Totals trial balance (proefbalans)
A totals trial balance (proefbalans) is an overview of the debit and credit totals per ledger account, used to check the arithmetic reconciliation of the general ledger.
What does proefbalans mean?
A totals trial balance (proefbalans) is an overview of the debit and credit totals per ledger account, used to check the arithmetic reconciliation of the general ledger.
Equal totals show that debit and credit are in balance, but not that amounts are complete, correctly valued or well classified. The proefbalans is a check between the bookkeeping and the annual accounts.
How does it work?
A proefbalans adds up, per ledger account, all debit entries and all credit entries of the period, the opening balance included. Because every journal entry is equally large left and right, the two final totals must be equal. If they are not, an entry has been posted one-sidedly, which still happens now and then with an import or a manual opening balance.
The law has no model for the proefbalans. It is an aid for the record-keeping obligation of art. 2:10(1) DCC: rights and obligations must be knowable at all times. In the columnar trial balance (kolommenbalans) it comes first, followed by the saldibalans. Bookkeeping packages usually print the two together as proef- en saldibalans.
Example
A BV starts with € 10.000 in the bank and € 10.000 of capital. During the year it receives € 60.000 of turnover and pays € 40.000 of costs. The proefbalans shows: bank debit € 70.000 and credit € 40.000, capital credit € 10.000, turnover credit € 60.000, costs debit € 40.000. Debit total: 70.000 + 40.000 = € 110.000. Credit total: 40.000 + 10.000 + 60.000 = € 110.000. The count balances. Had a cost invoice been booked by mistake to an asset account, it would have balanced just the same.
In the annual accounts
Bookkeeping overview; not a part of the annual accounts in itself.
Difference from the saldibalans
The proefbalans shows two totals per account, the saldibalans only the difference between them. In the example the bank is on the proefbalans with € 70.000 debit and € 40.000 credit, on the saldibalans with € 30.000 debit. For the annual accounts you continue with the balances. In everyday speech the two words are mixed up.
Common mistakes
- Seeing balancing as substantive correctness
- Keeping correcting entries out of the proefbalans
What to watch for
- Request the proefbalans after the last memoriaal entries; an earlier version misses depreciation and accruals.
- Compare the debit total of the bank account with the sum of the credits on the statements.
- A clearing account with high totals and a nil balance deserves a sample check: the balance says nothing there about what was posted through.
- The size class makes no difference: the record-keeping obligation and the retention period of seven years apply from micro to large (art. 2:10(3) DCC).
Legal basis and source
art. 2:10 DCC
Frequently asked questions
Is a proefbalans the same as a saldibalans?
Not exactly. The proefbalans gives, per ledger account, the total of the debit and of the credit entries; the saldibalans gives only the balance. Many packages show both in one overview.
What do you do if the proefbalans does not balance?
Look for the difference per journal. Usually a journal entry from an import or manual input was posted out of balance; correct it before you continue closing.
Read more
Preparing Dutch annual accounts?
Your first set of annual accounts is free, for every size class. Create an account and prepare the annual accounts of your Dutch company under Title 9 of Book 2 of the Dutch Civil Code.
Get started