Trial Balance
Every ledger balance in debit and credit columns, proving they agree.
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This sheet is a working document. If you are redoing it every month, ledger software does the reconciliation for you and keeps the audit trail — that is the part a template cannot do.
As at [date]
| Account | Debit | Credit |
|---|---|---|
| [add one line per account] | ||
| Totals | $ 0.00 | $ 0.00 |
The trial balance agrees. Total debits equal total credits.
What is a Trial Balance?
A trial balance lists every account in your ledger with its closing balance in either a debit or a credit column, and totals both. If the totals do not agree, something is wrong and there is no point going further — you have posted one side of an entry, transposed a figure, or written to an account that should not exist. It is the checkpoint between bookkeeping and producing anything anyone will rely on.
Bookkeepers extract one at the end of every period. Accountants ask for it before preparing year-end accounts, because it is the compact version of the whole ledger and where their adjustments start. Auditors take it as the population they sample from. It is also the first thing produced when taking over a set of books, migrating between accounting systems, or working out what is wrong with accounts that will not agree.
The arithmetic is universal, but the ledger underneath is not always yours to design. Several countries mandate a standard chart of accounts or a prescribed structure with electronic submission — the plan comptable general and the FEC file in France, SAF-T requirements in a number of European countries, and various e-accounting formats elsewhere. Record retention periods and statutory audit thresholds also differ. If you are setting up a ledger, check what your accountant or revenue authority expects first.
A trial balance that balances does not mean the books are right. It will not detect a transaction omitted entirely, one posted twice in full, one posted to the wrong account of the same type, or two errors that happen to offset. It is also not a financial statement — it is the raw ledger before adjustments for accruals, prepayments, depreciation, stock and provisions. Presenting an unadjusted trial balance as if it were a set of accounts is a common and avoidable mistake.
What to put in a Trial Balance
These are the details this template asks for. Anything left blank is marked in red on the preview so you can see what is still missing.
| Field | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Business name | For example: Barton Supply Co. |
| Your address | For example: Unit 7, Barton Road, Columbus, OH 43212 |
| Period to | Free text |
| Ledger balances | One per line: Account | Debit | Credit |
How to write a Trial Balance
Close the period before extracting it
Post everything belonging to the period, complete the bank reconciliations and lock the period if your system allows. A trial balance extracted while entries are still going in is a photograph of a moving object, and the version you circulate will not match the one someone else pulls an hour later. Note the extraction date and time on the printout.
List every account with its balance
Show the account code, account name and the balance in the correct column. Include accounts you expect to see even where the balance is nil, because a control account showing nothing when it should show something is itself the finding. Keep the accounts in code order so the same report can be compared period to period without re-sorting.
Put each balance in its natural column
Assets and expenses carry debit balances; liabilities, equity and income carry credit balances. When an account sits on the wrong side, do not move it — investigate it. A credit balance on a debtors account means an overpayment or a misallocated receipt, and a debit balance on a creditors account means the same in reverse. Both need clearing, not re-presenting.
Total both columns and prove the difference
The two totals must be equal. If not, look for the difference itself: a figure equal to it has probably been posted one-sided, half the difference points to a posting on the wrong side, and a difference divisible by nine usually means transposed digits. Check the arithmetic before checking the entries, since a summing error is quicker to find.
Label it unadjusted or adjusted
An unadjusted trial balance is the ledger as posted. An adjusted one includes the period-end journals for accruals, prepayments, depreciation, stock and provisions, and it is the version financial statements are built from. Mark clearly which you are handing over and keep both, because the difference between them is the audit trail for every adjustment made.
Common mistakes
- Forcing the totals to agree with a suspense journal buries the original error, which then has to be found again later with far more history to search through.
- Extracting the trial balance before month-end postings are complete produces a version that disagrees with every later copy, and nobody can tell which one the accounts were built from.
- Treating a balanced trial balance as proof the books are correct misses omitted transactions, duplicates and postings to the wrong account, none of which affect the totals.
- Moving an account to the other column because the balance looks wrong conceals an overpayment or misallocation that needed clearing.
- Handing an unadjusted trial balance to a lender or a board as a set of accounts overstates profit by every accrual and depreciation charge not yet posted.
Frequently asked questions
What is a trial balance?
A list of every account in the general ledger with its closing balance, arranged in debit and credit columns and totalled. Under double-entry bookkeeping every transaction posts equal debits and credits, so the two totals should match. It is used as an arithmetic check on the ledger and as the starting point for preparing financial statements.
Why does my trial balance not balance?
Almost always a one-sided posting, an amount entered on the wrong side, a transposed figure, or a summing error. Look for the difference itself in the ledger, then half of it, since a wrong-side posting shows up as twice the amount. A difference divisible by nine points to transposed digits. Check the column totals before hunting through entries.
Does a balanced trial balance mean there are no errors?
No. It only proves debits equal credits. A transaction left out entirely, posted twice in full, posted to the wrong account of the same type, or a pair of errors that cancel each other will all leave it balancing perfectly. It is a useful arithmetic check and nothing more than that.
What is the difference between a trial balance and a balance sheet?
A trial balance lists every ledger account, including income and expenses, in raw debit and credit form, and is an internal working document. A balance sheet shows only assets, liabilities and equity at a point in time, grouped and presented under an accounting framework. The trial balance is an input; the balance sheet is one of the outputs.
What is an adjusted trial balance?
The trial balance after period-end journals have been posted — accruals for costs incurred but not invoiced, prepayments for costs paid in advance, depreciation, stock movements and provisions. The unadjusted version is the ledger as it stands; the adjusted version is what the financial statements are drawn from. Keeping both makes every adjustment traceable.
This page explains general practice and is not legal advice. Requirements differ between countries and, in some cases, between states — check what applies where the document will be used.