Chapter 4, Problem 12Q

To determine

Accounting cycle: The accounting cycle refers to the entire process of recording the accounting transactions of an organization and then processing them. The accounting cycle starts when a transaction takes places and it ends at the time when these transactions are recorded in the financial statements of the company. During the accounting cycle, some additional records such as the general ledger and the trial balance are utilized for the preparation of the financial statements.

Trial balance: A trial balance is firstly prepared while making the financial statements. It is the summary of the closing balance of all the ledger accounts on a particular date. A trial balance is often prepared at the end of the accounting period in order to assist the accountants in the preparation of the financial statements.

Adjusted trial balance: Once the adjusting entries are made and posted to the ledger accounts, an adjusted trial balance is prepared. The main purpose of preparing an adjusted trial balance (second trial balance in an accounting cycle) is to check whether the debit and credit balance of the statements after passing the adjustment entries are equal.

Post-closing trial balance: After passing all the journal entries and the closing entries of the permanent accounts and then further posting them to each of the respective accounts, a post-closing trial balance is prepared which consists of a list of all the permanent accounts. A post-closing trial balance serves as an evidence to prove that the balance of the permanent accounts is equal. One point that should be noted is that a post-closing trial balance will always contain the permanent accounts because the balances that are transferred to the next accounting period will by default have zero balance for the temporary accounts and therefore, only the permanent accounts will be left. A trial

To identify: The sequence of preparation of the three trial balances that are used in the accounting cycle.