The Checks sheet

The last sheet, and OptiVida's own addition to the template. It answers one question: is there anything here you would not want to sign?

Nothing on this sheet is an AI judgement

Everything on it is computed from the statement model — arithmetic over your classifications and your entries. It is not an opinion about your accounts and it does not attempt one.

Which means: when it says something does not tie, something genuinely does not tie.

What it checks

Does the Balance Sheet balance

Assets against equity and liabilities. The first thing anyone looks at.

Does the profit agree with Tally's own Profit and Loss

Your computed profit against the figure Tally reports for the same period. Both numbers and the difference are named.

Does every ledger Tally reported reach the statements

Tally's trial balance total against the total actually classified into these statements.

Does every prior-year balance reach the comparatives

Last year's column takes this year's classification, ledger by ledger. A ledger closed out during the year is nil now but carried a balance last March, and with nothing to classify this year it would be missing from the comparatives — this names it and the amount. Such a ledger keeps a row on the Ledger sheet even when it is nil this year (an expense with no postings this year, say): classify it there and the previous year follows. If the check says there is no row this year, re-fetch from Tally — or the ledger was renamed between the years.

Is any balance on the wrong side of the sheet

A face line printing negative on its own side, and the ledgers pulling it there. Cash cannot be negative; nor can inventories or trade payables.

Does any line net an asset against a liability

Two ledgers pulling opposite ways into the same line, with both named. Schedule III does not permit the netting, and the printed figure is only what survived it.

Is every figure as Tally holds it

Any balance you edited on the Ledger sheet, with Tally's own figure, yours, and the difference. Tally is never changed; this is where the change is recorded — and why the reconciliations to Tally's own totals may then differ.

Non-current portions decided, or defaulted to current

Lines the format splits between long-term and short-term on the amount you enter, where you have not entered one yet. They print as current in the meantime — right for a TDS receivable, rarely for a security deposit. Enter the non-current portion, or 0 to confirm all current. Last year's column has its own entry on the TB PY sheet and is listed separately, marked previous year. This line never fails; it lists.

Does any classification contradict its own ledger

A classification that sits against the ledger's own balance, its group's nature, or a grouping its group can never reach — a debtor in credit placed as a receivable, say. Yours are marked confirmed by you; a suggestion nobody has reviewed is marked so. Each stands exactly as it is; this names it, so that signing it is a choice.

Is the reporting year inside the books Tally holds

A year falling outside the company's own books returns a period Tally quietly truncated to fit, and the result looks perfectly healthy. This names the books window against the year you asked for.

Is any difference the one Tally's own Balance Sheet shows

When these statements do not balance, the question is whose difference it is. This compares ours against the difference Tally's own Balance Sheet carries — when they match, the books are out and the statements are reporting that faithfully.

Does the total agree with Tally's, once its netting is undone

Balancing is not the same as agreeing with Tally. Tally nets a debtor in credit inside Sundry Debtors, a creditor in debit inside Sundry Creditors, input tax inside Duties & Taxes; the format presents each gross, on the side it belongs, which adds to both totals at once. This line prints Tally's total + the balances shown gross = ours, both years. If anything is left over it fails with the amount — a figure lost or counted twice that a balancing sheet would otherwise hide.

Was group identity read from Tally

Whether Tally itself said which groups are its own, and how many of your ledgers sit under a group Tally recognises. See below.

Are comparatives present

The previous year's figures, which the format requires. Unless you marked these as first financial statements on Basic Info.

Do the note references point at notes that print

A face line referring to a suppressed note is a broken cross-reference.

Does each note tie to what was placed in it

A note's total against the face line it supports — in both columns, where the note prints a previous year. A mismatch names the note and the year.

Ledgers still needing a decision

Anything unclassified, with the reason it is in the queue — largest balance first, in either year. One that is nil this year but carried a balance last year shows that balance, marked last year.

Outstanding data

Entries the notes are waiting on, with What it blocks and Where it comes from beside each.

Under the Ind AS company format

Do the two new statements close

The Statement of Changes in Equity closes each column on the ledger, the Cash Flow Statement closes on the cash and cash equivalents the face prints, total comprehensive income equals the profit plus other comprehensive income carried to other equity, and the net debt reconciliation accounts for the movement in the borrowings. Each names what is unexplained rather than plugging it.

Do the disclosures tie to the statements

The fair value hierarchy adds to the carrying amounts, the expected credit loss allowance reconciles, the defined benefit obligation closes, the tax reconciliation arrives at the tax expense, the revenue disaggregation adds to revenue, the financial instruments by category add to their totals, and the lease maturities are not below the liability.

Is what only you can answer answered

The twelve Ind AS notes and the regulatory information are listed until answered, with the count outstanding. So is the tax on other comprehensive income where no item of that section carries it, and the assessment years behind the netting of current tax.

Under the NBFC format

Do the measurement matrices add up

Each matrix adds across its categories to the face line it explains, and the In India / Outside India tally on loans and investments adds back to the same total.

Do the two new statements close

The Statement of Changes in Equity closes each column on the ledger — the statutory reserve included, with the transfer read against the profit — and the Cash Flow Statement closes on the cash the face prints. Where a balance cannot say how much of a movement was a purchase and how much a sale, the check names the gap by amount rather than printing a wrong total; enter the investing figures and it closes.

Do the fair value changes tally

The realised and unrealised split must add to the same total as the analysis by where the gain arose. Checked once you begin the split.

Is what only you can answer answered

The four NBFC ratios, the maturity analysis and the derivative notionals are listed until answered. The rounding check bands on total income, and the separate-disclosure threshold is 1% of total income with no floor.

Under the NPO format

Does every fund column add to its total

The unrestricted and restricted columns of the Income and Expenditure Account add to the total beside them, on every line.

Does each fund's movement close

Note 3's opening and closing balances are the ledgers'. What came in and what was spent is yours to enter, and a fund whose four figures do not close on its balance is named with the amount still unexplained — the difference is never plugged.

Has the fund class been decided

A ledger nobody has answered for prints unrestricted. That is the safe default, but a default is not a decision, so the sheet counts them.

Is the restricted income matched by restricted expenditure

Restricted income normally reaches the account only as a transfer matching the expenditure it was given for, so the restricted excess usually comes to nil. Where it does not, the sheet says so — and a second check names the part that is appropriated to the fund it arose on rather than carried to the General Fund.

Is what only you can answer answered

The separate-disclosure threshold is 1% of gross income or Rs.1,00,000, whichever is higher. The rounding check bands on gross income and advises rather than fails: the Guide says figures may be rounded, so leaving them in rupees is within it.

The profit check is the only one that reaches outside

Every other check is internal consistency. Statements can agree with themselves perfectly and still not be your client's books.

Tally computes its own Profit and Loss from the same vouchers, and it includes things a trial balance cannot carry — opening and closing stock most of all, because inventory is not a ledger. That makes Tally's net profit the one figure capable of proving yours.

When they disagree the sheet names both, so you are reading a difference rather than hunting for one:

These statements show 9,86,234.44 and Tally shows 8,45,231.64 — a difference of 1,41,002.80.

If Tally's report cannot be read, the check fails rather than passing quietly. "Could not be reconciled" and "reconciled" are different answers and the sheet keeps them apart.

A statement fetched before this existed shows no reconciliation row

The check needs totals the connector did not always send. On an older workspace the two rows are simply absent — they are not silently passed, and the report is not stamped DRAFT for it.

Re-fetch from Tally to turn the reconciliation on.

Ledgers your client's own groups cover

Some rules read Tally's reserved groups — the ones Tally ships, rather than the ones your client made. An overdraft under Bank OD A/c is a borrowing; a debtor carrying a credit balance is an advance from a customer. Those rules can only fire for a ledger sitting somewhere beneath one of Tally's own groups.

A client is free to build their whole group tree themselves, and plenty do. That is not an error and does not fail this check. But every rule keyed on a reserved group is then silent, and the sheet says so rather than leaving you to discover it:

None of this company's 46 ledgers sit under one of Tally's own groups — the tree is entirely client-created. Rules keyed on a reserved group could not be applied to any of them, so their classifications rest on the ledger's name, nature and balance alone.

Nothing is guessed to fill the gap. Deciding that a client group called Working Capital is really Tally's Bank OD A/c is the kind of inference that produced wrong answers before, so OptiVida reports how far the rules reached and leaves the judgement with you.

A negative on the face means a balance is on the wrong side

Not a presentation quibble. A line that prints negative on its own side means a credit balance was classified as an asset, or a debit as a liability.

Two real examples, both from the same set of books:

• an overdraft classified under Cash and Bank netted against the current accounts and printed Cash and bank balances (17,21,642.90);
• a supplier's credit balance filed under loans and advances printed Short-term loans and advances (1,90,000).

Nothing is moved for you — which side a balance belongs on is your call. The sheet names the line and the ledgers behind it so the call takes a minute.

A net of two things is not one figure

The failure the wrong-side check cannot see, because the net comes out positive and nothing looks wrong.

Input tax credit receivable — a debit under Duties & Taxes — classified alongside GST payable under Provisions produced a single line reading Other current liabilities 5,602. An asset and a liability cancelling, with only the remainder printed and nothing on the face to say so.

The sheet names both sides:

Other Liabilities shows 5,602.00, the net of CGST PAYABLE against GST INPUT CREDIT

No arithmetic can recover the two figures from the one that got printed, so the check exists to stop it being printed. Nothing is reclassified for you — which side a balance belongs on is your call.

Outstanding data is the most useful column

Rather than a bare list of gaps, it tells you what each gap prevents and where the figure comes from — so you know whether to open the fixed asset register, the repayment schedule or the partnership deed.

Work down it and the notes fill in.

Unclassified ledgers do not silently vanish

A ledger with no classification is not on the face at all. Its balance is nowhere, which is usually why a Balance Sheet does not balance.

The sheet names them, so this is a five-minute fix rather than a hunt.

A failing report still generates

That is a deliberate choice: blocking generation would stop you producing the very document that explains what you still need.

The order worth working in

1. 1

   Clear the unclassified ledgers

   Nothing else is trustworthy while balances are sitting nowhere.

2. 2

   Enter the non-current splits

   Several notes cannot appear without them.

3. 3

   Work down Outstanding data

   Movements, registers, deferred tax balances.

4. 4

   Confirm it balances and the notes tie

5. 5

   Confirm the profit agrees with Tally

   The last thing to check and the hardest to spot by eye.

6. 6

   Generate

   With no DRAFT on the face.