If transactions are missing from the general ledger you load, your Scope 3 is understated, and nothing else tells you. A trial balance is how you check.

A trial balance lists the balance of every account on one date. Finance uses it to check that the books balance: the debits and the credits add up to the same total.

Two trial balances also show whether your general ledger holds every transaction between two dates.

For every account:

Opening balance + ledger transactions = closing balance

If the account ties out, the ledger holds every transaction for that account. If it does not, something is missing, or something extra was loaded.

At year end, finance closes the books. Revenue and expense accounts move their balances into retained earnings and start the new year at zero. So your opening trial balance shows zero for every expense account, and the closing balance equals the year's spend.

Asset, liability and equity accounts carry their balance forward. Plant and equipment might open at $210,000, gain $40,500 of purchases, and close at $250,500.

If your opening trial balance is dated the first day of the year, the first day's transactions are counted in it and not in the ledger, and the check will be wrong.

Use the trial balance to decide the order of your chart of accounts review. For each account, the movement is the closing balance minus the opening balance. For an expense account, the movement is the closing balance, because the account opens at zero.

Review the accounts with the largest movement first, whether it is positive or negative. They have the most effect on your result.

Import an opening and a closing trial balance, upload your general ledger, then open the Completeness Check view on the Chart of Accounts screen. See Check your general ledger is complete against your trial balances.