Prepare Dutch annual accounts online in seven steps

How preparing annual accounts online works

You prepare annual accounts online by loading the trial balance from your bookkeeping into a web application. It maps the accounts to the statutory line items, determines your size class and prepares the balance sheet, the profit and loss account and the notes. You then review everything, adopt the annual accounts and file the publication documents with the KVK.

Online does not mean everything happens by itself. The judgement on valuation, provisions and events after the balance sheet date stays with the board art. 2:362(1) DCC. The software takes over the classifying, calculating and formatting.

What to have ready beforehand

• A trial balance at the balance sheet date, made after the closing entries: depreciation, accruals, provisions and the corporate income tax for the year.
• The adopted annual accounts of the previous year, for the comparative figures.
• Details of the entity: KVK number, registered office, directors and any supervisory directors.
• The average number of employees over the financial year.
• Information that is not in the bookkeeping, such as security, long-term commitments and events after the balance sheet date.

The seven steps

Step 1. Export the trial balance

Export the trial balance from your bookkeeping package as Excel or CSV, or make an XAF audit file. First check whether clearing accounts, such as suspense items and queries, are at zero. The export per package is described under bookkeeping packages.

Step 2. Upload and reconcile

After uploading, the trial balance must balance: debit and credit add up to the same amount. The result must also agree with the profit and loss account in your package. A difference is resolved in the bookkeeping, not in the annual accounts.

Step 3. Map accounts

Every ledger account gets a place in the statutory balance sheet and profit and loss account. With RGS codes this largely happens by itself; accounts without a code you map yourself or on the basis of a proposal. Always review the doubtful cases.

Step 4. Determine the size class

Balance sheet total, net turnover and employees determine whether you are micro, small, medium-sized or large. The criterion looks at two consecutive balance sheet dates. Your class determines which parts you prepare and what you file. Check it with the size class calculator.

Step 5. Add notes and write

Complete the accounting policies, movement schedules and other notes. If a management report is mandatory, you write that too art. 2:391 DCC. Online programs with AI produce a draft here; you check whether the text fits your situation.

Step 6. Sign and adopt

Read the annual accounts through and have all directors sign. In a BV, the general meeting adopts the annual accounts art. 2:210(3) DCC. If all shareholders are also directors, signature also counts as adoption under conditions art. 2:210(5) DCC.

Step 7. File with the KVK

File the publication documents within eight days after adoption art. 2:394(1) DCC. If the annual accounts have not been adopted two months after the end of the preparation deadline, you file the prepared annual accounts immediately, stating that they have not yet been adopted; after adoption the final version follows art. 2:394(2) DCC. No later than twelve months after the end of the financial year the annual accounts must be public art. 2:394(3) DCC. This is done digitally: with SBR software, through an intermediary or, for micro and small entities, in the KVK's Zelf Deponeren portal. Filing itself is free.

Preparing online with Jaarrekening.io

In Jaarrekening.io you follow the same steps. You activate the financial year (the first is free) and then import a trial balance as Excel or CSV, or an XAF audit file. You retrieve the comparative figures from the annual accounts filed with the KVK, or you upload the previous annual accounts as a PDF. Fixed calculation rules prepare the statements; the AI provides drafts for the notes and the management report.

At the end you export the full annual accounts and the publication version. For every size class the app also produces an XBRL file. That file is a validation candidate: you have it checked with SBR software or by your accountant. The app sends nothing to the KVK; you file yourself or through your accountant and record the receipt reference in the file. You create an account yourself.

When preparing online yourself does not fit

• You have an audit requirement as a medium-sized or large entity art. 2:393 DCC. An accountant is then mandatory.
• The administration is not up to date or does not balance.
• Special items are involved: revaluations, a merger or demerger, foreign participating interests or a change in accounting policies.
• You apply the group exemption of art. 2:403 DCC.

In those cases software can still prepare the work, but you need an expert for the judgement. See also prepare yourself or outsource.

More about annual accounts software

Read more