Definition of Post-closing Trial Balance
A post-closing trial balance is a trial balance which is prepared after all of the temporary accounts in the general ledger have been closed.
Trial balances are not financial statements. Instead, they are accounting department documents that are not distributed.
Since most trial balances do not list accounts with zero balances, the post-closing trial balance will include only general ledger balance sheet accounts having balances other than $0.00. The debit and credit amount columns will be summed and the totals should be identical.
Accounting software will generate a post-closing trial balance (or any other trial balance) with a click of the mouse.
Example of Post-closing Trial Balance
The post-closing trial balance will have a heading that includes the company name, the title Trial Balance, and the date of the account balances. After the heading you will likely see the following column headings: account number, account title, debit balance amount, and credit balance amount.
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.
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.
