Errors of Trial Balance

A trial balance can be defined as a statement of all the ledger accounts which is prepared in order to check the arithmetical accuracy of posting into the ledger accounts. If trial balance does not agree that implies that there is some error which has been made. Given below are the some of the errors which are made while preparing trial balance –

1. If different amounts are posted in two different accounts it will lead to disagreement of trial balance.

2. If a transaction has been correctly entered into the journal but has not posted into the ledger then trial balance will not agree.

3. Trial balance will also not agree when the total of subsidiary book is done incorrectly.

4. When transaction is recorded in subsidiary book in the wrong name or with wrong amount.

5. When transaction entries are made with the correct amount, but with debits instead of credits

6. When a transaction is completely omitted from the accounting records it is called error of omission.

7. Another error in trial balance can be compensating error, these are those types of errors where one mistake is compensated by other mistake which is of opposite nature so when first mistake is made in debit and another mistake is made on credit side with the same amount then it will lead to compensating errors.

8. Error of principal is another trail balance error which is the error that occurs due to the violation of accounting principles by the person preparing the trail balance.