Does AI replace the accountant?

The short answer

Not where the law prescribes an accountant. A medium-sized or large entity needs an auditor's report from a registered accountant or an AA with the required designation (art. 2:393 DCC); no software issues that. Micro and small entities have no audit requirement: there, software with AI can do most of the compilation work and you decide whether to engage an accountant.

Updated 30 October 2026

Key facts

What the law reserves for the accountant

For a medium-sized or large entity, a registered accountant, or an Accountant-Administratieconsulent with the designation the law requires, must audit the annual accounts (art. 2:393(1) DCC). That accountant also checks whether the management report has been prepared in accordance with the law and is consistent with the annual accounts (art. 2:393(3) DCC), and reports the outcome in an auditor's report (art. 2:393(5) DCC). That report is unqualified, qualified, adverse, or a disclaimer of opinion (art. 2:393(6) DCC).

Without that report the general meeting cannot, in principle, adopt the annual accounts (art. 2:393(7) DCC). The law places the task with a person holding a protected title, who is subject to disciplinary rules. A program or language model can support the work, but cannot issue a report, and the board remains responsible for the true and fair view the annual accounts give (art. 2:362(1) DCC).

Micro and small: no audit requirement

For a micro entity, the section on the expert audit does not apply (art. 2:395a(6) DCC); for a small entity the audit requirement is disapplied (art. 2:396(7) DCC). The board may then prepare, adopt and file the annual accounts itself, without a report from anyone.

Even so, small businesses often have an accountant or bookkeeper compile the annual accounts. That is a service, not an obligation. An accountant does it as a compilation engagement under Standard 4410: they compile the annual accounts from your data and state what they have done, without an opinion on accuracy (see compilation report). Bookkeeping firms sometimes issue their own statement, such as the NOAB compilation report of NOAB members. It is precisely this compilation work that is largely standard, and software with AI can take over a lot of it.

What software with AI takes over from compilation work

This is how Jaarrekening.io divides the work that a compiler would otherwise do by hand:

What is left is the work where an accountant makes the difference: judgements on valuation, provisions and continuity, tax choices, and the conversation about what the figures mean for the business.

What an accountant keeps doing, even with AI

• Issuing reports. The auditor's report for medium-sized and large entities, and a review report (Standard 2400) when a lender wants less assurance than an audit.
• Judgements with consequences. A provision for a dispute, the write-down of a participating interest, the question of whether a loss-making BV can continue (art. 2:384(3) DCC).
• Tax advice. The corporate income tax return, a small entity's choice of tax-based accounting policies (art. 2:396(6) DCC), dividends and the distribution test (art. 2:216(2) DCC).
• Structure questions. Holding and operating company, a first consolidation, an acquisition or restructuring.
• Assurance for third parties. A bank or investor that wants to see a report from an accountant.

When you engage an accountant

If you are in doubt, use the audit requirement check or read when an accountant is mandatory.

Software and accountant together

Where an audit is required, software and accountant do not exclude each other. In Jaarrekening.io the board, controller and accountant work in one workspace with their own roles and invitations by email. A reviewer or approver places comments and suggested text changes with their name attached, approves per section, and an audit trail records recorded actions. You prepare the file that the accountant audits; for a large entity the accountant submits the XBRL file with the auditor's report using SBR software. If you work at a firm, read annual-work software for firms.

Does AI replace the bookkeeper?

A bookkeeper does different work from an accountant: bookkeeping throughout the year, preparing the VAT return, the year-end closing. Here too, software with AI takes over part of the work, for example with an AI suggestion when booking the bank and reading purchase invoices. Booking remains a deliberate human act. What the AI does in bookkeeping is described on AI and bookkeeping.

Sources

• Art. 2:393 DCC: audit requirement, report and adoption (wetten.overheid.nl)
• Art. 2:395a DCC: micro entity: no expert audit (wetten.overheid.nl)
• Art. 2:396 DCC: small entity: art. 2:393(1) does not apply (wetten.overheid.nl)
• Art. 2:210 DCC: preparation and signing for the BV (wetten.overheid.nl)
• Art. 2:384 DCC: going concern assumption (wetten.overheid.nl)
• Art. 2:362 DCC: true and fair view requirement (wetten.overheid.nl)
• NOAB Disciplinary Board, ruling TC 74-2021 (NOAB compilation report)

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