Trial Balance

Trial balance is the list of balance from general ledger and cash book at certain date. Trial balance usually is prepared at the end of a period, such as monthly, quarterly, half-year. The purpose of trial balance is to check the accuracy of double-entry. The total of all debit must be equal to the total of all credit. Total debit that is not equal to total credit indicates error in the double-entry. However, total debit that is equal to total credit does not means the double-entry is 100% correct. Some of the error cannot be detected in the trial balance. This is the limitation of trial balance. The following are the errors that cannot be detected in trial balance:

1. Transaction not entered in journal
2. Entry entered into wrong account
   
3. Amount entered not correct at the journal
4. Debit / Credit wrongly for the pair of account

With the help of computerised accounting system, trial balance can be prepared at any time to check the accuracy of the double-entry.