Common questions about the Lacerte Trial Balance Utility

The Lacerte Trial Balance Utility is a tool within Lacerte designed to maximize productivity for accountants' year-end tax customers. It includes integration with most accounting software through Excel and imports directly from QuickBooks and EasyACCT.  You can use this utility to make adjusting journal entries, print trial balance reports and financial statements, and utilize SmartMap on all imported files.

SmartMap is a feature within the Trial Balance Utility that removes most of the setup work required to assign tax pages and lines to trial balance accounts originating from QuickBooks and EasyACCT. This feature is available free of charge.

The expanded functionality within the Lacerte Trial Balance Utility allows you to...

• Integrate with any accounting software that can export to Excel
• Set up your own chart of accounts from scratch
• Make book and tax adjusting journal entries
• Apply the SmartMap technology to all your files
• Generate a basic balance sheet or income statement
• Export to Excel

... and much more.

This tool includes important time-saving features like copying a chart of accounts from one client to another, auto-recognition of account names, and carrying over accounts and journal entries from year to year. This feature is available for an additional charge and is licensed separately from Lacerte.

SmartMap is a tool that uses patent-pending innovation to remove much of the time-consuming setup involved in assigning tax pages and lines to trial balance accounts. Below is some useful information about SmartMap:

• The SmartMap database auto-assigns tax pages and lines, so most of the setup work is done automatically.
• SmartMap thinks for you by presenting the Lacerte input screens, in order, to drag-and-drop accounts.
• The SmartMap database works across the entire tax module, so any assignments you make are saved and applied to all other clients.

The Trial Balance Utility works for the following tax modules:

• Individual (1040)
• Partnership (1065)
• Corporate (1120)
• S-Corporate (1120S)
• Fiduciary (1041)
• Exempt Org. (990)

See the video below for more information about using this tool.