Annual accounts for an advertising agency (Dutch): media buying, campaigns and hours
At an advertising or marketing agency, revenue can double or halve through one choice: does the client's media budget count or not?
The short answer
An advertising agency first determines whether it buys media for its own account or on behalf of the client. Only amounts for its own account are revenue; media budget that you pass on is a pass-through item and only your commission counts (RJ 270, paragraph 105a). You recognise creative work as it progresses, and the placement of advertisements when they appear. Advances are a liability.
Updated 30 October 2026
Key facts
| Principal or agent | Revenue only on amounts the agency receives for its own account (RJ 270, paragraphs 105a to 105c) |
| Production of a campaign | As the work progresses (RJ 270, appendix, example 16) |
| Placement of advertisements | When the advertisement is published or broadcast |
Media budget: revenue or pass-through item?
If you buy advertising space, airtime or clicks for a client, RJ 270 asks for whose account you do so. Amounts you receive for your own account as principal are revenue. Amounts you receive for someone else as agent and pass on are not: they do not increase your own equity (paragraphs 105a and 105c). The guideline lists indications that you act for your own account:
- you are responsible to the client for delivery;
- you have control of the space or service before the client receives it;
- you bear inventory risk, for example with airtime bought in advance;
- you set the price yourself;
- you bear the credit risk if the client does not pay.
None of those characteristics decides on its own (paragraph 105b). A fee that is fixed in advance as an amount per transaction or as a percentage points instead to a role as agent. The difference does not affect profit, but it does affect net turnover, the gross margin and possibly the size class.
Creation, production and placement: when is it earned?
| Service | Revenue | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Concept, design and production of a campaign | As the work progresses | RJ 270, appendix, example 16b |
| Placing advertisements or having commercials broadcast | When the advertisement or commercial appears | RJ 270, appendix, example 16a |
| Monthly retainer for social media management | Evenly over the period | RJ 270, paragraph 120 |
| Hours on a time-and-materials basis | In the month in which they were worked | RJ 270, paragraph 115 |
Campaigns in progress and client money
On 31 December there is almost always a campaign running. For the creative part you measure progress, for example in hours against budget, and recognise that share of the price as revenue. If the client has paid more than you have earned, the difference is an amount received in advance. Media budget you have received from the client but not yet paid to the media company is a liability and not your own money, even if it is in your bank account. The costs of a pitch you do not win are an expense of the year.
Staff and freelancers
Hours are the agency's cost price. Wages of your own people and invoices from freelancers are different types of cost: wages and social security charges versus external costs (art. 2:377(3) DCC, under e to g). How detailed you show them depends on the size class: a small entity may let the external costs be absorbed into gross operating result (art. 2:396(4) DCC) and a micro entity need not state social security charges separately (art. 2:395a(5) DCC). A freelancer invoice for December that arrives in January is recorded as costs still to be paid: it belongs to the campaign that was worked on (art. 2:362(5) DCC). The same applies to accrued holiday pay and leave of your own team.
Worked example: one campaign, two outcomes
A fictitious advertising agency receives € 31.000 in November for a campaign: € 20.000 media budget, € 1.000 commission for the purchasing and € 10.000 for design and production. The agency buys the media in the name and at the risk of the client. On 31 December the design is 60% complete and half of the advertisements have appeared.
- Design and production: 60% × € 10.000 = € 6.000 revenue.
- Commission: half of the advertisements have appeared, so € 500 revenue.
- Media budget: no revenue. Of the € 20.000, € 10.000 has been paid on; the other € 10.000 is on the balance sheet as a liability.
- Received in advance: € 4.000 design and € 500 commission.
Revenue of the financial year: € 6.500. Had the agency bought the media for its own account and risk and resold them, revenue would have been € 16.500 and purchases € 10.000. Profit is the same in both cases.
Four mistakes at agencies
- Booking the entire media budget as revenue without assessing your own role.
- Treating received media money as your own liquidity.
- Recognising a campaign as revenue only at the final invoice.
- Booking December freelancer invoices in January.
Gross or net feeds through into the size class
Net turnover is one of the three size criteria. An agency that wrongly counts media budget as revenue may classify itself one class too high and think it is subject to the audit requirement. Calculate revenue correctly first and then do the audit requirement check.
What you decide yourself and what Jaarrekening.io takes over
Whether you are principal or agent is for you to decide and process in your bookkeeping. Jaarrekening.io then imports the trial balance from an XAF audit file or an Excel or CSV file, derives the size class from your figures and prepares the annual accounts that belong to that class.
Sources
Frequently asked questions
Is purchased advertising space revenue of the advertising agency?
Only if you buy for your own account and risk and resell. If you buy on behalf of the client and pass on the budget, only your commission is revenue (RJ 270, paragraphs 105a to 105c).
When is a media commission earned?
When the advertisement or commercial is published or broadcast. If the placement runs across the year-end, you divide the commission according to what appeared before and after the balance sheet date.
How do I value a campaign that is half finished?
You recognise as revenue the part of the price for design and production that corresponds to progress. If more has been invoiced than earned, the difference is an amount received in advance; if less has been invoiced, it is a receivable.
May I capitalise the costs of a lost pitch?
No. There is no revenue to set against it, so it is an expense of the year in which you incurred the costs.
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Preparing Dutch annual accounts?
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