Today’s age brings easy apps that help entrepreneurs make life easier, or are they? Is it maybe not the boring account that actually makes the difference?
Bookkeeping via app or via accountant – you are no accountant but entrepreneur
Apps are easy to download, you take a picture of the invoice and then it is automatically booked in software for you. You only need to push a button and you can file the Value Added Tax return (VAT), or can you?
We, the accountant, have of course the opinion that it is not this easy. There are rules what you can deduct and what you cannot deduct. For instance, you work from home and you think you can deduct part of the rent, or utilities, but can you? We doubt anybody can in the Netherlands. That said, you already took the picture of the NUON energy invoice and it is booked, including the paid VAT. As you need to keep your bookkeeping for 7 years on store, you cannot ever terminate the subscription to the app by the way.
At the end of a financial year the year needs to be closed. For that there are checks and balances. One of my favorite clients has such an app for a small side kick company and the VAT debt for instance did not match with the final VAT return of that year. The difference was not huge, but enough for the Dutch tax office to make a money laundry claim. That is what they do if not enough VAT appears to have been paid. Of course there was no money laundry, but simply an ill processed app. So it took my client a couple of weeks to get straight the 18 invoices in the app and finally he gave up and we did it for him in a minimal period of time.
Bookkeeping via app or via accountant – you are accountant
Yes, if you know accounting and you like to work with an app, please use the app. If you are not, we prefer you do not use the app. If it is that you like to have more inside in your business, then we can work with you with an online bookkeeping program. Contact our accounting department and they are happy to set this up for you, if it is indeed a useful contribution to your company. If you have a 12 invoice per year company, we do not recommend this type of online bookkeeping.
Bookkeeping via app or via accountant – really?
We notice that many entrepreneurs do not inquire at all about their quarterly results. You can find that strange, but I think that these entrepreneurs keep track of the result with their own methods. You do not need to be an accountant to keep track of your accounts. You simply need to be organized. And if you are not organized, ask someone to organize for you and we will be glad to do so.
Orange Tax Services
Bookkeeping via app or via accountant, that is the question. We can set up for you an online accounting system where you can check the status of your result and accounts.
However, we can also provide you with a more simple manner of bookkeeping. Purchase an old fashioned binder, print bank statements, put behind them the turnover and the costs and provide us that on a quarterly basis. That is simple and clear.
Plus you need to keep the bookkeeping for 7 years on store, so the binder you put in the attic. Digitally stored bookkeeping can get lost by mail function of the lap top, server or mobile storage.
