27. Locating an error.—If the trial balance does not balance before it is checked against the ledger, it is extremely probable that the error will have been lo cated by the time the ledger has been checked. In any event, it is not very difficult to locate an error if it does exist. The trial balance shows total debits and total credits for the month. It is not probable that the error is due to an incorrect posting; it is more likely that it is a result of incorrect addition in a book of original entry. By totaling all the debits and all the credits of each book, they may be quickly checked against the monthly totals in the trial balance. This process will locate the error either on one side or on the other. Then it only remains to prove the side on which the error occurred, by checking the additions in the books of original entry.
28. Tabulation of ledger.—The reverse-posting sheet and the special form of trial balance, previously discussed, are sometimes used in the tabulation of the ledger at the end of the month solely for the pur pose of locating any errors that have been previously committed. The monthly figures are separated ac cording to books of original entry from which they come, so that they may be checked in total against those books. The following is a form of tabulation sheet; the cash book, the sales book, the journal and the purchase book are the books of preparatory entry.
This form not only classifies the postings in the ledger according to the books from which they are ob tained, but it also proves the accuracy of the balances that have been derived for each account. It will be noted that this sheet is prepared from the ledger ac counts, and not from the books of original entry. After the entire ledger has been tabulated in this man ner, it is possible to prove; first, the total debits to the cash book, the sales book and the journal, and secondly, the new debit or credit balance that will be checked against the figures in the trial balance.
The total of the cash column on the debit page will be checked against the cash-book debit page. In the same way, the tabulation itself may be proved by showing that the totals of columns 1 and 2, 3 and 6, 4 and 7, 5 and 8, 9 and 10, are respectively equal. In proving the cash column, we must, of course, insert the cash balances at the beginning and at the end of the month. If it is not desirable to take the total amounts posted to a particular account from a single book, and enter that total in the tabulation, each separate item may be listed under the proper account name on the tabulation sheet.