chip says Out by and a card lists what the sheet can see causing it, each with where to fix it. Tap a line to see exactly which records are behind it — the invoices, payments, accounts or assets, each with its amount — and tap one to open it. The usual ones: an invoice marked paid with no money logged against it (log the payment and match it to the invoice — only money that really arrived), an invoice with more paid or credited against it than it is for (check it against your bank statement: a payment logged twice or linked to the wrong invoice is fixed in Banking, but a payment that really arrived stays; never log more money), an account whose opening balance isn't on your start date (set it in Opening Balances; a deactivated one, reactivate it in Bank accounts first), or a payment for an invoice from before your books started that isn't in Opening Balances.
Day one → the day: how it moved
In Checks & notes, tap How it moved from day one to see every line of the sheet three times: what it was on day one (from Opening Balances), how much it moved, and what it is on the day you picked. Each column adds up to its own total, so nothing can go missing between them. Tap Back to the Balance Sheet to return.
Send it to the bank or your accountant
- 📄 PDF and 📊 CSV / Excel at the bottom give you the sheet for the day you picked, with the comparison column if you chose one — or, on How it moved, that table. On a phone, each opens your phone's share menu with the file attached; on a computer it downloads.