Lessons · Accounting · the trial balance
The trial balance: what it proves, and what it cannot
A trial balance lists every ledger account's balance in a debit column or a credit column. If the two columns add to the same total, every entry was posted with equal debits and credits. It does not prove the entries were right.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
What it is for
Month-end. The columns disagree by 90, and 90 divides by 9, so somebody swapped two digits somewhere. Next month the columns agree, and rent has been posted to repairs: the trial balance says nothing, because both are debits.
How to think about it
List every account with its balance on its side. Add each column. Equal means posting was complete; then read the list again for balances on the wrong side and accounts that look wrong.
Worked example
Cash 3,800 Dr; Equipment 2,400 Dr; Rent expense 1,200 DrThe debit balances.
Owner's capital 5,000 Cr; Accounts payable 2,400 CrThe credit balances.
Debits: 3,800 + 2,400 + 1,200 = 7,400One column.
Credits: 5,000 + 2,400 = 7,400 → it balancesThe other. Equal, so nothing was half-posted. Whether the printer should have been an expense is a different question, and this page cannot ask it.
Your turn
The debit column totals 9,150 and the credit column 9,240. Write the difference.
Difference = 9,240 − = 90
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Treating a balanced trial balance as proof the books are right. It cannot see an entry posted to the wrong account, an entry left out entirely, an entry made twice, or two errors that cancel.