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What is the difference between trial balance and post closing trial balance?

Author

Rachel Davis

Updated on December 30, 2025

The trial balance may be pre-closing or post-closing. A pre-closing trial balance includes balances of both temporary and permanent accounts, and a post-closing trial balance includes the company’s closing entries.

Does a Post Closing trial balance have to balance?

Accounting software requires that all journal entries balance before it allows them to be posted to the general ledger, so it is essentially impossible to have an unbalanced trial balance. Thus, the post-closing trial balance is only useful if the accountant is manually preparing accounting information.

What comes after Post Closing trial balance?

After those entries are made, a post-closing trial balance is run. The post-closing trial balance verifies the debits equal the credits and that all beginning balances for permanent accounts are in place. The General Ledger: The General Ledger contains all entries from both the General Journal and the Special Journals.

Why is the Post Closing trial balance made?

The purpose of preparing the post closing trial balance is verify that all temporary accounts have been closed properly and the total debits and credits in the accounting system equal after the closing entries have been made.

What is not included in a post closing trial balance?

It is the third (and last) trial balance prepared in the accounting cycle. Since temporary accounts are already closed at this point, the post-closing trial balance will not include income, expense, and withdrawal accounts. It will only include balance sheet accounts, a.k.a. real or permanent accounts.

What is the next cycle after Journalizing?

Solution(By Examveda Team) Posting is the next step to Journalizing in accounting cycle. 10 Steps of Accounting Cycle are; Analyzing and Classify Data about an Economic Event.

What does a reversing entry cancel out?

What is a Reversing Entry? Reversing entries, or reversing journal entries, are journal entries made at the beginning of an accounting period to reverse or cancel out adjusting journal entries made at the end of the previous accounting period. This is the last step in the accounting cycle.

Which of the following is not included in a trial balance?

You should not include income statement accounts such as the revenue and operating expense accounts. Other accounts such as tax accounts, interest and donations do not belong on a post-closing trial balance report.

Which of the following accounts would not be included in a post closing trial balance?

The revenue, expense, income summary and owner’s drawing accounts will not appear on a post-closing trial balance since these accounts will not carry a balance after the accounting period has ended.

What are the 8 steps in the accounting cycle?

The eight steps of the accounting cycle include the following:

  1. Step 1: Identify Transactions.
  2. Step 2: Record Transactions in a Journal.
  3. Step 3: Posting.
  4. Step 4: Unadjusted Trial Balance.
  5. Step 5: Worksheet.
  6. Step 6: Adjusting Journal Entries.
  7. Step 7: Financial Statements.
  8. Step 8: Closing the Books.

What is the purpose of reversing journal entries?

Reversing entries are usually made to simplify bookkeeping in the new year. For example, if an accrued expense was recorded in the previous year, the bookkeeper or accountant can reverse this entry and account for the expense in the new year when it is paid.

Why is the closing process necessary?

The closing entries serve to transfer the balances out of certain temporary accounts and into permanent ones. This resets the balance of the temporary accounts to zero, ready to begin the next accounting period. The process transfers these temporary account balances to permanent entries on the company’s balance sheet.

What is not included in a post-closing trial balance?