Question
The ledger of Meadowlane Pet Grooming shows the following account balances at May 31, 2025 (in alphabetical order).
| Account | Balance |
|---|
| Accounts Payable | $2,300 |
| Cash | 8,200 |
| Dividends | 600 |
| Equipment | 12,000 |
| Rent Expense | 800 |
| Salaries and Wages Expense | 2,700 |
| Service Revenue | 6,800 |
| Share Capital - Ordinary | 15,000 |
| Supplies | 900 |
| Unearned Service Revenue | 1,100 |
Required: Prepare a trial balance at May 31, 2025. Place each balance in the correct debit or credit column according to the account’s normal balance, and confirm that the two columns agree.
Scoring
- 40% Account naming / line matching
- 40% Amount correctness
- 20% Structure / section placement
IAS 1 — Presentation of Financial Statements
Work the cycle in its fixed order: journalise, post to the ledger, extract an unadjusted trial balance, pass adjusting entries, extract an adjusted trial balance, prepare the statements, then close the temporary accounts. Each step consumes the output of the one before it, so an error early on propagates all the way to the closing entries rather than staying local.
Common mistakes
- Preparing the financial statements from the unadjusted trial balance instead of the adjusted one.
- Closing permanent accounts — assets, liabilities and capital carry forward; only revenue, expense and drawings/dividends close.
- Forgetting that the post-closing trial balance should contain no income statement accounts at all.
Further readingIAS 1: what goes where in a full set of statements