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Trial Balancenoun

A listing of all account balances used to check the ledger is in balance.

A trial balance lists every account with its closing debit or credit balance. If the two columns agree, the ledger is arithmetically consistent and statements can be drawn from it.

Balancing is a low bar, not proof of correctness: a transaction posted to the wrong account, or omitted entirely, still balances. Reconciliation, not the trial balance, is what proves the numbers.

Related terms

General Ledger

GL

The master record of every financial transaction, organised by account.

Double-Entry Bookkeeping

Recording every transaction as equal and opposite debits and credits.

Month-End Close

The process of finalising and locking a period’s financial records.

Bank Reconciliation

Matching ledger cash records against the bank statement.

More in Accounting

Accounts Payable (AP) Accounts Receivable (AR) Accrual Accounting Accrued Expense Aging Report Bad Debt Provision Balance Sheet Break-Even Point

Trial Balance is not just a definition here

Accounting runs on this vocabulary every day in AWRA OpsHub — 51 of our 257 glossary terms describe things the platform actually does.

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