Text Trial Balance Files Versus Excel Trial Balance Files

Text trial-balance files and Excel trial-balance files are similar in two ways: They are both loaded to the current POV (category and period), and, on the import form, they use the same Append and Replace options.

Text trial-balance files and Excel trial-balance files differ in one way: text files can use only the standard import format, but Excel data files do not use any import formats.

When you use an Excel Trail Balance template, the template can contain one or more periods. When loading multiple periods, create a dummy import format that indicates multiple periods. If just a single data value is in the Excel file, then you don't need an import format.