Introduction to Trial Balance & its Components

Aims And Objectives

1. At the end of the lesson you be able to:
2. Understand of Sundry Debtors
3.  Understanding of Sundry Creditors
4. Understanding of Basics of Trial balance

• Introduction

1. All business transactions are first recorded in Journal or Subsidiary Books. They are transferred to Ledger and balanced it. The main object of keeping the books of accounts is to ascertain the profit or loss of business and to assess the financial position of the business at the end of the year. The object is better served if the businessman first satisfies himself that the accounts written up during the year are correct or al least arithmetically accurate. When the transactions are recorded under double entry system, there is a credit for every debit, when on a/c is debited; another a/c is credited with equal amount. If a Statement is prepared with debit balances on one side and credit balances on the other side, the totals of the two sides will be equal. Such a Statement is called Trial Balance.

2. Definition: Trial Balance can be defined as “a list of all balances standing in the Ledger Accounts and Cash Book of a concern at any given time. Advantages: 1. It is the shortest method of verifying the arithmetical accuracy of entries made in the Ledger. If the Trial balances agree, it is an indication that the Accounts are correctly written up; but it is not a conclusive proof. 2. It helps to prepare the Trading A/c, Profit & Loss a/c and Balance Sheet. 3. It presents to the businessman consolidated lists of all Ledger Balances. Preparation: There are two methods for preparing the Trial Balance First Method: In this method, Ledger Accounts are not balanced. They are totaled. The debit side totals and the credit side totals are entered in a separate sheet. The grand total of Debit Column will be equal to the grand total of the Credit Column. Second Method: This method is more widely used. In this method, Ledger accounts are balanced. The brought down balances are then brought to a sheet.

3. Sundry Debtors: When a trader sells on credit basis, The Buyer’s Account in the Ledger is debited. For each buyer, there is one Ledger a/c. Some of the buyer accounts may be automatically balanced. But it is quite natural that many of these Customer’s Accounts have a debit balances. When we bring these balances to the Trial Balance, if we are going to write all individual names of customers, then the Trial balance will be too lengthy. Therefore, first a list of Debtors with their individual debit balances are prepared and totaled. Instead of writing the individual names of Debtors, the total is written under the heading “Sundry Debtors” which appears in the Trial Balance.

4. Sundry Creditors: There are a number of parties from whom the Trader buys goods on credit basis. For each one of them, an Account is opened in the Ledger. As in the case of Debtors, a List of Creditors with the balances due to them is prepared. In the Trial Balance, instead of writing the individual names of Creditors,, the total of the balances of the creditors is written under the heading “Sundry Creditors”

5. Final Accounts: So far, we have discussed that how the business transactions are recorded in Journal and ledger and how to detect and rectify the errors and how to prepare Trial Balance. Is quite natural that the businessman is interested in knowing whether his business is running on Profit or Loss and also the true financial position of his business. The main aim of Bookkeeping is to inform the Proprietor, about the business progress and the financial position at the right time and in the right way. Preparation of Final accounts is highly possible only after the preparation of Trial Balance.
   
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