Prepare a trial balance and explain its purpose.}

- This is Step 4 of the accounting cycle.

- The trial balance is a list of all active accounts, in the order they appear in the ledger, and each account's debit or credit balance.

- The trial balance is used to prove the equality of debits and credits and helps uncover errors in journalizing or posting transactions.

- The trial balance serves as a useful tool in preparing the financial statements.