Should Trial Balance Match Balance Sheet?

Yes, Trail Balance should match with Balance Sheet as both are the essential steps of accounting cycle. One is connected with another if you miss any steps in between, your financial statements did not show true and fair of financial information to users of financial statements.

Also, Study, “What Happens If You Miss A Step In Accounting Cycle”

Actually, all the accounts recorded in journal are finally transferred to concerned ledgers’ accounts and then to trial balance (which is also a ledger) and then to financial statements including income statement, balance sheet, statement of retained earnings and cash flows statement.

Any mistake, error or fraud (if not detected or corrected earlier) in a business transaction is carried forward or transferred to all the financial statements connected with each other during an accounting cycle.

However, there are possibilities that a trial balance is agreed with balance sheet, but still there are hidden types of errors such as compensatory errors, error of omission, etc that make it possible to match trial balance with balance sheet. These types of errors are detected or corrected by preparing revised books of accounts.