Trial balance
In accounting, trial balance means every account's balance in two columns, proving that total debits equal total credits.
- Layer
- Lexicon
- Defined in
- Lexicon
- Components
- 2
Not a rule
Bookkeeping convention — not codified. US GAAP governs recognition, measurement and presentation — not the mechanics a bookkeeper uses to get there. Anyone citing a standard for this word is citing the wrong thing.
Every citation in this system, with the text we read and the date we checked it, is in US GAAP and where these rules come from.
The lesson that teaches this
Accounting, 0 to 1 — a free course taught end to end on one month of one company, with the spreadsheet exercises to work it yourself.
Trial balance, in use
Quoted from the document that use the word — what it does to an interface, in the spec's own sentence.
Opening balance row, closing balance row, and both tie to the trial balance.
For founders
The same idea written for a founder: what it costs a startup that ignores it, and what to do in a real month.
- Trial balanceA list of every account in the general ledger with its balance on one date, debits in one column and credits in the other. The two columns total the same.
- General ledger and double-entry bookkeeping, explainedHow double entry works: journal entries, debits and credits, normal balances, running balances, the trial balance, and why posted entries are reversed.
- Chart of accounts for startups: a starting templateA starting chart of accounts for a US startup: number ranges, the expense accounts you need, and when to add an account versus a class or tracking tag.
- Form 1120: what to give your tax preparer, and whenWhat a startup hands its tax preparer for Form 1120: closed books, a balance sheet that ties to Schedule L, book-to-tax items, ownership and 1099s.
What it is not called
Each of these is a real word for a different thing. Using it here is what makes a product read as though it was built by someone who has not done the work.
- account list
- TB in UI copy
Components that render this
The concept is not documentation-only. These are the components that name it in their specification, grouped and stated exactly as the catalog states them.
6Statements
Family spec9Accounting core (GL)
Family specComponents that render the terms it depends on
Little in the catalog names this concept outright, but its definition is built out of others that are named. These render account.
Terms this one depends on
Also in Foundations
Work with this concept
The calculators that compute it and the ledger payloads that carry it. A definition is where a reader starts; these are where they go next.
- Trial balance checkerBalances — and then the harder question: is anything sitting on the wrong side of its normal?Tool
- Trial balance vs balance sheetA trial balance lists every account's balance to prove debits equal credits; a balance sheet presents only assets, liabilities and equity, grouped and ordered for a reader, as of one date.Compare
Defined in Lexicon. This page is generated from that document, so the two cannot disagree.