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How to define balance trial

Step 1

Construct a trial balance after posting all entries to the company´s general ledger accounts and calculating the balance in each account. Theaccount balance is the end result of adding all the debits in the account and subtracting all the credits. The preliminary trial balance is a list of all the accounts and balances on a worksheetbefore any adjusting entries have been made.

Step 2

Set up the worksheet by labelling the the first column "Account" and listing all the names and numbers of the accounts in thatcolumn. Label the second column "Debits". Post the balance of each account whit a debit (positive) balance in column 2 next to the name and number of the account. Post the balance of eachaccount with a credit (negative) balance in account. Post the balance of each account whit a credith (negative) balance in column 3 next to the name and number of those accounts. Add all thebalances in the debit column together and write the total at the bottom of the column. Do seme for the credit column and write that total at the bottom of the column.

Step 3

Compare thedebit column total with the credit column total. They should be equal. If they are, the trial balances is in balance. If the totals are not equal, there is an error. To locate the error ,firstcheck the addition of each column. If the columns are totalled correctly,check to see that each account total has been posted to the correct column. That is, make sure no debit balance hasbeen incorrectly posted to the credit column and no credit balance has been incorrectly posted to the debit column. If all accounts are properly posted, go back to each account and check forerrors in posting each account balance. When all the errors have been corrected individual accounts and the corrections are made to the worksheet, the trial balance will be in balance.