Trial Balance Mapping
From trial balance to HGB: mapping a Summen- und Saldenliste to statutory positions
A German trial balance — the Summen- und Saldenliste, or SuSa — is a flat list of account balances. Turning it into a statutory Bilanz and GuV means assigning every one of those balances to the right position under § 266 and § 275 HGB. This page explains how that mapping works, how our AI does it, and why you still review every line.
What a Summen- und Saldenliste is
The SuSa lists each ledger account with its opening balance, period movements and closing balance. It usually follows a standard German chart of accounts — most often SKR03 or SKR04 from DATEV — so an account is identified by a four-digit number and a German name such as 'Verbindlichkeiten aus Lieferungen und Leistungen' (trade payables).
A trial balance is not a financial statement. It is bookkeeping detail: hundreds of accounts at whatever granularity your bookkeeper posted. The statutory Bilanz, by contrast, has a fixed, comparatively short structure. Mapping is the act of collapsing the detailed accounts into the prescribed statutory lines.
The target structure: § 266 and § 275 HGB
The balance sheet layout is prescribed by § 266 HGB: fixed assets (Anlagevermögen), current assets (Umlaufvermögen), prepaid items and deferred tax assets on the asset side; equity, provisions, liabilities and deferred income on the equity-and-liabilities side, each broken down into lettered and numbered sub-positions. The income statement follows § 275, either the nature-of-expense method (Gesamtkostenverfahren) or the cost-of-sales method (Umsatzkostenverfahren).
Every account balance has to reach exactly one of these lines. Trade receivables go to B.II of current assets; a corporation-tax provision goes to a specific provisions line; interest expense goes to its own GuV position. The smaller your size class, the more the statutory presentation is condensed — a small company shows only the Roman-numeral level of detail, for instance.
How the AI account mapping works
When you upload the SuSa (PDF, CSV or Excel), the AI reads each account's number and name and proposes the HGB position it belongs to. It understands SKR03 and SKR04 conventions and the vocabulary of German bookkeeping, so it can tell a Sonstige betriebliche Aufwendung from a Materialaufwand, or a short-term from a long-term liability, and route each to the correct § 266 / § 275 line.
It also applies HGB-specific handling that a naive column mapping would miss — for example netting input VAT against output VAT into a single receivable or payable towards the tax office (§ 246 Abs. 2), and keeping the prior-year column aligned so the two years sit side by side. The result is a draft Bilanz and GuV, not just a re-labelled export.
Why you review every line
You confirm each assignment
The proposed mapping is shown account by account so you can accept it or move a balance to a different position. Nothing is locked until you approve it, which keeps control and responsibility with you.
Ambiguous accounts get caught
Some accounts are genuinely judgemental — a 'sonstige' catch-all, a shareholder loan, an asset that could be fixed or current. The review step surfaces exactly these so they are not silently misclassified.
The balance sheet must tie out
After review, total assets have to equal total equity and liabilities. A hard structural check flags any imbalance immediately, so an unmapped or double-counted account cannot slip through.
What happens after the figures are locked
Once you confirm the mapping, the figures are locked and everything downstream flows from them: the Anhang disclosures are triggered by which positions actually carry a balance, the fixed-asset movement schedule is built from the asset accounts, and the E-Bilanz taxonomy for the tax office is populated from the same numbers. Because it is one consistent set of figures, the notes never contradict the balance sheet.
If you keep books in DATEV or another SKR-based system, the whole cycle starts from an export you already produce every month — see the DATEV guide for how to get the SuSa out and in.
Frequently asked questions
What is a Summen- und Saldenliste?
It is the German trial balance: a list of every ledger account with its balances, usually keyed to an SKR chart of accounts. It is the standard monthly output of German bookkeeping and the starting point for preparing statutory accounts.
Can AI map SKR accounts to the HGB balance sheet?
Yes. Our AI reads the SKR03/SKR04 account numbers and names and proposes the § 266 / § 275 HGB position for each balance, including HGB-specific treatments like VAT netting. You then review and approve every assignment before the figures lock.
What HGB positions am I mapping to?
The balance-sheet positions of § 266 HGB (Anlagevermögen, Umlaufvermögen, equity, provisions, liabilities, and so on) and the income-statement positions of § 275 HGB, in either the nature-of-expense or cost-of-sales format.
Do I have to trust the AI blindly?
No. The mapping is a proposal shown line by line for your review; you accept or reassign each account, and a structural check confirms the balance sheet ties out. The professional responsibility for the classification stays with you.
What file formats can I upload?
You can upload the trial balance as a PDF, CSV or Excel file, or a Saldenliste export from your accounting system. Medium and large entities can also work from XML/XBRL data.