Bookkeeping and accounting for a Dutch BV: what to keep and which software to use

Once the BV is registered and the bank account is open, a quieter obligation begins that never really ends: keeping the books. For many founders coming from Türkiye this is the part of running a Dutch company that feels most foreign, not because it is difficult, but because the rules about what to keep, how long to keep it and how to file from it are different from what they know at home. This article explains the duty to keep records, what “records” means in practice, a monthly routine that works, and how the four software packages we work with differ.

The legal duty to keep records

Dutch law places the obligation on the company itself, not on its adviser. The Civil Code requires the board of a BV to keep records of the company’s financial position in such a way that its rights and obligations can be known at any time. Tax law adds its own version of the same duty for every business: the records must allow the Belastingdienst to check your VAT, corporate income tax and payroll returns within a reasonable time.

The retention period is seven years. For records relating to real estate, such as the purchase of an office building and the VAT treatment attached to it, the period is longer. The period starts after the end of the financial year the document belongs to, so in practice you keep a little more than seven calendar years. Records may be kept digitally, on one condition: they must stay readable and retrievable for the whole period, and if you convert paper to scans the scan must be a complete and legible copy. A folder of photographed receipts in a bookkeeping system meets that test; a box of faded thermal receipts does not.

What “records” means in practice

The word covers more than the ledger. For a typical BV the following must be available:

• Sales invoices you issued and purchase invoices you received, with a sequential numbering of your own invoices.
• Bank statements for every business account, including payment providers and foreign accounts used for the business.
• Contracts: leases, loan agreements, management agreements, agreements with the shareholder or a Turkish group company.
• Payroll records if the BV has employees or pays the director a salary: payslips, payroll returns, the employee’s identification and the signed wage tax declaration.
• The shareholder register and the written resolutions of the general meeting and the board, for example the resolution setting the director’s salary or approving a dividend.
• VAT returns, the intra-Community declaration, corporate income tax returns and all correspondence with the Belastingdienst.
• Receipts and expense claims, cash records if any cash is used, and the agenda or mileage log behind travel costs.

A good test: if a tax inspector asked why a payment left the bank account, could you show a document that explains it within a few minutes? If the answer is yes for every line, the records are in order.

Invoice requirements in brief

An invoice from a Dutch BV must carry the date, a unique sequential number, the BV’s name, address and VAT identification number, the KVK number, the customer’s name and address, a description of the goods or services, the quantity, the date of supply, the amount excluding VAT, the VAT rate and the VAT amount. For supplies to a business customer in another EU country the customer’s VAT number and a reference to the reverse charge are added. Invoices that miss these elements cause two problems: your customer may not deduct the VAT, and your own deduction on purchase invoices can be refused. We covered the mechanics in Dutch VAT (BTW) basics for BV owners.

A monthly routine that works

Bookkeeping becomes heavy only when it is left for the quarter end. A routine of an hour or two a month keeps it light:

1. Bank feed. Connect the business account to the bookkeeping system so transactions arrive automatically. Every modern package does this with Dutch banks.
2. Purchase invoices. Forward supplier invoices to the system’s inbox or scan receipts with the phone app as they arrive. The system recognises the supplier, amount and VAT; you confirm.
3. Sales invoices. Issue invoices from the system, never from a word processor. Numbering, VAT and the link to the payment then take care of themselves.
4. Reconcile. Match each bank line to an invoice or a category. Lines that stay unmatched at month end are the ones worth a question to your adviser.
5. Check the VAT position. The system shows the VAT payable or refundable for the period. Looking at it monthly means the quarterly return holds no surprises.

The owner who does these five steps monthly has a BV whose figures are always current, which matters when a bank, an investor or the IND asks for them.

Choosing software

We work with four packages and see all of them in daily use. Which one fits depends on the size of the BV, who does the work and what the company sells. An overview with facts and licence information is on our software page; the short profiles below are our honest view.

Exact Online is the package most Dutch advisers and growing BVs use. It handles bookkeeping, VAT, intra-Community declarations, fixed assets and, in the higher editions, stock, projects and multiple companies. It is the natural choice for a trading BV, a group with a holding and an operating company, or a BV that expects to grow and wants its adviser inside the same file.

Moneybird is built for the owner who does the daily work alone. Invoicing, bank feed, receipt scanning and the VAT return are clear and fast, and the interface is available in English. It suits a small service BV, a consultant or a start-up with simple flows. It has less depth for stock, projects and group structures.

Minox is used through an adviser rather than bought directly. It is a solid Dutch package for BVs that prefer to hand over most of the bookkeeping and keep only invoicing and approvals on their side. If you want a low-maintenance arrangement where we run the file, this is a good fit.

TRONVoice is an invoicing and e-invoicing tool rather than a full ledger. It issues compliant invoices, including the UBL format Dutch public bodies and larger companies increasingly require, and is moving towards Peppol. It works well next to one of the packages above for a BV whose customers demand electronic invoices.

We do not sell licences and we have no preference tied to a vendor. If you already use a system that works, we fit into it.

Who does what

The split that works in most of our files: the owner issues sales invoices, forwards purchase invoices and receipts, and answers questions about unmatched bank lines. We book the complex items, check the VAT treatment, file the VAT return and the intra-Community declaration, run payroll where there is one, and prepare the annual accounts and the corporate income tax return from the same file. The owner sees the same figures we see, at any time. That transparency is also why we prefer cloud packages over spreadsheets sent back and forth.

Points specific to Turkish owners

A BV owned from Türkiye brings a few extra items into the records:

• Documents from Türkiye. Invoices from Turkish suppliers are valid support, but the Belastingdienst may ask for a translation of the description. Keep the original and, for larger amounts, a short English summary.
• Foreign currency. Transactions in Turkish lira or dollars are booked in euros at the rate on the transaction date; the system does the conversion, but the rate source must be consistent.
• Group transactions. Management fees, loans and goods flows between the BV and a Turkish parent or sister company must be at arm’s length and documented in a written agreement. For groups above set size thresholds a transfer pricing file is mandatory; below them a short memo explaining the pricing is wise. Both the Dutch and the Turkish tax authority can ask for it.
• Director’s salary. If the shareholder also works for the BV, the customary salary rule applies and the salary runs through payroll; see What is the DGA salary?.

Common mistakes

The mistakes we correct most often in new BVs: mixing private and business payments through the same account; paying suppliers from a Turkish account without booking the invoice in the BV; invoices made in a word processor with gaps in the numbering; receipts kept in a drawer until the year end; a loan from the BV to the shareholder without an agreement; and no written resolution behind a dividend. None of these is fatal, but each costs time and sometimes a penalty when the annual accounts are prepared. The year-end process itself is described in Preparing annual accounts for a Dutch BV.

Conclusion

Keeping the books of a Dutch BV is a matter of three things: knowing what to keep, keeping it for seven years in a readable form, and working from a system rather than from a shoebox. With a bank feed, invoices issued from the software and a monthly reconciliation, the VAT return, the annual accounts and the tax return follow from the same data without extra effort. Under our tax and compliance service we set up the package that fits your BV, run the file together with you for a fixed monthly fee and take care of every filing. We are glad to look at your current setup in a free 15-minute intro call.