What Is A Trial Balance?

Trial Balance (Definition)

A trial balance is a financial report showing the closing balances of all accounts in the general ledger at a point in time. Creating a trial balance is the first step in closing the books at the end of an accounting period.

All the ledger accounts (from your chart of accounts) are listed on the left side of the report. You can omit any accounts that haven’t been used during the period. Then there’s a column with debit balances, and one with credit balances. The total debits and credits should match.

Trial Balance Format

The trial balance shows the closing balances of all accounts in the general ledger at a point in time.