Final answer:
A list of accounts and balances before adjustments are made is known as an Unadjusted trial balance. It is part of the accounting process and ensures that the total debits equal total credits. This is distinct from the various forms of balance sheets, which detail a company's assets, liabilities, and equity.
Step-by-step explanation:
A list of accounts and balances before adjustments are recorded is known as an Unadjusted trial balance. An unadjusted trial balance is used in accounting to check the integrity of the debits and credits after all transactions have been entered, before making adjusting entries. This document ensures that the total debits equal the total credits, preserving the fundamental accounting equation. A balance sheet, however, is a financial statement that lists a company's assets, liabilities, and equity at a specific point in time. It provides a snapshot of what the company owns and owes, as well as the amount invested by shareholders. The balance sheet can be unclassified, where assets and liabilities are listed in their simplest form, or classified, where items are grouped into subcategories.
It's important to distinguish between the unadjusted trial balance and various forms of balance sheets, like the classified balance sheet or report form balance sheet. While they all serve as tools to display financial information, each has a different function and format, such as the T-account format illustrated in Figure 3, which represents the assets and liabilities in a two-column, T-shaped diagram.