Capture your provider's trial balance
The Trial balance reconciled to provider check and the Trial Balance Reconciliation report compare SKU.io's balances with your accounting provider's, account by account. To do that, SKU.io fetches the provider's own trial balance as at the last day of the month. It does this for you when you start a close and every time you click Re-check. Capture provider balances fetches it on demand, for example right after you post a correction in Xero or QuickBooks.
Before you begin
- You need a connected accounting provider. With no accounting connection, the check stands aside with No accounting connection and there's nothing to capture.
- You need the Accounting → Sync permission, the same one that starts a close and runs Re-check.
- The month must be open, in review, or Closed – restated and waiting for a re-sign-off. A month that's closed and unchanged keeps the provider trial balance it was signed off against, so the button isn't offered there.
Steps
- Go to Accounting → Close.
- On the Year board, click the month's tile. Its drawer opens on the right.
- Click Report pack to expand it.
- Click Capture provider balances, at the top right of the section. Its tooltip reads: "Pulls the provider's trial balance for this period so the Trial Balance Reconciliation can compare it, account by account, against SKU." On a month waiting for a re-sign-off it reads: "Pulls the provider's trial balance now, for the re-sign-off to reconcile against. The revisions already signed keep the one they were signed on."
- Wait for the button to stop spinning. The capture runs straight away; there's no job in the tray.
- Read the message. A successful capture reports how many trial balances it took, for example "Captured 1 provider trial balance — reconciling."
- Click Re-check in the drawer's header. The checks re-run in the background with the figures you captured; the job tray shows when they finish.
- In Close checklist, find Trial balance reconciled to provider under Sync & reconciliation. It reports a result, for example "2 of 9 accounts out · 1,301.15 total variance", or passes.
- Click the report icon at the end of that row (its tooltip reads Open this report) to read the account-by-account comparison in Trial Balance Reconciliation.
When SKU.io captures for you
You rarely need the button, because the close keeps the provider's figures fresh on its own:
- Starting a close fetches the provider's trial balance for the month end.
- Every Re-check on a month in review fetches it again.
- A re-sign-off fetches it again, and the new sign-off is compared against it.
Each capture replaces the stored figures for that month end, so the comparison always reflects the latest one. Use Capture provider balances when you've changed something at the provider and want it compared before your next re-check.
What the check says about the capture
The Trial balance reconciled to provider row tells you when the comparison has nothing trustworthy to work with. These are failures, not rows that stand aside: a tie-out nobody ran isn't a tie-out that passed.
| The row reads | What to do |
|---|---|
not compared — no provider trial balance captured for Jun 30, 2026. Use "Capture provider balances" in the report pack. | Click Capture provider balances, then Re-check. |
not compared — couldn't capture the provider trial balance for Jun 30, 2026 (…). Fix the connection, then press Re-check. | The provider couldn't be reached. The brackets carry the connection's name and the provider's reason. Reconnect it, then click Re-check. SKU.io never falls back to older figures. |
provider balances captured … are out of date (…) — press Re-check to re-capture | The capture is older than your limit, or SKU.io has sent entries for the month since it was taken. Click Re-check. |
When the comparison runs, the row also says when the provider's figures were captured, for example provider balances captured Nov 6, 2026 9:14 AM.
How old a capture can get before it's out of date is set by Provider balances go out of date after in Accounting → Settings → Close, under Reconciliation policy. Set it to 0 to turn the age limit off. A capture taken before SKU.io's latest push of entries for the month is out of date regardless.
The check is a warning by default, so you can close over it once you acknowledge it. With Inventory and trial-balance breaks block the close turned on in the same settings, it blocks the close instead, and someone with the Accounting → Period Override permission can go over it with a reason. See what stops a close, and what only needs a tick.
When nothing is captured
Not every accounting provider offers a trial balance. A connection whose provider doesn't is skipped rather than failed, so one unsupported connection doesn't stop the others.
If nothing at all was captured, the message reads: "No provider trial balances captured — check the connection supports trial-balance export." Check that the connection you expect is connected and active, under Accounting → Settings. The same message appears when a supported connection couldn't be reached; click Re-check and read the Trial balance reconciled to provider row, which names the connection and the provider's reason.
With more than one accounting connection
One capture covers every connection. The message counts them, for example "Captured 2 provider trial balances — reconciling."
Open Trial Balance Reconciliation and check the Connection column names every connection you expect. A connection that wasn't captured contributes no rows.
Provider lock aligned and Provider documents reconciled also grade several connections at once; the worst result decides the row. See how SKU.io reconciles with Xero and QuickBooks.
After the month is signed off
A signed-off month keeps the provider trial balance it was compared against, frozen in its report pack. Capturing again doesn't change an existing sign-off.
If your accountant posts an adjustment in Xero or QuickBooks for a month you already signed off, nothing moves in SKU.io. A restatement only follows changes to SKU.io's own books, so the month stays Closed and no message tells you the provider's books changed. Verify won't catch it either: it compares the signed-off pack with SKU.io's live figures. Decide what to do about it:
- If the month is already Closed – restated for some other reason, capture again before you re-sign it off. The re-sign-off is compared against the fresh figures, and the earlier revisions keep theirs.
- Otherwise, record the provider-side change in the notes when you close the month you're working on now. The signed-off pack stays a true record of what the two systems held at the time.
See re-sign-off a restated month.
Capturing on a month nobody has started
You can capture on a month you haven't started the close for. It creates the month's record but doesn't start the close: the month stays Open and its checklist stays a preview. That's useful when you want the provider comparison in front of you before you commit to working the month. When you're ready, click Start close, which captures again. See close a month.