When trying to find errors in a trial balance that does not balance, the first step should be to ... work from the ledger to the trial balance to check the journal entries and postings for errors see if the ledger account balances have been calculated correctly work from the ledger to the trail balance to verify that ledger account balances were transferred to the correct debit or credit columns work from trial balance to ledger to verify that ledger account balances were transferred to the correct debit or credit columns