Trial Balance
Every account's net balance on its debit or credit side — totalled, checked, and ready to export.
| Account | Debit | Credit | |
|---|---|---|---|
Total debits
₹1,20,000.00
Total credits
₹1,20,000.00
Balanced
✓
What is a trial balance used for?
A trial balance is the checkpoint between day-to-day bookkeeping and the final accounts. Before anyone draws up a profit and loss account or a balance sheet, the closing balance of every ledger account is listed as on one date and the debit and credit columns are totalled. Accountants prepare one at each month-end close and again at 31 March, when the year's books are finalised. It is a working paper for you and your CA/CPA, not a statement you file or send to customers.
Matching totals prove that debits equal credits; they do not prove the books are right. An entry left out altogether, posted twice, or posted to the wrong account will still balance, and so will two mistakes that cancel each other. Use the trial balance to catch arithmetic and posting errors quickly, then review the accounts themselves. Read down the list as well as across the totals: a balance sitting on an unusual side is often the first sign of a posting error.
In India your CA/CPA will usually ask for a trial balance before finalising accounts for the income tax return or a tax audit, and Tally users will know it as one of the standard reports. If your books are kept elsewhere, a trial balance in a standard format, exported as CSV, gives the CA/CPA the same starting point: every account, its net balance and the side it falls on. A suspense account still carrying a balance at year-end means something has not been sorted out.
How the trial balance tool helps
Instant debit and credit check
Both columns are totalled as you type, and a green Balanced card or a red difference tells you where you stand.
Imbalance hint
When the totals differ, a note shows the gap and reminds you that a difference divisible by 9 often means two digits were swapped.
Pull from your journal
One click rebuilds the list from entries posted in the Journal Entry tool. Accounts are named by code and name from your Chart of Accounts, or a standard list if you have not set one up.
One side per row
Typing a debit clears that row's credit and the other way round, so no account ends up on both sides.
Worked example to start
The worksheet opens with ten sample accounts that balance at ₹1,20,000 on each side, so you can see the format before entering your own.
PDF and CSV export
The A4 print marks each balance Dr or Cr and adds a balanced or out-of-balance footnote. The CSV has Account, Debit and Credit columns with a total row.
How to use the free trial balance worksheet
- 1Enter your business name and the as-at date; the date starts at today.
- 2Replace the sample accounts with your own, typing each account name and its closing balance in either the Debit or the Credit column.
- 3Use + Add account for more rows and the bin icon to delete a row you do not need.
- 4If you post entries in the Setu Journal Entry tool on this device, click Pull balances from my journal to replace the rows with every account that has a non-zero balance.
- 5Compare Total debits with Total credits; the third card shows a tick when they match or the difference when they do not.
- 6Click Export PDF for a printable A4 trial balance or Export CSV for a spreadsheet.
Let the size of the difference point to the error
Before re-checking every entry, look at the gap itself. If the difference equals one account's balance exactly, that account has probably been left out. If it is twice an account's balance, that balance is on the wrong side: halve the difference and search for that amount. If the gap still will not close, do not park it in a suspense account and forget it; trace it back account by account in the General Ledger.
Related bookkeeping tools
Frequently asked questions
A list of every account with a non-zero balance, shown on its debit or credit side. If your double-entry postings are correct, total debits equal total credits.
From the Journal Entry tool on this site — the trial balance recomputes automatically from your posted entries, using your Chart of Accounts.
With this tool it always should, because unbalanced journal entries can't be posted. If you imported or edited data elsewhere, the difference banner tells you how far apart the sides are.
Yes, it is free with no signup. Once you start editing, the worksheet rows, business name and date are saved automatically in this browser and are there when you return on the same device. Journal entries the pull reads are also stored in this browser. Nothing is sent to a server, so export a CSV if you need the trial balance on another device.
Yes. Pull balances from my journal replaces every row with the accounts that have a non-zero balance in your posted journal entries, each named by its code and account name. Rows you typed by hand are removed, so export a CSV first if you want to keep them. The button only appears once at least one journal entry has been posted on this device.
Assets such as cash, bank, stock, receivables and equipment normally carry debit balances, and so do expenses such as rent, salaries and purchases. Liabilities such as loans, supplier dues and GST payable, along with owner's capital and income such as sales, normally carry credit balances. Drawings are a debit, because they reduce the owner's capital.
A trial balance lists every ledger account, including income and expenses, to check that debits equal credits. It is an internal working paper. A balance sheet is a final statement showing only assets, liabilities and equity, prepared after the year's income and expenses have been worked into profit and added to equity. The trial balance comes first and supplies the numbers for both final statements.