The trial balance

Trial Balance vs. Balance Sheet
The key difference between a trial balance and a balance sheet is one of scope. A balance sheet records not only the closing balances of accounts within a company but also the assets, liabilities, and equity of the company. It is usually released to the public, rather than just being used internally, and requires the signature of an auditor to be regarded as trustworthy.
A trial balance is a less formal document. There are no special conventions about how trial balances should be prepared, and they may be completed as often as a company needs them. A trial balance is often used as a tool to keep track of a company’s finances throughout the year, whereas a balance sheet is a legal statement of the financial position of a company at the end of a financial year.
Special Considerations
After all the ledger accounts and their balances are listed on a trial balance worksheet in their standard format, add up all debit balances and credit balances separately to prove the equality between total debits and total credits. Such uniformity guarantees that there are no unequal debits and credits that have been incorrectly entered during the double entry recording process. However, a trial balance cannot detect bookkeeping errors that are not simple mathematical mistakes. If equal debits and credits are entered into the wrong accounts, a transaction is not recorded, or offsetting errors are made with a debit and a credit at the same time, a trial balance still would show a perfect balance between total debits and credits.1
What is a trial balance used for?
A trial balance can be used to detect any mathematical errors that have occurred in a double entry accounting system.
If the total debits equal the total credits, the trial balance is considered to be balanced, and there should be no mathematical errors in the ledgers.
What are the three trial balances?
There are three types of trial balance: the unadjusted trial balance, the adjusted trial balance, and the post-closing trial balance. Each is used at different stages in the accounting cycle.
What is included in a trial balance?
It depends. Companies can use a trial balance to keep track of their financial position, and so they may prepare several different types of trial balance throughout the financial year. A trial balance may contain all the major accounting items, including assets, liabilities, equity, revenues, expenses, gains, and losses.
The Bottom Line
A trial balance is a worksheet with two columns, one for debits and one for credits, that ensures a company’s bookkeeping is mathematically correct. The debits and credits include all business transactions for a company over a certain period, including the sum of such accounts as assets, expenses, liabilities, and revenues. 
Debits and credits of a trial balance must tally to ensure that there are no mathematical errors. However, there still could be mistakes or errors in the accounting systems. A trial balance can be used to assess the financial position of a company between full annual audits.
Compete Risk Free with $100,000 in Virtual Cash
Put your trading skills to the test with our FREE Stock Simulator. Compete with thousands of Investopedia traders and trade your way to the top! Submit trades in a virtual environment before you start risking your own money. Practice trading strategies so that when you're ready to enter the real market, you've had the practice you need. 
This review identifies which elements of the project were successfully managed and which ones presented challenges. As a result, the review will help the organization identify what it needs to do to avoid repeating the same mistakes on future projects
Projects can undergo 2 types of Project audits:^[19]

•