Adjusted Trial Balance Vs Post-Closing Trial Balance: Similarities and Differences

These accounts carry their balances into the next accounting period and are used to prepare the financial statements. Next, the accountant closes the temporary accounts by transferring their balances to the permanent accounts, such as retained earnings. At the bottom of the debit balance and credit balance columns will be a total for each. When accounting software is used, the totals should always be identical. Next will be a listing of all of the general ledger balance sheet accounts (except those with $0.00 balances) along with each account’s balance appearing in the appropriate debit or credit column.

Looking at the asset section of the balance sheet, Accumulated Depreciation–Equipment is included as a contra asset account to equipment. The accumulated depreciation ($75) is taken away from the original cost of the equipment ($3,500) to show the book value of equipment ($3,425). The accounting equation is balanced, as shown on the balance sheet, because total assets equal $29,965 as do the total liabilities and stockholders’ equity. Total expenses are subtracted from total revenues to get a net income of $4,665.

Example of Post Closing Trial Balance

In this article, we will discuss a post-closing trial balance, its importance, as well as how to prepare it. We’ll also compare the post-closing trial balance vs the adjusted trial balance using an example. In closing entries, your income and expenses have been posted to your income summary account. After closing entries, the post-closing trial balance is prepared as given below. After adjusting entries, you can prepare closing entries to complete the post-closing trial balance. Closing temporary accounts is a crucial step in the accounting cycle that helps to make sure the post-closing trial balance has been completed accurately.

That is because they just started business this month and have no beginning retained earnings balance. Do you notice that not all accounts https://online-accounting.net/ show up on the post-closing trial balance? The answer is because only the permanent accounts of a company show up on the report.

Unadjusted trial balance for period ending 4-30-2020

The trial balance is used to ensure that the ending total of all debits recorded in your general ledger equals the ending total of all credits that are recorded. The above write-up provides complete information about preparing a post-closing trial balance. Apart from that, you will get detailed information about different types of trial balances. Presentation differences are most noticeable between the two forms of GAAP in the Balance Sheet. Under US GAAP there is no specific requirement on how accounts should be presented.

• It is also a non-formal statement that does not form a part of the formal financial statements of a business.
• The post-closing trial balance, the last step in the accounting cycle, helps prepare your general ledger for the new accounting period.
• Each account should include an account number, description of the account, and its final debit/credit balance.
• Temporary accounts are accounts whose balances are zeroed out at the end of each accounting period.

There is actually a very good reason we put dividends in the balance sheet columns. Take a couple of minutes and fill in the income statement and balance sheet columns. To get the numbers in these columns, you take the number in the trial balance column and add or subtract any number found in the adjustment column. There is no adjustment in the adjustment columns, so the Cash balance from the unadjusted balance column is transferred over to the adjusted trial balance columns at $24,800. Interest Receivable did not exist in the trial balance information, so the balance in the adjustment column of $140 is transferred over to the adjusted trial balance column. The adjustments total of $2,415 balances in the debit and credit columns.

What Is a Post-Closing Trial Balance?

This balance is transferred to the Cash account in the debit column on the unadjusted trial balance. Accounts Payable ($500), Unearned Revenue ($4,000), Common Stock ($20,000) and Service Revenue ($9,500) all have credit final balances in their T-accounts. These credit balances would transfer to the credit column on the unadjusted trial balance. The post closing trial balance is a list of all accounts and their balances after the closing entries have been journalized and posted to the ledger. In other words, the post closing trial balance is a list of accounts or permanent accounts that still have balances after the closing entries have been made.

The trial balance contains a list of closing general ledger balances. Typically, entering the balance into the financial statements require numerous processes. Companies prepare it after making general ledger account adjustments. When preparing the balance, include a heading that includes the company’s name, the name of the balance sheet, and the accounting period’s closing date. The account title, debit totals, and credit amounts will appear beneath, with a total of the debit and credit columns at the bottom. A post-closing trial balance is a list of balance sheet accounts with net-zero balances at the end of the reporting period.

POST CLOSING TRIAL BALANCE: Definition and Importance

The process of the post-closing trial balance is similar to the adjusted trial balance with a few changes. While using accounting software drastically reduces the need for the trial balance report, these reports can still be useful in many ways. It’s also important to remember that the trial balance purchases journal is designed to provide ending balances only, and is not used to determine the accuracy of the transactions that are included in the ending balance. It provides a quick and easy way to verify that the company’s books are balanced and that all the accounts have been correctly classified.

Note that for this step, we are considering our trial balance to be unadjusted. The unadjusted trial balance in this section includes accounts before they have been adjusted. As you see in step 6 of the accounting cycle, we create another trial balance that is adjusted (see The Adjustment Process). The unadjusted trial balance is the first trial balance that you’ll prepare, and it should be completed after all entries for the accounting period have been completed. In the first and second closing entries, the balances of Service Revenue and the various expense accounts were actually transferred to Income Summary, which is a temporary account.

If these columns aren’t equal, the trial balance was prepared incorrectly or the closing entries weren’t transferred to the ledger accounts accurately. To prepare the financial statements, a company will look at the adjusted trial balance for account information. From this information, the company will begin constructing each of the statements, beginning with the income statement. The statement of retained earnings will include beginning retained earnings, any net income (loss) (found on the income statement), and dividends.

If the final balance in the ledger account (T-account) is a credit balance, you will record the total in the right column. Closing temporary accounts is an important step in the accounting cycle, and running the post-closing trial balance helps to make sure that the process has been completed accurately. Thus, the adjusted trial balance is a process to prepare accurate ledger account balances for an accounting cycle. First, it requires a preparer to include all account balances for the current accounting period only.

Adjusted Trial Balance Vs Post-Closing Trial Balance – Key Differences and Similarities

The next step is to record information in the adjusted trial balance columns. Once the trial balance information is on the worksheet, the next step is to fill in the adjusting information from the posted adjusted journal entries. It is worth mentioning that there is one step in the process that a company may or may not include, step 10, reversing entries.

These columns should balance, otherwise, it would likely mean that there has been an error in the posting of the adjusting entries. It’s important to note that the after-closing trial balance is not a financial statement but rather a report that is used to ensure the accuracy of the company’s books before preparing the financial statements. As a result, temporary accounts do not have balances at the end of the accounting period and are not included in a post-closing trial balance. Unlike an adjusted trial balance, which includes all accounts with up-to-date balances after adjusting entries, a post-closing trial balance only includes accounts with balances after the closing entries. In the Printing Plus case, the credit side is the higher figure at $10,240.

IFRS requires that accounts be classified into current and noncurrent categories for both assets and liabilities, but no specific presentation format is required. Thus, for US companies, the first category always seen on a Balance Sheet is Current Assets, and the first account balance reported is cash. The accounts of a Balance Sheet using IFRS might appear as shown here. For example, IFRS-based financial statements are only required to report the current period of information and the information for the prior period. US GAAP has no requirement for reporting prior periods, but the SEC requires that companies present one prior period for the Balance Sheet and three prior periods for the Income Statement. Under both IFRS and US GAAP, companies can report more than the minimum requirements.