Setting up your records as a freelancer in the Netherlands

The Dutch tax authority does not prescribe which program or folder you use; it prescribes what has to be in it and how long you keep it. That list is shorter than most starters think. Here is the minimum, a routine that sticks, and the point where a tool pays for itself.

What the Belastingdienst expects at minimum

Your records must show what you earned and spent, in a verifiable way. In practice that means:

• Your sales invoices. A copy of every invoice you send, numbered sequentially without gaps. See the guide on invoice requirements.
• Your purchase invoices and receipts. Everything you buy for the business. No receipt means no deduction and no VAT back.
• Your bank statements, for the account your business money runs through.
• Your hour records. The self-employed deduction requires you to make the 1,225-hour criterion plausible. All hours for your business count, including admin and acquisition.
• A mileage log, if you drive a company car or claim business kilometres in your private car. See the mileage log requirements.

Quotes, contracts and your calendar belong in there too: anything that later shows what you did and for whom.

Keep it for seven years

Everything above must be kept for seven years, even after switching software or closing your business. Digital is fine; a photo of a receipt counts, as long as it stays readable. Details are in the guide on the retention obligation.

A routine that sticks

A clean administration is not about discipline but rhythm. Small and often beats big and rarely.

Every weekend, ten minutes: photograph the week's receipts, send invoices for finished work, and log your hours while you still remember them.

Every quarter, an hour: match bank statements against invoices and receipts, file your VAT return before the end of the month after the quarter, and chase unpaid invoices.

Every year: your income tax return, before 1 May. If your quarters are right, that is mostly copying numbers.

When a tool starts to pay off

A folder and a spreadsheet are perfectly legal, and for a handful of invoices a year they work. A tool starts to pay off once your VAT return becomes retyping work, receipts go missing, or you have to double-check your invoice numbering.

How Finq handles it

Finq is built around exactly this list: invoices with automatic sequential numbering, quotes, time tracking and mileage are free and unlimited. You photograph receipts in the app and they land in your expenses. Finq Plus adds the bookkeeping and a pre-filled VAT return every quarter. Just need an invoice first? Use the free invoice tool, no account needed.