Wholesale annual accounts: inventory, margin and accounts receivable | Jaarrekening.io

The short answer

In the annual accounts of a wholesaler it is all about inventory and accounts receivable. Trading goods are carried at acquisition cost, determined with weighted average prices, fifo or a similar rule (art. 2:385(2) DCC). If the net realisable value on the balance sheet date is lower, you write down (art. 2:387(2) DCC). Receivables that you do not expect to collect, you write off as an expense.

Updated 30 October 2026

Key facts

What the inventory costs: acquisition cost and sequence

Trading goods are shown under inventories (art. 2:369 DCC). The acquisition cost is the purchase price plus incidental costs (art. 2:388(1) DCC): import duties, freight and handling up to your warehouse. Discounts and bonuses from suppliers are deducted from the acquisition cost as soon as it is probable that you will receive or offset them (RJ 220, paragraph 303).

Because you buy the same item at varying prices, you choose a calculation rule: weighted average prices, fifo, lifo or a similar method (art. 2:385(2) DCC). When purchase prices rise, fifo gives a higher inventory value, and so a higher profit, than the weighted average.

Whose is the inventory on 31 December?

The balance sheet shows the inventory you control, and that is not always what is in the warehouse. Contracts for later purchases and sales do not count (RJ 220, paragraph 204).

Writing down: unsaleable, damaged or fallen in price

Current assets are carried at current value if that is lower than the acquisition cost on the balance sheet date (art. 2:387(2) DCC). For inventory that is the net realisable value: the amount for which you can sell the batch, after deducting the costs you still incur to do so. Grounds are damage, obsolescence, unsaleability and lower selling prices (RJ 220, paragraph 323). You assess that per item or per group of related items (paragraph 324).

Accounts receivable and credit risk

Selling on account is the norm in wholesale, and the lower-value rule applies to trade receivables as well. Prepare an ageing analysis and assess the large items individually: is there a payment arrangement, a dispute, suspension of payments or bankruptcy? What you do not expect to collect, you deduct from the receivable. That is not done through a provision on the liabilities side (art. 2:374(2) DCC) and not by reducing turnover either: a write-off for credit risk is an expense (RJ 270, paragraph 106).

Payment discounts and turnover bonuses to customers are, however, a deduction from net turnover (art. 2:377(6) DCC).

Worked example: old models and a customer under suspension of payments

A fictitious distributor has 500 kitchen appliances in stock on 31 December at € 100 each: € 50.000. A hundred of them are old models that still bring in € 70 after selling costs. The write-down is 100 × € 30 = € 3.000; the inventory is shown at € 47.000 on the balance sheet.

Accounts receivable amount to € 400.000. One customer with a debt of € 25.000 has suspension of payments (surseance van betaling); the administrator expects to pay out 20%. The BV writes off € 20.000. Of the other items, € 30.000 is older than ninety days; of that it expects not to collect 10%: € 3.000. Accounts receivable are shown on the balance sheet at € 400.000 − € 23.000 = € 377.000; € 23.000 is an expense.

Three mistakes from wholesale practice

• Booking the supplier bonus entirely as income while part of the items is still in the warehouse.
• Counting consignment goods of a supplier, or forgetting your own goods at a customer.
• Showing doubtful receivables as a provision instead of deducting them from the receivable.

Lots of turnover, few people: watch the size class

A wholesaler with high turnover and few staff quickly grows past the turnover limit. Check the size criteria to see which class applies to your BV and do the audit requirement check before you assume you are exempt.

What BVs in this sector file

Wholesalers (SBI 46) fall under SBI section G, together with retail (SBI 47) and the motor trade (SBI 45). The dataset does not split that section further, so the figures cover all three together.

In the small balance sheet class, section G had a median solvency of 53,9% for financial year 2024, lower than the 73,4% of all balance sheets in that class together; the median current ratio was 2,18, lower than nationally (3,28). The national figure is high because of the many holding companies.

The balance sheet class follows only the balance sheet total, not the statutory size class. The dataset does not state a legal form; it covers all filings in XBRL with this SBI section, mostly from BVs. Source: KVK Business Register Open Dataset of annual accounts, processed by Jaarrekening.io, CC BY 4.0. Data downloaded and processed on 2 November 2026. Explanation and all sectors: solvency by sector and current ratio by sector.

From trial balance to annual accounts with Jaarrekening.io

The inventory list and the open items come from your bookkeeping or ERP package; you book write-downs and write-offs there yourself. In Jaarrekening.io you then read in the trial balance as an XAF audit file or as an Excel or CSV file. A medium-sized or large wholesaler thus prepares the file that the accountant audits.

Sources

• Art. 2:369 DCC: inventories
• Art. 2:370 DCC: receivables
• Art. 2:374 DCC: provisions
• Art. 2:377 DCC: profit and loss account
• Art. 2:385 DCC: cost flow sequence
• Art. 2:387 DCC: impairments
• Art. 2:388 DCC: acquisition and production cost
• Art. 2:395a DCC: micro entity
• RJ-Uiting 2017-4: draft guideline 220 Inventories
• RJ-Uiting 2020-15: Guideline 270 The profit and loss account

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