Key takeaways
- The general ledger organises every entry by account, where the journal records them in chronological order.
- The trial balance is the ledger's summary: each account with its debit, credit and balance.
- In double-entry bookkeeping, every entry is balanced: total debits equal total credits.
- In Belgium the bookkeeping obligation stems from Book III of the Code of Economic Law; accounts follow the PCMN chart.
The general ledger, the heart of your bookkeeping
Behind every invoice issued, every payment received and every expense sits an accounting entry. The general ledger is where all those entries are filed — not in the order they happened, but account by account: customers on one side, suppliers on the other, then the bank, VAT, sales, purchases. It is this classification that tells you, at any moment, how much a customer owes or what the bank account's balance is in the books.
In Belgium, keeping books is not optional for a business: the obligation stems from Book III of the Code of Economic Law, which requires bookkeeping appropriate to the nature and scale of the activity. The general ledger is not one more administrative formality: it is the tool that turns a stream of isolated operations into a legible financial picture.
This article explains what the general ledger is, how it connects to the journal and the trial balance, and what Belgian law expects from an SME. For the statements it feeds into, see The balance sheet and income statement of a Belgian SME.
Journal, ledger and balance: three views of one entry
Double-entry bookkeeping rests on a chain of three linked documents. Each has a distinct role, but they all describe the same material: the company's operations.
The journal records each operation in chronological order, with its date, the accounts moved and the amounts. The general ledger takes those same entries and breaks them down account by account. The trial balance summarises the whole: it lists every account with its total debits, total credits and the resulting balance.
| Journal | General ledger | Trial balance | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orders entries over time | |||
| Groups entries by account | |||
| Summarises the balance of every account | |||
| Acts as a debit / credit balance check | |||
| Direct basis for the annual accounts |
Each ledger account follows a simple convention: the debit on the left, the credit on the right. Depending on the account, one side increases the balance and the other decreases it. A customer account rises on the debit side when you invoice, and falls on the credit side when the customer pays; a supplier account, conversely, rises on the credit side when you receive a purchase invoice.
How an entry reaches the ledger
An accounting entry never comes from nowhere: it always starts from a supporting document — an invoice, a bank statement, an expense receipt. From that document to the published accounts, the path is always the same.
- 1
The supporting document
Step 1An invoice, a bank statement or a receipt triggers the entry and stands as its proof.
- 2
The journal entry
Step 2The operation is recorded at its date, with its accounts on the debit and credit sides for a balanced amount.
- 3
Posting to the ledger
Step 3The same entry is carried to each account concerned, which accumulates its movements.
- 4
The trial balance
Step 4The balances of every account are gathered and the debit / credit equality is checked.
- 5
The annual accounts
Step 5The balance sheet and income statement are drawn from the trial balance, then filed.
Every entry follows the double-entry principle: the amount debited to one or more accounts always equals the amount credited to one or more others. This mechanical rule is why properly kept books check themselves — if the trial balance does not balance, an entry is incomplete.
Accounts are not named at random. They follow the standardised minimum chart of accounts (PCMN), a nomenclature set by royal decree that files accounts into broad classes, from the balance sheet to expenses and income. It is what ensures that a "400 customers account" means the same thing from one company to the next. For the detail of that structure, read The standardised minimum chart of accounts explained.
debit equals credit
the balance of every double-entry posting
linked books
journal, general ledger and trial balance
at least
an inventory and the annual accounts
The trial balance: the check before the annual accounts
The trial balance is the mandatory crossing point between the ledger's detail and the summary of the annual accounts. It takes each account, adds up its debits and credits, and works out the balance. Two checks follow at once: total debits must equal total credits, and each balance must make sense against the reality of the business.
It is on the trial balance that a manager or accountant spots anomalies: a suspense account that will not clear, a VAT account with a surprising figure, a customer receivable that no longer moves. The trial balance is also the raw material for the VAT return and the year-end financial statements.
What the trial balance lets you verify
Overall balance
Total debits equal total credits; otherwise an entry is incomplete.
Customer and supplier balances
Third-party accounts reflect the real receivables and payables at the balance date.
VAT accounts
VAT due and deductible VAT reconcile with the periodic return.
Suspense accounts
A remaining suspense or adjustment account flags an operation still to be handled.
At least once a year, the business runs an inventory and draws up its annual accounts from that trial balance. For most companies, those accounts are then filed with the Central Balance Sheet Office of the National Bank of Belgium. The year-end trial balance, adjusted for inventory entries, then becomes the balance sheet and the income statement.
Simplified or double-entry bookkeeping: what the law says
Not every business keeps the same level of accounts. Companies keep full double-entry books: journal, general ledger, trial balance, annual accounts. Some very small businesses — natural persons and a few company forms — whose turnover stays below a threshold set by royal decree may opt for simplified bookkeeping, built around journals (purchases, sales, financial) rather than a full system of accounts.
The choice of regime depends on the legal form and the size of the business, and it directly shapes the accounting work: a company that grows moves from simplified to double-entry bookkeeping, with a real general ledger and a trial balance. Either way, the logic is the same: start from a document, record it, classify it, check it.
What this changes for your SME
In practice, you no longer write the ledger by hand. Accounting or invoicing software keeps the journal, posts each entry to the ledger and produces the trial balance automatically, from the invoices and bank movements you enter or import. What matters is the quality of the input data: a correct invoice, an up-to-date bank reconciliation, VAT allocated properly.
This is where invoicing and accounting meet. An invoice issued cleanly, with the right accounts and the right VAT, feeds the ledger and the trial balance without re-keying. Bank reconciliation closes the loop by matching each payment to the corresponding invoice, which keeps third-party accounts accurate throughout the year.
Invoices that feed your bookkeeping directly
YouInv generates your compliant invoices and centralises your payments, for accounts that stay accurate without re-keying.
Further reading
- The balance sheet and income statement of a Belgian SME: the statements the trial balance lets you produce.
- The standardised minimum chart of accounts explained: the nomenclature of the ledger's accounts.
- Bank reconciliation: automating payment matching: keeping third-party accounts accurate.
The reference source prevails: the Belgian Accounting Standards Board (CNC/CBN) publishes the opinions that frame company bookkeeping in Belgium.
What is the general ledger?
The general ledger gathers all of a company's accounting entries organised by account. Where the journal records operations in chronological order, the ledger reorganises them account by account (customers, suppliers, bank, VAT, sales…) to show, at any moment, the movement and balance of each one.
What is the difference between the general ledger and the trial balance?
The general ledger details every entry account by account. The trial balance is its summary: it lists each account with its total debit, total credit and resulting balance. The trial balance acts as a control (total debits must equal total credits) and as the basis for the annual accounts.
Is a general ledger mandatory in Belgium?
The law requires appropriate bookkeeping, with a journal and an inventory book (Book III of the Code of Economic Law). In double-entry bookkeeping, the general ledger is the account-by-account breakdown of those same entries: it is not a separate book to file, but it is essential to produce the trial balance and the annual accounts.
What is a balanced accounting entry?
In double-entry bookkeeping, each entry records the same amount as a debit to one or more accounts and a credit to one or more others. The total debits of an entry always equal its total credits; that is what keeps the trial balance in balance.
What is the trial balance used for in an SME?
The trial balance gives an overview of every account's balance at a given date. It lets you check the consistency of the bookkeeping, prepare the VAT return and the annual accounts, and monitor key figures such as customer receivables and supplier payables.
