---
title: "Opening a Tax Balance Sheet"
description: "To start entering data and configuring a tax balance sheet, you must first open the desired combination of individual company and tax balance sheet."
source_url: https://support.lucanet.com/en/documentation/income-taxes/tax-balance/create-single-entity-tax-balance/open-tax-balance
language: en
last_updated: 2026-05-28
---
# Opening a Tax Balance Sheet in Tax Balance

## Overview

To start entering the data and configuring a tax balance sheet in Tax Balance, you must first open the desired combination of **individual company** and **tax balance sheet**.

The overview of the chosen tax balance sheet is then displayed. From here, you can mark the individual process steps of the [milestones](#milestones) as done or navigate to the individual **workspaces** to create the tax balance sheet.

## Opening a Tax Balance Sheet in Tax Balance

Do one of the following to open the **tax balance sheet** to be edited at the **individual company** level in Tax Balance:

- Under **Companies**, first choose the desired company and then the **tax balance sheet** you want to edit.
- Under **Tax Balance Sheets**, choose the tax balance sheet you want to edit.

> **Note:** Only the combinations of **company** and **tax balance sheet** that were assigned in the master data when [creating a tax balance sheet](https://support.lucanet.com/en/documentation/income-taxes/tax-balance/master-data-tax-balance/create-tax-balance-sheet.md) can be chosen.

## Displaying the Tax Balance Sheet Overview in Tax Balance

After you have opened the tax balance sheet to be edited from the **Company** area in Tax Balance, the **overview** of the tax balance sheet is displayed as follows:

![Shows the 'Overview' of the tax balance sheet '31.03.2026 (Steuerbilanz 2026)' for the company '10000 (Konzernmutter)' in Tax Balance with the areas 'Milestones' ('Annual financial statements' and 'E-Balance', both 'Not started'), 'Tax Balance Sheet' ('Balance sheet date', 'previous year', 'Taxonomy' and the 'More actions' menu) and 'Affiliated Companies'. Highlighted in red are the navigation tree labeled 'Overview', the 'Navigation bar', and the 'Milestones', 'Tax Balance Sheet' and 'Affiliated Companies' areas.](https://support.lucanet.com/assets/docs-images/income-taxes/tax-balance/create-single-entity-tax-balance/open-tax-balance/_images/en/tax-balance-overview.png)
Tax balance sheet overview

## Options in the Tax Balance Sheet Overview in Tax Balance

The following options are available in the overview of an open tax balance sheet in Tax Balance:

#### Overview

Used to navigate between the workspaces used to configure and create the tax balance sheet

#### Navigation bar

Navigation path to the company you are currently editing

#### Milestones

Predefined milestones for tracking the process status.

For each milestone, a dialog shows the current status and the checks the milestone includes. In Tax Balance, a milestone passes through the following statuses:

1. **Not started**
2. **In progress**
3. **Plausible**
4. **Done**
5. **Checked**

You set the next status using the corresponding button in the dialog, for example **Set status 'in progress'**.

In Tax Balance, the **E-Balance** milestone includes the following checks:

| Check | Description |
|---|---|
| Accounts and mapping available | Import accounts or create accounts manually. The accounts must have a valid mapping to a taxonomy item. |
| Balance sheet and income statement can be reconciled | The figures in the balance sheet and income statement components of the report are plausible. |
| GCD master data is complete | The GCD master data is fully maintained. |
| Test transmission successful | Make sure that the transmission of the e-balance sheet with test flags was successful. |
| Real transmission successful | Make sure that the transmission of the e-balance sheet without test flags was successful. |

![Shows the 'Milestone: 'E-Balance'' dialog in Tax Balance with the statuses 'Not started', 'In progress', 'Plausible', 'Done' and 'Checked', with 'Not started' active, and the checks 'Accounts and mapping available', 'Balance sheet and income statement can be reconciled', 'GCD master data is complete', 'Test transmission successful' and 'Real transmission successful', as well as the 'Set status 'in progress'' and 'Close' buttons.](https://support.lucanet.com/assets/docs-images/income-taxes/tax-balance/create-single-entity-tax-balance/open-tax-balance/_images/en/milestone-e-bilanz.png)
'Milestone: E-Balance' dialog

#### Tax Balance Sheet

Details on the tax balance sheet.

You can use the **More actions** menu to:

- **Close** the tax balance sheet for further editing
- **Re-open** a tax balance sheet already closed
- **Delete** the tax balance sheet

#### Affiliated Companies

List of tax group entities affiliated with a tax group parent.

This information is obtained from the GCD master data.