AI & annual accounts

Can ChatGPT make my annual accounts?

A chatbot writes fluently about annual accounts, but Dutch annual accounts are more than text. What a general chatbot can and cannot do, and when you need something else.

Get started All English guides

✓ First annual accounts free ✓ Micro to large entities ✓ Dutch GAAP: Title 9, Book 2 DCC ✓ Primary database in the EU

The short answer

Not without more. A chatbot such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot or Claude can explain concepts and improve text, and some can run calculations on an uploaded trial balance. The model itself chooses the classification into line items, the size class and what you publish, legal references may be outdated and a validated XBRL file is missing. Leave that to software with fixed calculation rules or an accountant.

Updated 30 October 2026

Key facts

What a chatbot is good at	Explaining concepts, rewriting your own text, setting up a questionnaire for the year-end closing
Where it goes wrong	The classification into line items, the size class, legal references, the publication version and XBRL
Privacy	A trial balance often contains personal data; do not paste it into a chat service without business agreements
Who remains responsible	The board, regardless of the tool (art. 2:210(1) DCC, art. 2:362(1) DCC)

What a chatbot does well

A general chatbot is strong in language. For the annual accounts you can use it to:

have a concept explained, such as a statutory reserve, the difference between a provision and a liability, or the two-out-of-three criterion for the size class;
make a text you wrote yourself more businesslike or shorter, for example the description of the activities;
draw up a list of questions to go through at the year-end closing: are there guarantees, are there lease contracts, what happened after the balance sheet date;
prepare an e-mail to your bookkeeper or accountant.

Even then, look up every legal reference in Book 2 of the Dutch Civil Code on wetten.overheid.nl. An explanation that sounds convincing may be about another country or an old statutory text.

What goes wrong when the chatbot makes the annual accounts

Even a chatbot that reads files and calculates remains a language model that makes its own choices. For annual accounts this gives five predictable problems.

1. It knows your records only from what you supply

The chatbot works with what you paste or upload. If something is missing, such as an account or last year's figures, a language model does not fill it in from your records but with what is usual in similar texts. A note may then be about a pension provision or inventory that your BV does not have.

2. You have to recheck every calculation and choice

Some chatbots can run calculations on a file; OpenAI, for example, describes that in ChatGPT you can add a CSV or Excel file and have it analysed. Which account belongs to which line item and which model the profit and loss account follows is then chosen by the model itself, and with a new question that choice may turn out differently. So recheck the outcome. Amounts in the notes must tie in with the corresponding line items and the underlying data. Comparative figures are adjusted where necessary to make them comparable, and you explain that adjustment (art. 2:363(5) DCC).

3. It cites outdated or wrong rules

Models learn from texts from the past. An example: for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2024, the threshold amounts have been raised (Staatsblad 2024, 52). The limits for micro are now a balance sheet total of € 450.000 and net turnover of € 900.000; before that they were € 350.000 and € 700.000. A chatbot that cites the old amounts puts you in another size class, with a different publication duty. German terms such as Bilanz or Anhang, or articles from another law, also turn up.

4. It does not know what you make public

What you file with the KVK (Dutch Chamber of Commerce) depends on the size class: a micro company only the abridged balance sheet (art. 2:395a(8) DCC), a small legal entity the balance sheet and abridged notes, without a profit and loss account (art. 2:396(8) DCC). The class follows from two of the three criteria on two consecutive balance sheet dates. If a chatbot does not apply that test consistently, you publish too much or too little. Too much cannot be undone: filed documents remain public.

5. It does not make a validated XBRL file

Since financial year 2025 all size classes file digitally. Micro and small can also prepare and file the publication documents in the KVK's Zelf Deponeren Jaarrekening portal; medium-sized and large upload an adopted annual accounts document there, or file with SBR software. A large legal entity files an XBRL file with SBR software; an iXBRL file can also be filed via the portal (KVK, large business class). Such a file must comply with the Dutch Taxonomy and the KVK's rules. A chatbot can produce something that looks like XBRL, but does not validate it against those rules. See also can I program an XBRL file myself?

Pasting your trial balance into a chatbot: the privacy question

A trial balance looks anonymous, but often is not. The salary of the director-major shareholder, the current account with the DGA or the payroll costs of one employee concern an identifiable person and are therefore personal data (art. 4(1) GDPR). For a sole proprietorship, the entire records are about the entrepreneur personally.

Whoever pastes such data into a chat service has it processed. With a personal account, the terms you accepted as a consumer apply, including on whether the provider may use your input for training; a data processing agreement for your company is then usually missing (art. 28(3) GDPR). For business data, choose a service with business agreements, or remove names and traceable amounts first. More on financial data in AI and the GDPR.

What specialised software adds

Jaarrekening.io itself also uses language models, from Anthropic, via the commercial API. The difference from a chatbot lies not in the model but in what is built around it:

the amounts come from fixed calculation rules on your complete trial balance, not from the model;
accounts with an RGS code get their line item via that code, and for an account without a code the AI names a line item with a confidence level, which you review;
the size class is tested against the applicable threshold amounts, and from that follows which sections you prepare and what goes into the publication version;
a draft for the notes with an amount that the app cannot trace to the recorded figures or your answers is not saved;
for every size class the app makes an XBRL file as a validation candidate, which you have validated with SBR software or by your accountant before use.

You file yourself or via your accountant; the app submits nothing to the KVK. The first annual accounts in your account are free, for every size class. After that you pay per annual accounts, once per financial year: micro € 250, small € 500, medium-sized € 2.000 or large € 5.000, excl. VAT. Other programs and routes are set side by side in the buying guide.

A way of working that does work

Close the books and export the trial balance or an XAF audit file from your bookkeeping package.
Have the balance sheet and profit and loss account prepared by software that calculates according to the Besluit modellen jaarrekening (the Dutch Decree on annual accounts formats), or by your bookkeeper.
Use a language model, in that software or separately, for the first version of the text, with only the data needed for it.
Check every amount and every legal reference, and add what only you know: guarantees, disputes, events after the balance sheet date.
Have the annual accounts signed and adopted; if all shareholders are also directors, the signing is at once the adoption (art. 2:210(5) DCC). File within eight days after adoption and no later than twelve months after the end of the financial year (art. 2:394(1) and (3) DCC). If the general meeting does not adopt in time, the board files the prepared annual accounts (art. 2:394(2) DCC).

When you need an accountant

For a medium-sized or large legal entity, the law prescribes an audit by a qualified accountant (art. 2:393(1) DCC). No chatbot and no software takes over that task. For micro and small, that duty does not apply (art. 2:395a(6) DCC, art. 2:396(7) DCC), but there too an accountant is wise if you doubt the continuity, in a restructuring, a first consolidation, or if your bank asks for a compilation report. More at does AI replace the accountant?

Sources

Legal notice: this information is general in nature and does not replace tax or legal advice or an audit by an accountant. The accuracy and completeness of the annual accounts remain the responsibility of the board.

Frequently asked questions

Can ChatGPT make annual accounts?

A chatbot can produce a document that looks like annual accounts, and some can run calculations on an uploaded file. That does not make it reliable: the model itself chooses the classification into line items, the size class and what you publish, legal references may be outdated, and it does not deliver a validated XBRL file. For explanations and text it is useful.

May I file annual accounts that were made with ChatGPT?

The law does not prohibit any tool. What counts is whether the annual accounts comply with Title 9 of Book 2 of the Dutch Civil Code and whether the board has prepared and signed them. A chatbot's mistake is legally the board's mistake.

Is it safe to paste my trial balance into ChatGPT?

Not without more, for business data. A trial balance often states amounts about one person, such as the remuneration of the director-major shareholder. Use a business service with a data processing agreement, or remove traceable data first.

Which chatbot works best for the annual accounts?

For the annual accounts themselves none, because the limitation is not in the model but in what is missing around it: fixed calculation rules for the classification, the check on size class and publication, and a validated XBRL file. For explanations and text, the choice of chatbot matters less than the checking: look up every legal reference yourself.

Does Jaarrekening.io use ChatGPT?

No. The app works with language models from Anthropic, via the commercial API. In the annual accounts it uses them for mapping accounts without an RGS code, drafts for the notes and the management report, reading PDFs and the AI review; in Bookkeeping for entry suggestions and reading invoices. The app calculates the amounts itself.

Annual accounts with AI: what AI does and what it does not →Financial data in AI and the GDPR →Does AI replace the accountant? →May I make the annual accounts in Excel? →Size criteria →SBR and XBRL: filing →

Preparing Dutch annual accounts?

Your first set of annual accounts is free, for every size class. Create an account and prepare the annual accounts of your Dutch company under Title 9 of Book 2 of the Dutch Civil Code.

Get started