What is an Adjusted Trial Balance?
Definition: An adjusted trial balance is a list of accounts and their balances at the end of an accounting period after the adjusting journal entries have been posted. In other words, it’s a trial balance that is prepared at the end of the year to reflect the year-end adjustments.
An adjusted trial balance is prepared after adjusting entries are made and posted to the ledger. Adjusting entries are prepared at the end of the accounting period for: accrual of income, accrual of expenses, deferrals, prepayments, depreciation, and allowances.
This is the second trial balance prepared in the accounting cycle. Its purpose is to test the equality between debits and credits after adjusting entries are entered into the books of the company.
The adjusted trial balance is an internal document that lists the general ledger account titles and their balances after any adjustments have been made. The adjusted trial balance is not a financial statement, but the adjusted account balances will be reported on the financial statements.
The adjusted trial balance (as well as the unadjusted trial balance) must have the total amount of the debit balances equal to the total amount of credit balances.
What Does Adjusted Trial Balance Mean?
What is the definition of adjusted trial balance? Adjusted trial balances are prepared at the end of the accounting cycle and are used to help prepare the financial statements for the period. Before the adjusted TB can be prepared, the year-end adjustments must be made. These adjustments usually include adjustments for prepaid and accrued expenses along with non-cash expenses like depreciation. These adjustments are added to the unadjusted trial balance on the accounting worksheet and the new adjusted TB is prepared.
An adjusted trial balance is a listing of the ending balances in all accounts after adjusting entries have been prepared. The intent of adding these entries is to correct errors in the initial version of the trial balance and to bring the entity’s financial statements into compliance with an accounting framework, such as Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or International Financial Reporting Standards.
Once all adjustments have been made, the adjusted trial balance is essentially a summary-balance listing of all the accounts in the general ledger – it does not show any detail transactions that comprise the ending balances in any accounts. The adjusting entries are shown in a separate column, but in aggregate for each account; thus, it may be difficult to discern which specific journal entries impact each account.
The adjusted trial balance is not part of the financial statements – rather, it is an internal report that has two purposes:
- To verify that the total of the debit balances in all accounts equals the total of all credit balances in all accounts; and
- To be used to construct financial statements (specifically, the income statement and balance sheet; construction of the statement of cash flows requires additional information).
The second application of the adjusted trial balance has fallen into disuse, since computerized accounting systems automatically construct financial statements. However, it is the source document if you are manually compiling financial statements. In the latter case, the adjusted trial balance is critically important – financial statements cannot be constructed without it.
Example of an Adjusted Trial Balance
The following report shows an adjusted trial balance, where the initial, unadjusted balance for all accounts is located in the second column from the left, various adjusting entries are noted in the third column from the left, and the combined, net balance in each account is stated in the far right column.
ABC International
Trial Balance
July 31, 20XX
| Unadjusted Trial Balance | Adjusting Entries | Adjusted Trial Balance | |
| Cash | $60,000 | $60,000 | |
| Accounts receivable | 180,000 | 50,000 | 230,000 |
| Inventory | 300,000 | 300,000 | |
| Fixed assets (net) | 210,000 | 210,000 | |
| Accounts payable | (90,000) | (90,000) | |
| Accrued liabilities | (50,000) | $(25,000) | (75,000) |
| Notes payable | (420,000) | (420,000) | |
| Equity | (350,000) | (350,000) | |
| Revenue | (400,000) | (50,000) | (450,000) |
| Cost of goods sold | 290,000 | 290,000 | |
| Salaries | 200,000 | 25,000 | 225,000 |
| Payroll taxes | 20,000 | 20,000 | |
| Rent | 35,000 | 35,000< | |
| Other expenses | 15,000 | 15,000 | |
| Total | $0 | $0 | $0 |
The adjusting entries in the example are for the accrual of $25,000 in salaries that were unpaid as of the end of July, as well as for $50,000 of earned but unbilled sales.
Preparation
There are two main ways to prepare an adjusted trial balance. Both ways are useful depending on the site of the company and chart of accounts being used.
You could post accounts to the adjusted trial balance using the same method used in creating the unadjusted trial balance. The account balances are taken from the T-accounts or ledger accounts and listed on the trial balance. Essentially, you are just repeating this process again except now the ledger accounts include the year-end adjusting entries.
You could also take the unadjusted trial balance and simply add the adjustments to the accounts that have been changed. In many ways this is faster for smaller companies because very few accounts will need to be altered.
Note that only active accounts that will appear on the financial statements must to be listed on the trial balance. If an account has a zero balance, there is no need to list it on the trial balance.
Summary
Define Adjusted Trial Balance: Adjusted TB means a listing of the chart of accounts with balances after year-end AJEs have been made. This listing is used to prepare the financial statements for the year as well as recording the closing journal entries to close the books for the year.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an adjusted trial balance?
An adjusted trial balance is a report that lists all the ledger account balances as of a certain date. This report is used to ensure that the total of the debit column and credit column in the trial balance matches.
What does it mean to “adjust” a trial balance?
Adjusting entries are journal entries made at the end of an accounting period in order to update the account balances for things such as accrued income, depreciation, and other changes that have taken place since the last day of the month or year.
In simple words, adjusting a trial balance means that the account balances in the trial balance are updated to reflect the changes that have been made as a result of the adjusting entries.
What is the purpose of the adjusted trial balance?
The purpose of the adjusted trial balance is to ensure that the financial statements are accurate. The adjusted trial balance is used as a tool to prepare the balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement.
In addition, the adjusted trial balance can be used to identify any errors that may have been made when preparing the financial statements. For example, if the total of the debit column and credit column in the adjusted trial balance does not match, it would indicate that there is an error in the financial statements.
How to prepare an adjusted trial balance?
There are two methods that can be used to prepare an adjusted trial balance: the account method and the equation method. The account method is the simpler of the two methods and involves adding the adjustment amounts to the appropriate accounts in the ledger.
The equation method uses a formula to calculate the adjusted trial balance.
What is the difference between trial balance and adjusted trial balance?
The trial balance is a report that lists all the ledger account balances as of a certain date. The adjusted trial balance is a report that lists all the ledger account balances as of a certain date and includes the adjustment amounts that have been added to the accounts.