unadjusted trial balance
After a month of journalizing and posting, you have dozens of accounts each carrying a balance. Did all those debits and credits stay in step? The quickest sanity check is to list every account and its balance in two columns — debits on the left, credits on the right — and add them up. That list is the unadjusted trial balance, taken before any end-of-period adjustments are made.
If double-entry was followed correctly, the total of the debit column will equal the total of the credit column, because every entry had equal debits and credits. Suppose the debit column sums to $48,500 and the credit column also sums to $48,500 — they tie, and the books are internally consistent so far. The word 'unadjusted' flags that adjusting entries (for things like depreciation or unpaid wages) have not yet been added.
It is a useful checkpoint in the cycle, but be honest about what it does and does not prove. A balanced trial balance only shows debits equal credits; it cannot catch errors that keep that balance — like posting to the wrong account, omitting a whole transaction, or recording the same wrong amount on both sides. So 'it balances' means 'the arithmetic is consistent', not 'everything is correct'.
At month-end the bookkeeper lists Cash, Supplies, Accounts Payable, Owner's Equity, Sales, Rent Expense and the rest, with their balances. The debit column totals $48,500 and the credit column totals $48,500 — equal, so the unadjusted trial balance balances and the cycle can move to adjustments.
Debit and credit columns tie before adjustments are made.
A balanced trial balance proves only that total debits equal total credits; it cannot detect a wrong account, an omitted transaction, or the same wrong amount entered on both sides.