About the Central Balance Sheet Office

The Central Balance Sheet Office collects, processes and makes available the annual accounts of most legal entities active in Belgium. This information is provided free of charge to members of the public. It is also possible to correct previously filed annual accounts.

Alles over de balanscentrale

Preparation and filing

Most legal entities active in Belgium, including companies, associations, foundations and health insurance funds, must file annual accounts. Around 500,000 sets of annual accounts are submitted to the Central Balance Sheet Office each year. More detailed information on the number of filings can be found on the Central Balance Sheet Office in figures page.

Legal entities must file their annual accounts using either a standard or non-standard model.

Consultation

The Consult application can be used to view annual accounts free of charge.  

This application provides information about:

  • legal entities;
  • references of all published annual accounts;
  • filed annual accounts (as PDF, XBRL or CSV files).

It is possible to analyse annual account data in more detail. The National Bank of Belgium has developed various tools to meet the needs of different target groups. These include applications such as Extract, Webservices, and Statistics NBB.Stat.

Rectification of data

A legal entity can, at its own initiative or at the request of the National Bank of Belgium, correct or modify previously filed annual accounts.

History of the Central Balance Sheet Office

The Central Balance Sheet Office was established in 1978. Over the years, it has been adapted to a changing technological environment, as shown in the diagram below.

The last major overhaul took place in April 2022. At that time, the Central Balance Sheet Office was redesigned to further improve ease of use for filers.

What has changed since April 2022?

Notification of filing via e-Box

  

Since 4 April 2022, notifications have been sent only to your official e-Box.

If you don’t yet have one, you can create one (see www.eboxenterprise.be).

Updated Filing application

  

A single application for the drawing up and filing of annual accounts

  • A personal space to manage your filings
  • Operational since 4 April 2022
  • Not supported by Internet Explorer

Publication

 
  • Publication of annual accounts shortly after confirmation of payment of the filing fee
  • Possibility to download accounting data in text format

New bank account number

 

  

Smoother payment

  • Payment by credit card, debit card (Maestro, Bancontact), smartphone or QR code
  • Filing agents can send a secure payment link to the company they represent
  • A new NBB bank account number via payment services provider CCV

New access procedure

 

  

Use of the government’s CSAM portal

  • Authentication for the Filing application via CSAM
  • Connection possible via itsme

XBRL 2.1

 

  

New XBRL format and structure

  • Old XBRL format not valid since 4 April 2022