Prepare your annual accounts in 8 steps

Short answer

You can prepare your own annual accounts if your bookkeeping is closed and you have the opening balance and your business assets to hand. You work in eight steps: close the bookkeeping, determine the opening balance, assets, liabilities, make the balance sheet balance, the profit and loss account, reconcile equity, and finally the notes and signing. Allow a few hours to a day for a simple sole trader business.

Preparing your own annual accounts is quite doable if your bookkeeping is in order. Below you can see exactly what you need, the eight steps you work through and where things usually go wrong. That way you know in advance whether doing it yourself suits you.

What you need before you start

Closed bookkeeping: bank, cash, purchase and sales invoices and receipts for the whole financial year.
The opening balance sheet or the equity at the start of the financial year (zero for a first year).
An overview of your business assets with purchase date and purchase price, for the depreciation.
Your inventory position and your outstanding receivables and liabilities at the balance sheet date.
Your private withdrawals and contributions, if you are a sole trader or VOF.
Your payslips or payroll journal if you have staff.

Start with the bank

If your bank transactions for the whole year are correct and reconciled, the rest is usually catch-up work. An unreconciled bank account is the biggest cause of a balance sheet that does not balance.

The eight steps

Close your bookkeeping: all bank transactions, invoices and receipts for the financial year processed.
Determine your opening balance: the equity on the first day of the financial year.
Enter the assets: fixed assets at carrying amount, inventories, receivables and cash and cash equivalents.
Enter equity and liabilities: equity, provisions, long-term and short-term liabilities.
Check that the balance sheet balances. A difference almost always means a missed or wrongly booked item.
Complete the profit and loss account: turnover, purchases, staff costs, depreciation and other expenses.
Reconcile equity: opening balance plus result minus drawings must be your closing balance.
Write the accounting policies and the notes, sign and — if you are a legal entity — file with KVK.

How much time does it take?

If you have complete bookkeeping, the entering itself is usually a few hours: transferring the figures, ordering the items and writing the notes. The gain is in the preparation.

If you first have to bring the bookkeeping up to date — for example half a year of unprocessed bank transactions — that often takes more time than the annual accounts themselves. Allow for that honestly and start in good time.

Where things usually go wrong

The opening balance of equity is filled with the closing balance, so the result counts double.
Private withdrawals and contributions have not been processed, so equity does not reconcile.
The depreciation is in the profit and loss account but has not been processed on the balance sheet (or the other way round).
VAT has been confused with turnover: VAT you receive is not income, it is money you pass on.
A provision has been included without a concrete obligation or substantiation.

Two checks that find almost everything

Make your balance sheet balance (assets = equity and liabilities) and reconcile your equity (opening + result − drawings = closing). If those two are correct, almost everything else will be correct too.

And if it does not work out?

If you get stuck on one item, it is usually wiser to ask for targeted help than to keep shifting figures for hours: a bookkeeper can often find in an hour what you have been looking for all afternoon. Ask specifically for help with that item, not for the entire file.

If you have doubts about the tax side — for example about depreciation or a provision — have that assessed by a tax adviser or accountant. The figures remain your responsibility, even if you entered them yourself.

Frequently asked questions

May I prepare my annual accounts myself?

Yes. There is no statutory obligation to engage an accountant to prepare the annual accounts, unless you fall under the audit obligation. You may also do the filing with KVK yourself if you are a legal entity.

Is preparing annual accounts yourself reliable?

That depends on your bookkeeping and on the checks you do. If your bank is reconciled and your balance sheet and equity balance, the figure work is reliable. What you do yourself is check whether the valuation and the notes are correct — that is where the expertise lies.

What do I need to prepare annual accounts myself?

Closed bookkeeping, an opening balance sheet or opening equity, an overview of your business assets and the position of your inventories, receivables and liabilities at the balance sheet date. With those documents you can build up the balance sheet and the profit and loss account.

Can I try first and pay later?

At ZelfJaarrekening.nl you can: you enter everything and view your annual accounts in the preview without paying. Only when you want to download the final PDFs do you pay once for that financial year.

Preparing annual accounts: the general explanationWhat annual accounts are, who must prepare them and which parts belong in them.
Without an accountant: what do you take on?When doing it yourself is responsible and when it is not.
Preparing annual accounts with softwareWhat software does for you and what to watch out for.
Checklist: everything you needTo tick off before you start.
Your first annual accountsA shorter financial year, no comparative figures.

Prepare your annual accounts yourself?

Work through the wizard, check your figures and download the annual accounts and the KVK filing documents as PDFs. € 60,44 per financial year, once.

Start your annual accounts View a sample See how it works first

Je vult eerst alles in en bekijkt het resultaat — betalen doe je pas als je de stukken wilt downloaden. Geen abonnement. En zit er een fout in de stukken die wij kunnen herstellen? Dan leveren we gratis een nieuwe versie, zo vaak als nodig.

Deze uitleg is algemeen bedoeld. Controleer bij KVK, de Belastingdienst of je accountant of de regels in jouw situatie nog zo gelden. ZelfJaarrekening.nl is a tool, not an accounting firm; you cannot derive rights from this explanation.