What's in the workbook
The report is a single .xlsx file with five worksheets:
- Chart of Accounts — the account list every figure in the workbook books against.
- Profit & Loss — income and expenses for the chosen period.
- General Ledger — every posting, with a running balance per account.
- Trial Balance — the engine verifies that total debits equal total credits before the sheet is written, so the trial balance always balances.
- Position Summary — your assets-and-liabilities view. In the default mode its title reads "Financial Position (Draft Summary)"; it becomes a proper Balance Sheet only in advisor-ledger mode (see below).
The layout follows familiar spreadsheet conventions: one sheet per report, bold totals, negatives in parentheses.
Generated from your live data
You don't need bookkeeping software. The workbook is built on demand from your invoices and bank transactions through a virtual double-entry ledger — whatever is in TaxItEasy at the moment you download is what lands in the report. Corrected a vendor name or re-categorised an expense five minutes ago? Download again and the new figures are in.
Draft mode vs advisor-ledger mode
The reports run in one of two modes, chosen automatically:
- Draft mode (default). Without an advisor-maintained chart of accounts, the reports are management figures derived from your data, and every sheet carries a draft disclaimer. The fifth sheet is titled "Financial Position (Draft Summary)" — deliberately not called a Balance Sheet, because it is not a statutory statement.
- Advisor-ledger mode. When your connected tax advisor sets up the company's chart of accounts — including opening balances and manual journal entries that lock once posted — the same download switches to statutory output: a full Trial Balance and a vertical Balance Sheet where net assets equal shareholder funds. No new buttons, no separate report; the switch is automatic. See statutory ledger and journal entries.
If your accountant asks for "a real balance sheet", that's the signal to invite them as a tax advisor and let them maintain the ledger.
Who can download it, and where
- Tax advisors download the workbook per client: Advisor Portal → client → Reports tab → the Accounting Reports (XLSX) entry.
- On the company side, access is role-gated to Owner, Admin, and Bookkeeper — other roles can't pull the reports. The most convenient self-service path today: the same five reports are included as CSVs inside the Company Data Export ZIP, which you trigger from Settings → Data Export.
Period and basis
Two filters shape the report:
- Period — a from/to date range. If you don't set one, the report covers the current calendar year (January 1 to today).
- Basis — accrual (default) or cash. Accrual books by invoice date; cash books by payment. Pick whichever your filing convention requires.
For quarter-end and year-end routines that combine these reports with the VAT preparation views, see period checklist and VAT return prep.
Available on every plan
The accounting reports are not plan-gated. Free, Starter, Business, and Growth can all generate them — the only gate is the role check above (and, for advisors, an active client connection).
Related
- Statutory ledger and journal entries — how advisor-ledger mode gets set up
- Download all receipts as a ZIP — the Company Data Export that carries the CSV versions
- Export formats — what's available today — the full export matrix
- Export your records for year-end — the year-end workflow
- Period checklist and VAT return prep — where the reports fit in period close