Unadjusted, adjusted and post-closing trial balances
What the unadjusted, adjusted and post-closing trial balances are, when each is prepared, and which of them an owner can take from Achekam.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Running a business businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Your accountant asks for "the trial balance" and you send one. A week later they send back a different trial balance, with different figures, and call it "the adjusted TB". Months after that, the new year's opening balances do not match either of them. Nothing has gone wrong. There are three trial balances in an accounting year, taken at three different moments, and each one has its own job.
Knowing which is which helps you send the right one, read what comes back, and understand why the figures move between them.
One list of balances, three moments
Investopedia defines a trial balance as a worksheet listing all general ledger account balances to confirm that total debits equal total credits. It also notes that a trial balance is an internal document with no special preparation rules, and can be prepared as often as a business needs it.
Investopedia describes three types:
| Type | When it is prepared | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Unadjusted | Before adjusting entries | Checking the books balance and spotting obvious errors |
| Adjusted | After adjusting entries | Preparing the financial statements |
| Post-closing | After closing entries | Opening the next year |
Each one follows the same rule Investopedia sets out for normal balances: asset, expense and loss accounts usually carry debit balances, while liability, equity, revenue and gain accounts usually carry credit balances. An account sitting on the "wrong" side is the first thing to question in any of the three.
Before adjustments: the working trial balance
The unadjusted trial balance is the books as they stand after the year's normal bookkeeping: sales invoices, supplier bills, receipts, payments, payroll and bank reconciliations. It is what most owners mean when they say "the trial balance".
What it does not yet include are the entries that do not come from a document: depreciation for the year, expenses incurred but not yet billed, costs paid in advance, closing stock, income received in advance, and any allowance for doubtful debts. Those are the adjustments.
A balanced unadjusted trial balance tells you the arithmetic is right. It does not tell you the figures are complete. Before you send it, check:
- every bank account is reconciled to the year-end statement;
- the debtors and creditors balances agree with your customer and supplier records;
- nothing obvious is missing, such as a large bill that arrived after year-end for work done before it.
After adjustments: the one the statements are built from
The adjusted trial balance is the unadjusted one plus the year-end adjusting entries. Investopedia notes that it is the trial balance used to prepare the financial statements. Every figure in the income statement and balance sheet traces back to it.
Most of the work between the two is the accountant's, but it depends on what you provide: the stock count, a list of unpaid bills, the asset register, and your view of which customers will not pay. Our article on year-end adjustments and what the owner must supply lists each one.
After closing: the opening point for next year
At year-end, the income and expense accounts have done their job for that year. Closing entries move their balances into retained earnings (or the owner's capital), leaving them empty for the new year. Investopedia explains that the post-closing trial balance shows balances after these closing entries and is the starting trial balance for the next year.
So a post-closing trial balance holds only balance sheet accounts: assets, liabilities and equity. If it shows any income or expense balance, the close was incomplete.
Which of them you can take from Achekam
In Achekam, the general ledger lists every posted line, and the trial balance shows each account for all time, for a period or at a date, and says whether debits equal credits. That covers the first two types directly:
- Unadjusted. Take the trial balance at your year-end date before the accountant's adjustments are posted.
- Adjusted. A business appoints its accounting firm by the firm's Achekam address or firm code, and an appointed firm works directly in the business's own ledger, with no copy made, so what the firm posts appears in the business's own accounting screens. Once the firm has posted its adjusting journals, the same trial balance at the same date is the adjusted one.
The third type is where you need to be careful. Achekam posts no year-end closing entry: profit is not closed to retained earnings, and it shows as its own line on the balance sheet. A trial balance at a date after your year-end therefore will not look like a post-closing trial balance, because the income and expense accounts have not been emptied into retained earnings. To see one year's activity on its own, take the trial balance for that period rather than at a date. For the formal post-closing figures that open the new year, your accountant works them out from the adjusted trial balance.
One more habit protects the adjusted figures. Once your accountant has finished, close the year's months. In Achekam, a closed month refuses postings from every source, and reopening a hard close needs a second approver, so nobody can change the year after the statements are signed.
Putting it together
A simple annual sequence:
- Finish the year's bookkeeping and reconcile every bank account.
- Export the unadjusted trial balance at year-end and send it with your year-end pack.
- Your accountant posts the adjustments; export the trial balance again and keep it with the statements.
- Close the months of that year.
- Ask your accountant to confirm the opening figures for the new year, including retained earnings.
For a line-by-line reading of a trial balance, see reading a trial balance.
Further reading
Investopedia's article on the trial balance and its three types explains how debits and credits are checked at each stage. At your next year-end, label each trial balance you export with its type and date, so everyone knows which figures they are looking at.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
