What are the steps taken by an accountant to locate the errors in the trial balance?
When the trial balance does not tally, the accountant takes the following steps to locate the errors:
First, the accountant should recast the totals of debit and credit columns of the trial balance and compare the account head/title and amount appearing in the trial balance with that of the ledger to detect any difference in amount or omission of an account.
Second, the accountant should compare the trial balance of the current year with that of the previous year to check additions and deletions of any accounts. They should also re-check the correctness of balances of individual accounts in the ledger and re-check the correctness of postings in accounts from the books of original entry.
Finally, if the difference is divisible by 2, there is a possibility that an amount equal to half the difference may have been posted to the wrong side of another ledger account. The difference may also indicate a complete omission of a posting.
Explanation
This answer is based directly on the textbook content which outlines specific steps an accountant should take when the trial balance doesn't tally. The steps progress from simple verification (recasting totals, comparing with ledger) to more detailed investigation (comparing with previous year, checking individual balances and postings). The textbook also mentions specific mathematical checks like division by 2 to identify posting to wrong side errors.