Prepare Dutch annual accounts yourself or outsource?

The short answer

Doing it yourself is possible for micro and small: Dutch law requires no accountant there. For medium-sized and large an audit by an accountant is as a rule mandatory art. 2:393(1) DCC, but you may prepare the accounts yourself then too. You do not have to choose between software and accountant: you can prepare them yourself and have an accountant look along. The board remains responsible.

Updated 30 October 2026

What the law requires, per size class

The law always places preparation with the board, and all directors sign art. 2:210(1) and (2) DCC. Whether an accountant is also needed depends as a rule on the size class. A public-interest entity has an audit requirement even as a small entity art. 2:398(7) DCC, and a subsidiary that applies the group regime may be exempt from it art. 2:403(3) DCC. A bank or grant provider may also require a statement itself.

The thresholds: micro up to € 450.000 of assets, € 900.000 net turnover and fewer than ten employees; small up to € 7,5 million, € 15 million and fewer than fifty; medium-sized up to € 25 million, € 50 million and fewer than 250. What decides is whether on two consecutive balance sheet dates you stay within two of the three thresholds art. 2:395a(1) DCC art. 2:396(1) DCC art. 2:397(1) DCC. You calculate your class with the size class calculator, your audit requirement with the audit requirement check.

Four routes side by side

When doing it yourself works well

• Your entity is micro or small, so there is no audit requirement.
• The administration is up to date: bank, accounts receivable and accounts payable reconcile, and the tax liability is in it.
• There are no items you truly doubt, such as the valuation of a participating interest, a provision or the going concern.
• You can read a balance sheet and have a few evenings before the deadline.

What software does and what stays with you can be separated clearly. In Jaarrekening.io the amounts come from fixed calculation rules; the AI proposes the mapping of accounts to annual accounts line items and writes editable drafts for the notes and management report. Valuation, provisions, events after the balance sheet date and the going concern remain judgements of the board.

How doing it yourself works step by step is in the guide to preparing BV annual accounts yourself. The first annual accounts in your account are free, so you can try it on a real financial year.

When outsourcing is wise

• You have an audit requirement: you cannot carry out the audit yourself.
• A bank or grant provider requires a compilation or audit report.
• Equity is negative or the financing is expiring, so the going concern calls for a judgement.
• You want to pay a dividend and the distribution test must be right.
• A group with participating interests stands behind the BV and it is unclear whether consolidation is needed.
• The administration is behind and the deadline is close.

Outsourcing does not mean the responsibility shifts. Even if a firm prepares the documents, the board prepares the annual accounts and signs them.

Annual accounts software or accountant?

The question is rarely either-or. There are three common combinations:

1. Software only. For micro and small you prepare and file yourself.
2. Software, with an accountant looking along. You prepare; the accountant reviews the difficult items or issues a compilation report. In Jaarrekening.io you invite the accountant to the workspace, with a role of their own, comments on a section and approval per section.
3. Software for the file, the accountant for the audit. For medium-sized and large you prepare the annual accounts; the accountant audits and you add the auditor's report in the step of that name. For large, the accountant submits the XBRL file, which the app makes as a validation candidate, with SBR software.

What each route costs you can work out at what does a set of annual accounts cost?. How an accountant reviews your own annual accounts is in having self-made annual accounts reviewed.

Bookkeeper or annual accounts software?

A bookkeeper keeps the daily administration. The trial balance at the end of the year is the raw material for the annual accounts. So you can divide the work in three ways:

• The bookkeeper also prepares the annual accounts. Handy if they close the administration anyway; ask what that costs extra.
• The bookkeeper delivers the trial balance or XAF audit file, and you prepare the annual accounts with software. You pay the bookkeeper for the administration and the software per financial year.
• You do the bookkeeping yourself in Jaarrekening.io. The annual accounts then take over the trial balance without an export. The bookkeeping is a subscription per entity, from € 125 a month excl. VAT for micro, including the periodic VAT returns.

With the second route, ask the bookkeeper for a trial balance after the closing entries: depreciation, accruals and corporate income tax processed. If RGS codes come with it, the mapping to the annual accounts line items follows from those codes. A bookkeeper who is not an accountant does not issue a compilation report; see can my bookkeeper give an accountant's report?

A guide in four questions

1. Is your entity medium-sized or large? Then you need an accountant for the audit. You can prepare the accounts yourself.
2. Is the administration finished and reconciled? If not, first get the bookkeeping in order, yourself or with a bookkeeper.
3. Do you doubt an item? Ask an adviser about that one point, not about the whole file.
4. Does a bank or grant provider ask for a report? Then you need an accountant for a compilation or audit report.

If the answer to question 2 is yes and to the other three questions no, preparing them yourself with software is the simplest route. An accountant is then a choice, not an obligation.

Sources

• Dutch Civil Code Book 2 (wetten.overheid.nl)
• KVK: Filing your annual accounts yourself (updated 10 September 2026)
• KVK: Filing annual accounts business class large (updated 7 January 2026)

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