An ERP report is only as good as the books under it. Before trusting a P&L, balance sheet or cash number, check that the data is complete and current, that it balances, that every account is mapped, that nothing is entered twice, that subledgers agree to the ledger and that cut-off, currency and VAT are right. The 25 checks below take a few hours by hand and can run automatically every day.
Why check the data before the report?
Most wrong board numbers are not calculation errors. They come from a sync that stopped, an account nobody mapped, a bill entered twice, a month with no depreciation or a balance in the wrong currency. A report can add up perfectly and still be wrong. The checks below look at the data itself, so a problem is caught before anyone reads the report.
Is the data complete and current? (checks 1–5)
| # | Check | What it catches |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Last successful sync or import for each company | A company whose numbers stopped updating |
| 2 | Months with no entries inside each company's history | A missing month that makes year-to-date look better or worse |
| 3 | Regular costs missing in a month (rent, payroll, depreciation) | A recurring journal that was not posted |
| 4 | Gaps in journal numbering | Entries deleted, cancelled or left out of the extract |
| 5 | Entries dated in the future | Typing errors that move income or cost into another period |
Do the books balance and sit on the right side? (checks 6–9)
| # | Check | What it catches |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | The trial balance balances for each company and month | A broken extract or an unbalanced import |
| 7 | Every journal balances | One-sided entries from manual uploads or interfaces |
| 8 | Balances on the wrong side (assets in credit, liabilities in debit) | Misposted entries and missing reclassifications |
| 9 | Suspense and clearing accounts are cleared | Unexplained amounts parked until the auditors ask |
Is every account where the report expects it? (checks 10–13)
| # | Check | What it catches |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | Every account with activity is mapped to the management report | Costs that silently drop out of the P&L |
| 11 | Every account has a type and classification | Accounts that land in the wrong statement |
| 12 | No postings to closed or heading accounts | Entries the report layout does not pick up |
| 13 | No two accounts that look the same | Duplicated accounts splitting one balance in two |
Is anything entered twice or reversed? (checks 14–17)
| # | Check | What it catches |
|---|---|---|
| 14 | Journals that look entered twice | The same booking posted by two people or two interfaces |
| 15 | Supplier bills entered twice | Double payments waiting to happen |
| 16 | Customers or suppliers entered twice | Balances split across two records of the same party |
| 17 | Entries reversed and posted again | Corrections that were themselves corrected, or doubled |
Do the subledgers agree to the ledger? (checks 18–21)
| # | Check | What it catches |
|---|---|---|
| 18 | Open customer invoices equal receivables in the ledger | Invoices or receipts posted outside the subledger |
| 19 | Open supplier bills equal payables in the ledger | Bills booked straight to the ledger |
| 20 | Receivable and payable lines all carry a customer or supplier | Balances nobody can chase or pay |
| 21 | Bank balance in the books agrees to the statement, with no old unmatched lines | Missing receipts, payments or bank charges |
Are currency and VAT right? (checks 22–25)
| # | Check | What it catches |
|---|---|---|
| 22 | Exchange rates exist for every company that reports in another currency | Group figures translated at a stale or missing rate |
| 23 | Bills carry input VAT, and sales carry output VAT, where they should | VAT missed on purchases or under-declared on sales |
| 24 | Bills from abroad carry the reverse charge | Imported services left out of the VAT return |
| 25 | VAT at the standard rate, with the supplier's VAT number on input VAT | Wrong rates and input VAT that cannot be reclaimed |
How often should these checks run?
Completeness and balance checks every time the books sync, so a broken feed is caught the same day. The rest before each month-end sign-off, and again before a board pack or a tax return leaves the building. A check that could not run should say so; "not checked" is never the same as "clear".
Questions people ask
Which check matters most?
That every account with activity is mapped. An unmapped account drops out of the management report without any error message.
Can these checks run in Excel?
Yes, from a trial balance and a journal export, but it takes hours each month and is rarely repeated after every sync.
Do auditors expect these checks?
Auditors test many of them themselves. Running them first, with evidence of what was found and fixed, makes the audit shorter.
What if our ERP already validates entries?
ERPs validate one entry at a time. Most of these checks look across entries, months and modules, which the ERP does not do.
Does a clean result mean the numbers are right?
It means the data can be trusted for reporting. Judgement on estimates, provisions and classification still belongs to the finance team.