trial balance
- noun
- /ˈtraɪəl ˈbæl.əns/
- Specialized
:
balance de comprobación
- After entering all transactions, the trial balance showed a perfect match between debits and credits.
Examples
-
The accountant prepared the trial balance to ensure that all debits equaled the credits.
-
In other cases, Fletcher's upper-level management has historically made significant adjustments to the preliminary trial balance figures (i.e., adjustments made = 10 percent of net income before taxes).
Academic text (1997) -
They are still required to accept journal entries (including standing or pro-forma journal entries), calculate account balances, and print trial balances.
Academic text (1992) -
Before closing the books for the month, we need to check the trial balance for accuracy.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound can be parsed compositionally as a 'trial' (test/check) of a 'balance' (the equality of totals), so a learner who knows both words can infer it is a check of balances. However, it is a technical bookkeeping term referring specifically to debits and credits, so full understanding (including its accounting usage) may require domain knowledge rather than just literal word meanings.
Etymology
Trial balance comes from accounting: trial means 'a test' and balance means 'to make equal'. So a trial balance is literally a test to see whether the two sides, 'debits' and 'credits', are equal, and that is why it means 'a check that the books are correct'.
