Saga — How to export the trial balance to Excel correctly (2026 step-by-step guide)
The trial balance exported from Saga into Excel often ends up misaligned or with numbers formatted as text. Here is how to export it cleanly using 3 methods.
Ionut Mihaescu — Full Stack Developer Azuvio · 2026-05-21 · 5 min · ERP & Integrations
Why you need the trial balance in Excel
Three frequent scenarios: sending it to an external accounting firm, uploading it to a BI tool (Power BI, Excel pivot, dashboard), or consolidating it with balances from other group companies. In all cases, it must be clean — numbers as values, not text, with no merged rows and no duplicate headers.
Method 1 — Direct export from the Saga menu (Fastest)
Step 1: In Saga, go to Reports → Trial Balance (or «Lists → Trial Balance» on older versions).
Step 2: Set the period (month/quarter/year) and the balance type (synthetic / analytical / level 2-3 analytics).
Step 3: Click the «Export» button (or the Excel icon) → choose the `.xlsx` format (NOT the old `.xls`, NOT `.csv` if you want to keep formatting).
Step 4: Open the file in Excel → check that amounts are right-aligned (indicating they are numbers). If they are left-aligned, see Method 3.
Method 2 — Print to PDF then convert (When native export fails)
On older Saga versions or those with custom plug-ins, the direct export might be missing. Workaround:
Step 1: In Saga, open the balance → click Print → choose the printer «Microsoft Print to PDF» or «Save as PDF».
Step 2: Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat or Smallpdf → «Export to Excel».
Limitation: Column alignment may be imperfect. Use this only for simple balances.
Method 3 — Numbers appearing as text? Here is the fix
The most frequent issue: the balance exports, but the amount column is text (left-aligned). Excel cannot perform SUM, numerical sorting, or pivot tables on text.
Cause: The decimal separator is «,» (comma, RO format) while your Excel is set to «.» (dot, international format). Saga exports with a comma; Excel does not recognize it as a number.
Quick fix in Excel:
1. Select the column with amounts → Data → Text to Columns → Delimited → Next → Advanced
2. Set Decimal separator = `,` and Thousands separator = `.` (or leave empty).
3. Press Finish. The figures become real numbers.
Permanent fix: In Saga, go to Settings → Regional → Export format, choose the dot as the decimal separator (universally compatible). Alternatively, change Windows settings: Control Panel → Region → Format → Romanian correctly aligned with your Excel settings.
Method 4 — For group company consolidation
If you do this monthly for 3+ companies, manual export + alignment + consolidation in Excel is the nightmare described in the article «Consolidated reporting for group companies on Saga». The correct solution: automated export from all Saga instances + ETL + dashboard. Cost: 8-12k€/year. Savings: 30-60 hours/month of controller work.
Conclusion
For simple exports — use Method 1 directly. For numbers appearing as text — use Method 3 with decimal separators. For recurring monthly consolidation — ETL automation over Saga exports. See also the Saga ↔ Azuvio connector if you want live data instead of manual monthly exports.