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In a manual system a trial balance was commonly prepared by the bookkeeper in order to discover whether math errors and/or some posting errors were made.
Today, bookkeeping and accounting software has eliminated those clerical errors. This means that the trial balance is less important for bookkeeping purposes since it is almost certain that the total of the debit and credit columns will be equal.
However, the trial balance continues to be useful for auditors and accountants who wish to show1) the general ledger account balances prior to their proposed adjustments,2) their proposed adjustments, and3) all of the account balances after the proposed adjustments.These final balances are known as the adjusted trial balance, and these amounts will be used in the organization's financial statements.
