Exporting and checking a trial balance for the Dutch annual accounts

How do you export and check a trial balance?

Export the trial balance after the last closing entry, as at the balance sheet date, with the number, description and closing balance for each ledger account, and preferably the opening balance too. Export the prior year as well. Then check five things: debit equals credit, the result is correct, the opening balance agrees with the prior year, clearing accounts are at zero and the large balances can be explained.

• Format: Excel or CSV with one line per account, or an XAF audit file (Auditfile Financieel) with chart of accounts, opening balance and all transactions.
• Reference date: the balance sheet date, so 31 December 2025 for financial year 2025, after all closing entries.

What do you need?

• Access to your bookkeeping package with permission to export reports and audit files.
• A closed financial year 2025, see the year-end closing checklist.
• The adopted annual accounts 2024 or the trial balance as at 31 December 2024.
• The 2025 profit and loss account from the package, as a control total.
• The bank statements and open-items lists as at 31 December 2025, for the spot check.

Exporting and checking in eight steps

1. Choose the right report
2. Set the period and filters correctly
3. Export to Excel, CSV or XAF
4. Check 1: debit equals credit
5. Check 2: the result is correct
6. Check 3: the opening balance agrees with the prior year
7. Check 4: clearing and suspense accounts are at zero
8. Check 5: spot check on the large balances, and keep the export

Step 1. Choose the right report

The name differs per package: trial balance, columnar balance or totals per ledger account. You are looking for an overview showing, per account, the number, the description, the opening balance, the movements and the closing balance, in debit and credit columns or as a single signed balance. For each package, the route is on the pages under bookkeeping packages.

Why: The annual accounts work with closing balances per account; you need the opening balances to agree with the prior year.

art. 2:10(1) DCCart. 2:363(5) DCC

Note: A 'balance sheet' or 'profit and loss' report from the package is already classified and summarised. For the annual accounts you want the position per account.

Step 2. Set the period and filters correctly

Choose the period 1 January to 31 December 2025, including the opening balance and including any closing period or adjustment period. Include all journals. If you work with several administrations, export per administration.

Why: It is precisely the closing entries, often in a separate period, that make the difference between an interim position and the annual figures.

art. 2:362(5) DCC

Note: Period 13 or an adjustment journal is sometimes outside the standard selection. Then you miss exactly the closing items.

Step 3. Export to Excel, CSV or XAF

For Excel or CSV: one line per account, no subtotals per category, amounts as numbers and no merged cells. Watch the decimal separator. For XAF, create an audit file for the financial year in the package; it follows a fixed Dutch standard and contains the chart of accounts, the opening balance and all transactions.

Why: A standardised file avoids discussion about columns and signs.

art. 2:10(4) DCC

Note: Subtotals per category are counted twice on import. Delete those lines or choose an export without grouping.

Support: Jaarrekening.io reads Excel, CSV and XAF (versions 3.1 and 3.2) and recognises separate debit and credit columns or a balance column with a D/C indicator.

Step 4. Check 1: debit equals credit

Add up all debit balances and all credit balances. They must be equal; with a signed balance column the sum must be zero.

Why: In double-entry bookkeeping every debit entry has an equal credit entry. A difference means accounts or periods are missing.

art. 2:10(1) DCC

Note: A rounding difference of a few cents can come from the export. A larger difference is almost always in a filter or a missing account, not in an entry.

Support: Jaarrekening.io rejects a trial balance that is not in balance and shows the difference, so you can fix the export first.

Step 5. Check 2: the result is correct

The sum of all profit and loss accounts must equal the result in the package's P&L report. If the balance sheet has a 'result for the current financial year' account, check that it is not counted twice.

Why: The result links the balance sheet and the profit and loss account. If it is wrong, an account has been classified incorrectly.

art. 2:362(3) DCC

Note: If the package has already booked the result to the reserves with a closing journal, the result accounts are at zero. Export before that closing or reverse it before the export.

Step 6. Check 3: the opening balance agrees with the prior year

Compare the 2025 opening balances with the closing balance sheet in the adopted 2024 annual accounts, item by item. The 2024 result must be included in equity in line with the adopted appropriation of result.

Why: The comparative figures in the 2025 annual accounts must equal what was adopted for 2024.

art. 2:363(5) DCC

Note: Anyone who still books in 2024 after adoption makes the administration deviate from the filed figures. If there is a difference, first find the cause and the correct booking date. If the adopted 2024 annual accounts were incorrect, that is a correction of an error: assess what it means for the comparative figures and whether a disclosure or a corrected filing is needed (art. 2:362(6) DCC). Do not simply move an entry to 2025.

Step 7. Check 4: clearing and suspense accounts are at zero

Cross-posting accounts, suspense accounts, journal clearing accounts and payment differences should be at zero on 31 December. A VAT account may only contain the balance of the last return period.

Why: Annual accounts have no 'suspense accounts' item. Every balance must belong somewhere.

art. 2:362(1) DCC

Note: A suspense item that you leave on the balance sheet ends up under other receivables or liabilities during classification and distorts those items.

Step 8. Check 5: spot check on the large balances, and keep the export

Compare the large balances with external documents: bank with the statement, accounts receivable and payable with the open-items lists, loans with the bank overview, the current account with the director-major shareholder with the agreements. Watch for unexpected signs, such as a negative cash balance or a creditor with a debit balance. Then keep the export unchanged.

Why: The trial balance is the bridge between the bookkeeping and the annual accounts. Anyone who has to explain an item later starts with this file.

art. 2:10(3) DCC

Note: Do not correct in the Excel file. Book the correction in the package and export again, otherwise the bookkeeping and the annual accounts drift apart.

Example: a trial balance that does not balance

An export from a package gives these totals:

The difference is exactly the result. The package had exported only the balance sheet accounts and placed the result as a calculated line below the report. Solution: also export the profit and loss accounts, so that the result follows from the sum.

A difference equal to the result, to the balance of a single account or to a round VAT amount almost always points to an export or filter setting and not to a booking error. Look there first.

What do you export when?

Trial balance, balance of balances or audit file?

A trial balance with totals shows, per account, the totals of all debit and credit entries; a trial balance of balances shows only the balance per account. Many packages combine both in one report. An XAF audit file contains the whole administration and is therefore the most complete source. You can find more background at what a trial balance is.

Direct links with bookkeeping packages are in preparation at Jaarrekening.io and not yet released. The export therefore remains the route, and so do the checks on this page.

When do you involve an accountant or adviser?

An accountant or bookkeeper can make the export for you and do the reconciliations. That is sensible if the package contains several administrations or currencies, if a consolidation is needed, or if the opening balance has not agreed with the filed figures for years.

Sources

• Art. 2:10 DCC (wetten.overheid.nl): administration, retention obligation and transfer of data
• Art. 2:363 DCC (wetten.overheid.nl): comparative figures and classification
• Art. 2:362 DCC (wetten.overheid.nl): allocation and result

All sources consulted on 5 October 2026. Statutory texts of Book 2 of the Dutch Civil Code as in force from 1 July 2026.

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