TRIAL BALANCE

Definition:
Trial Balance is a statement prepared with the debit and credit balances of ledger accounts to
verify the arithmetical accuracy of the book.

The Trial Balance checks the equality of debits and credits in the ledger by listing each
account along with its ending balance.

Accounts to be placed Accounts to be placed

on debit side on credit side

Assets Liabilities
Expenses Capital
Drawings Revenue

ERRORS REVEALED BY TRIAL BALANCE

Errors in calculation
Any calculation mistake, especially totaling mistake or balancing mistake will be revealed by
Trial Balance as both the side will not match.
Errors of omission of one entry
If by mistake only one entry is made for a transaction, Trial Balance will not balance.
Posting to the wrong side of an account
In case any entry is made on the wrong side of the account, it will be revealed by the Trial
Balance. For example Credit sale of $100 was debited to Sales account.
Posting of wrong amount
When two different amounts are entered for the same entry, both the sides of the Trial balance
will not match. For example, Credit sales of $123 to James. James was debited with $123 but
Sales was wrongly credited as $132.

LIMITATION OF TRIAL BALANCE

Though Trial Balance is prepared to check the arithmetical accuracy of double entries, there
are still some mistakes which cannot be identified by Trial Balance. These are:
Errors of omission
These are errors where the transactions are totally omitted. They are neither recorded in the
Journal or Ledge and thus do not appear in the Trial Balance.
Errors of commission
This means that a wrong amount is entered from the very starting in the Journal or Ledger and
thus a Trial Balance based on this amount may not show any mistake at all.
Errors of Principle
These errors occur when the classification of accounts is wrongly done. For example revenue
expenditure may be considered as capital expenditure. Repairs of machinery $200 was
debited to Machinery account whereas it should have been debited to ‘Repairs of machinery
account’.
Complete reversal of entries
Complete reversal of entries cannot be revealed by Trial Balance. This is when entries have
been made to both the sides and thus there is no arithmetical mistake. Good sold to Raman
were entered as Sales debited and Raman Credited, whereas, it should have been vice versa.
Compensating errors
These errors are those which cancel themselves because the same error is committed on both
sides. For example, Purchases were debited by $100 more and at the same time Sales were
also credited by $100. This will neutralize the effect of both the entries.