Back to the track — Financial Accountant

The trial balance: what its closing proves

A trial balance is a list reducing every account to one balance in the debit or credit column. Its columns agreeing is a mathematical consequence of every entry having entered balanced, so it proves the posting is arithmetically sound and proves nothing else. Five errors close with it: a transaction never recorded, an entry duplicated in full, the wrong account of the right class, reversed sides, and two compensating errors — and each is found by another tool that already exists. When it does not close, the difference has a shape: divisible by nine suggests a transposition, twice a listed balance suggests one sitting in the wrong column, and equal to a listed balance suggests one dropped from a column. After it closes, four checks come before any statement: a balance against its side, an account that should be zero, an account that failed to move, and an unexplained change from last month.