3. If the mistake has not been found in this way, the trial balance should be checked against the ledger to be sure that no open accounts have been omitted. Examine all closed accounts to see that they balance.
4. Examine the posting index column of all books of original entry to see that no items have been omitted in posting.
5. When the totals of the trial balance are unequal, the error may lie either in the debit total or in the credit total, or both may be wrong. Even when the trial balance “proves,” both totals may contain the same error. In order to determine what is the correct footing, the following method may sometimes be applied: Take the total of the previous trial balance, add to it the current totals from the several journals, and deduct the total of all accounts closed during the period. The result shows the correct footing for the present trial balance. Where the number of accounts closed during the period is large, the work entailed by this method may be prohibitive. The method is of easy application only when the trial balance is taken by means of debit and credit totals.
It may be left to the student to prove why this is a correct method for determining the present trial balance total. Suffice it to say that it is based on the fundamental fact that for every credit item in any of the journals there is of necessity a debit or group of debits the total of which corresponds with the credit item. Duplicating entries in two or more journals must be eliminated from the journal total.
The following table will serve to illustrate the above method:
| Previous trial balance total | $12,967.30 | |||||
| Sales | journal | total | for | current | period | 8,429.60 |
| Purchase | ” | ” | ” | ” | ” | 5,627.40 |
| General | ” | ” | ” | ” | ” | 564.90 |
| Cash receipts | ” | ” | ” | ” | 2,572.60 | |
| Cash disbursements | ” | ” | ” | 1,962.75 | ||
| $32,124.55 | ||||||
| Closed accounts total | 1,211.41 | |||||
| Correct trial balance total | $30,913.14 | |||||
6. If the difference between trial balance totals is divisible by 9, the error may be due to a transposition of figures or to a transplacement, sometimes called a slide. A transposition is an interchange of figures, as 96 for 69, 215 for 512, 6,274 for 4,276, etc. The first is called a simple or one-column transposition, the second a two-column, and the last a three-column transposition. One-column transpositions may also occur in numbers of three or more figures, as 172 for 712, or 3,129 for 1,329.
Transpositions.—The following rules will be of help in locating errors of transposition. To determine divisibility by 9, the easiest way is to “cast out” the 9’s.
(a) If the difference between the trial balance totals is divisible by 9 and consists of less than three figures, i.e., 9, 18, 27, 36, a one-column transposition may be the cause of the error. Divide this difference by 9. If the quotient is 1, the difference between the two transposed figures is 1. If the quotient is 2 or 3 or 4, the difference between the transposed figures is 2 or 3 or 4, etc. For instance:
| Correct Number | Transposed Number | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 54 | 45 | 9 | divided by 9 = 1 |
| 87 | 78 | 9 | ” ” 9 = 1 |
| 75 | 57 | 18 | ” ” 9 = 2 |
| 97 | 79 | 18 | ” ” 9 = 2 |
| 30 | 03 | 27 | ” ” 9 = 3 |
| 85 | 58 | 27 | ” ” 9 = 3 |