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trial balance

American  

noun

Bookkeeping.

  1. a statement of all the open debit and credit items, made preliminary to balancing a double-entry ledger.

trial balance British  

noun

  1. accounting a statement of all the debit and credit balances in the ledger of a double-entry system, drawn up to test their equality

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of trial balance

First recorded in 1830–40

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.