What is "trial balance"

Trial balance \Tri"al bal`ance\ (Bookkeeping) The testing of a ledger to discover whether the debits and credits balance, by finding whether the sum of the personal credits increased by the difference between the debit and credit sums in the merchandise and other impersonal accounts equals the sum of personal debits. The equality would not show that the items were all correctly posted.

n. (context accounting English) A statement of the balances of all nominal accounts in a double-entry ledger, made to test their equality. The total value of the debits should equal the total of the credits any difference indicates that an error has been made.

n. a balance of debits and credits in double-entry bookkeeping; drawn up to test their equality

A trial balance is a list of all the general ledger accounts (both revenue and capital) contained in the ledger of a business. This list will contain the name of each nominal ledger account and the value of that nominal ledger balance. Each nominal ledger account will hold either a debit balance or a credit balance. The debit balance values will be listed in the debit column of the trial balance and the credit value balance will be listed in the credit column. The trading profit and loss statement and balance sheet and other financial reports can then be produced using the ledger accounts listed on the trial balance.