A Beginner's Guide to the Post-Closing Trial Balance is an explanation and example of what a post-closing trial balance is.
In order for a company to be successful, it must monitor its finances and keep track of its credits.This helps company stakeholders and owners make strategic business decisions that can include anything from growing an area of the business to making a large equipment purchase to increase production.A post-closing trial balance is one of the many statements that a financial professional will prepare for the business.
In this article, we define a post-closing trial balance, discuss the purpose of this kind of balance and compare it to the other types, provide an example and answer some frequently asked questions.
A post-closing trial balance is a list of accounts that have a zero balance at the end of the reporting period.The balances of these accounts have already transitioned to the retained earnings account when the business has already closed them.
There will be no revenue or loss details or a summary account balance on the balance sheet because of this.The items that appear after the closing process have ended and the post-closing trial balance has been calculated will move to the next accounting period.
The company name, trial balance, and the dates of the reporting period are listed in the post-closing balance sheet.In order by assets, liabilities and equity, the two totals should be equal, as the post-closing trial balance will end with the total of both debits and credits at the bottom.If they are not, that means you may have prepared the sheet wrong or not account for all the line items you should.
To prevent more transactions from coming through and applying to the old accounting period, the individual responsible for totaling all debits and credits should make sure the two columns are the same number.
The purpose of the post-closing trial balance is to make sure the total of all the credits and debits are equal.All temporary accounts are closed, the beginning balances are back to zero, and the next accounting period can begin.
If the credit and debit columns do not equal each other, you will need to review your entries, as you may have missed transferring one to or from the ledgers correctly.After the unadjusted and adjusted trial balances, the last step in the accounting cycle is the post-closing trial balance.
You can use different types of trial balances during different parts of the accounting cycle.There is a post-closing trial balance.
After you have recorded and posted all transactions to the ledger, you need the unadjusted trial balance to prepare for the accounting period.The main purpose of the unadjusted trial balance is to make sure that the company's credit and debits are the same before you account for any month-end adjustments.Check to see if the credits and debits match.You will need to do some research to find out why.You may need to add some credits or debits if you messed up.
The adjusted trial balance is what you prepare after the unadjusted balance.The company has paid for insurance and accumulated depreciation, among other things.The purpose of the adjusted trial balance is to see if the credits and debits are the same.
Two types of accounts are included in an adjusted trial balance.The real account is within the balance sheet and appears in the income statement.Before closing the accounting period, make sure you include all the adjusting entries you need.You are ready to run the post-closing trial balance if you include your adjusted entries.
The company name, the closing date of the accounting period, and the balance sheet will all be included in the post-closing trial balance.Your trial balance sheet may look like this.
There are columns for account title, debit totals and credit amounts at the bottom of the page.A full example of a post-closing trial balance can be found here.
Account Title**DebitCash$16,000.00Accounts Receivable$3,500,000.00 Office Supplies$600.00