general ledger definition vs trial balance
What is the difference between a ledger and a trial balance? A ledger is often defined as a book of accounts. Today a ledger is most likely an electronic record or file containing a group of accounts. For example, a company's general ledger is the record containing all of its asset, liability, owner equity, revenue, expense, gain, and loss accounts. Each of these accounts will contain the amounts that are pertinent to the account. A trial balance is a listing of the name and the balance of each of the accounts in the general ledger.
Trial balance. A trial balance is a list of all the general ledger accounts (both revenue and capital) contained in the ledger of a business. This list will contain the name of each nominal ledger account and the value of that nominal ledger balance. Each nominal ledger account will hold either a debit balance or a credit balance.