Can I invoice without a bookkeeping suite?
Yes. No rule says your invoices must come out of a bookkeeping suite. The Dutch tax office sets requirements for the invoice and for your records, not for the software. Anyone with an accountant can invoice with an invoicing tool and leave the bookkeeping where it is already being done.
What the tax office does require
- The invoice itself must carry the mandatory details: a sequential number, the date, your KVK and VAT numbers, your client’s details, a description, and the VAT per rate. See what must be on an invoice.
- The numbering must be one sequential series, without gaps.
- The retention duty is seven years, for sales and purchase invoices alike.
- The VAT return must be filed per quarter (or month, or year), based on what you invoiced and bought.
None of these asks for a bookkeeping suite. They ask for correct invoices, a tidy sequence and someone who files the return.
How your accountant still gets everything
The objection to invoicing outside the bookkeeping suite is usually practical: the accountant does not want to retype. There are three answers, and the first is the best.
- Reading along. In factuurmaken your accountant creates a free accountant account and reads along in your sent invoices, expenses and bank lines. Nothing is retyped, and you decide who has access and can revoke it.
- UBL. Every invoice exports as a UBL file, which any bookkeeping suite imports without retyping.
- PDFs. The classic route, which also works but keeps the retyping alive.
When a bookkeeping suite does make sense
If you do your own books and want to file the VAT return from the same screen, a bookkeeping suite is built for that. The same applies if your accountant works in a particular suite and wants you to invoice in it. In that case you rightly pay for the bookkeeping features. See also the comparison with Moneybird and Jortt.
What invoicing without a bookkeeping suite costs
At factuurmaken a plan with saved clients, automatic numbering, reminders, online payments and a bank link starts at €2.50 per month. You do not pay for journal entries, a general ledger or a return module, and that is exactly where the price difference with a bookkeeping suite comes from.