Should I choose online or offline annual accounts software?
Both routes work for year-end accounts. Choose on collaboration, updates, security and the ability to keep your file yourself.
The short answer
Both routes work for year-end accounts. Choose on collaboration, updates, security and the ability to keep your file yourself.
Legal basis: art. 2:10 DCC
When does working together online help?
Online and offline software can both be suitable. The choice depends mainly on where you work, who needs access and how you organise updates and archiving. Do not assume that a local programme is automatically safer or that an online package automatically keeps everything. Check the actual set-up of both options.
Online software can be handy when the entrepreneur, bookkeeper and accountant work together from different locations. Test user rights, locking a final version and tracing changes. Ask how the supplier makes data available on termination and which export formats you get. Also check what happens during a temporary outage. A report that is visible only in a browser must still be savable for your own file. Record who periodically makes an archive copy and whether that copy stays readable outside the software.
What does offline management ask of you?
With locally installed software you organise the continuity of computer, files and backups yourself. Test whether a file can be restored on another machine. A copy on the same defective disk does not help if that disk fails. Pay attention to supported operating systems and the availability of tax and taxonomy updates. A programme that still opens may use an outdated reporting model. Therefore ask how the supplier supports old financial years and new requirements side by side. Include any costs for installation, management and recovery in the comparison.
For both routes art. 2:10 DCC remains relevant: the records must give insight into rights and obligations and the necessary data must be kept. The law therefore does not choose a hosting model for you. Assess who may change documents, how access is ended and what information ends up in the archive. If the file contains personal data, the applicable privacy obligations are also relevant. Ask the supplier for concrete information on storage, access and data processing. A general sales sentence about security is less useful than demonstrable functions and clear agreements on responsibilities.
How do you test archive and recovery?
Compare two workable scenarios with the same file. For the online route, let an external adviser with limited rights look along. For the offline route, restore a copy on another suitable computer. In both cases make a final export and try to trace the origin of an amount. Note where extra actions or costs arise. For an individual user with well-organised local management, working offline may fit; for teams that work in different places, online access may be more practical. Choose on those concrete outcomes and organise your own archive, regardless of where the software runs.
Sources
Frequently asked questions
Is offline software automatically more secure?
No. Security also depends on updates, rights and backups.
What happens in an online outage?
Ask how you can keep a final file and when access will be restored.
Which offline test is useful?
Restore a backup on another suitable computer and open the file.
Read more
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