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Trial balance

The trial balance (proefbalans) lists every GL account with its total debit balance, total credit balance, and net balance for a period. It is the primary tool for verifying that your bookkeeping is in balance — all debit totals must equal all credit totals.

Trial balance page showing account list with debit and credit columns

What the trial balance shows​

Each row is one GL account. The columns are:

ColumnMeaning
Account numberRGS code
Account nameDescription from your chart of accounts
Opening balanceBalance at the start of the period
Debit movementsTotal debits posted in the period
Credit movementsTotal credits posted in the period
Closing balanceOpening + debits − credits

The bottom row shows totals. If the bookkeeping is correct, total debits = total credits in both the movement columns and the balance columns.

Typical uses​

  • Period-end check — before closing a period, run the trial balance to confirm everything balances.
  • Find a misposting — filter by a specific account or amount to trace an unexpected balance.
  • Provide to your accountant — a standard deliverable for external review or annual accounts preparation.
  • Reconcile sub-ledgers — compare the Debiteuren account balance here against the total of open invoices in Accounts Receivable.

Set the period​

Use the period selector at the top to choose a start and end date. Shillinq calculates all movements and opening/closing balances for that period from posted transactions.

Filter and group​

  • Search by account number or name to jump to a specific account.
  • Group by type to see subtotals per account type (asset, liability, equity, revenue, expense).
  • Hide zero-balance accounts to focus on accounts with activity.

Export​

Click Export to download as:

  • CSV — import into Excel or your accountant's software
  • PDF — formatted trial balance for archiving

Trial balance by account​

The Trial Balance (by account) view (accessible from the Bookkeeping menu) shows the same data but split into individual transaction lines per account — useful when you need to trace the transactions that make up an account balance.