These accounts are closed at the end of the period by transferring their balances to the retained earnings account or other permanent accounts, such as the accumulated depreciation account. The balance sheet is classifying the accounts by type of accounts, assets and contra assets, liabilities, and equity. Even though they are the same numbers in the accounts, the totals on the worksheet and the totals on the balance sheet will be different because of the different presentation methods. You may notice that dividends are included in our 10-column worksheet balance sheet columns even though this account is not included on a balance sheet. There is actually a very good reason we put dividends in the 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.

Income Summary is then closed to the capital account as shown in the third closing entry. Tax accountants and auditors also use this report to prepare tax returns michael finkelstein, author at the global treasurer and begin the audit process. This article is not intended to provide tax, legal, or investment advice, and BooksTime does not provide any services in these areas.

Overview: What is a post-closing trial balance?

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• For example, IFRS-based financial statements are only required to report the current period of information and the information for the prior period.
• Nominal accounts are those that are found in the income statement, and withdrawals.
• One way to find the error is to take the difference between the two totals and divide the difference by two.
• What do you do if you have tried both methods and neither has worked?
• 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 statement of retained earnings will include beginning retained earnings, any net income (loss) (found on the income statement), and dividends.

The statement of retained earnings is prepared second to determine the ending retained earnings balance for the period. The statement of retained earnings is prepared before the balance sheet because the ending retained earnings amount is a required element of the balance sheet. The following is the Statement of Retained Earnings for Printing Plus.

For instance, in our vehicle sale example the bookkeeper could have accidentally debited accounts receivable instead of cash when the vehicle was sold. The debits would still equal the credits, but the individual accounts are incorrect. This type of error can only be found by going through the trial balance sheet account by account. Not all accounts in the chart of accounts are included on the TB, however. Usually only active accounts with year-end balance are included in the TB because accounts with zero balances don’t make it on the financial statements. For example, if a company had a vehicle at the beginning of the year and sold it before year-end, the vehicle account would not show up on the year-end report because it’s not an active account.

In this case we added a debit of $4,665 to the income statement column. This means we must add a credit of $4,665 to the balance sheet column. Once we add the $4,665 to the credit side of the balance sheet column, the two columns equal $30,140.

The post-closing trial balance is the final step in the accounting cycle

As with the unadjusted and adjusted trial balances, both the debit and credit columns are calculated at the bottom of a trial balance. If these columns aren’t equal, the trial balance was prepared incorrectly or the closing entries weren’t transferred to the ledger accounts accurately. There are five sets of columns, each set having a column for debit and credit, for a total of 10 columns. The five column sets are the trial balance, adjustments, adjusted trial balance, income statement, and the balance sheet. After a company posts its day-to-day journal entries, it can begin transferring that information to the trial balance columns of the 10-column worksheet. Preparing an unadjusted trial balance is the fourth step in the accounting cycle.

Example of Post-closing Trial Balance

Finally, if some adjusting entries were entered, it must be reflected on a trial balance. In this case, it should show the figures before the adjustment, the adjusting entry, and the balances after the adjustment. Next, the accountant closes the temporary accounts by transferring their balances to the permanent accounts, such as retained earnings.

What is a Trial Balance?

An income statement shows the organization’s financial performance for a given period of time. When preparing an income statement, revenues will always come before expenses in the presentation. For Printing Plus, the following is its January 2019 Income Statement. A post-closing trial balance is a report that is run to verify that all temporary accounts have been closed and their beginning balance reset to zero.

Now that the post closing trial balance is prepared and checked for errors, Paul can start recording any necessary reversing entries before the start of the next accounting period. Looking at the income statement columns, we see that all revenue and expense accounts are listed in either the debit or credit column. This is a reminder that the income statement itself does not organize information into debits and credits, but we do use this presentation on a 10-column worksheet. For example, Cash has a final balance of $24,800 on the debit side.

An example of a post-closing trial balance

Another way to find an error is to take the difference between the two totals and divide by nine. If the outcome of the difference is a whole number, then you may have transposed a figure. For example, let’s assume the following is the trial balance for Printing Plus.

It is primarily used to identify the balance of debits and credits entries from the transactions recorded in the general ledger at a certain point in time. The process of preparing the post-closing trial balance is the
same as you have done when preparing the unadjusted trial balance
and adjusted trial balance. Only permanent account balances should
appear on the post-closing trial balance. These balances in
post-closing T-accounts are transferred over to either the debit or
credit column on the post-closing trial balance. When all accounts
have been recorded, total each column and verify the columns equal
each other.

Prepare a Post-Closing Trial Balance

The purpose of closing entries is to transfer the balances of the temporary accounts (expenses, revenues, gains, etc.) to the retained earnings account. After the closing entries are posted, these temporary accounts will have a zero balance. The permanent balance sheet accounts will appear on the post-closing trial balance with their balances. When the post-closing trial balance is run, the zero balance temporary accounts will not appear. However, all the other accounts having non-negative balances are listed, including the retained earnings account. As with the trial balance, the purpose of the post-closing trial balance is to ensure that debits equal credits.