Do you sell products via Bol.com as a self-employed person? Then it's important to correctly record your income, commissions and costs in your bookkeeping. This guide walks you through everything step by step in Accountable.
What's in this guide:
Recording your income (private customers vs business customers)
Booking Bol.com's commission and shipping costs
Booking advertising costs (Sponsored Products Ads)
Handling returns and refunds
Keeping track of inventory
Using your annual overview from Bol.com
How you record this income depends on who's actually buying: a private customer or a business. The steps also differ depending on your VAT status, so pick your track below.
ℹ️ Always record your gross revenue, not the net amount, and exclude any sale for which you already created a separate invoice (otherwise the same income gets recorded twice). The amount in your bank account won't match your recorded income, and that's correct: commissions and costs are booked separately as expenses, which explains the difference.
Bol.com doesn't require you to issue an individual invoice to private customers, so you can bundle all your private-customer sales for a settlement period into one entry, using "Non-invoice revenue" in Accountable. Use the document you get from Bol.com to record this correctly:
Go to the Revenue tab and add a "Non-invoice revenue" entry.
Upload the settlement invoice as an attachment.
Use the date of your settlement invoice as the issue date.
Leave the client field empty, or give it a clear name like "Bol.com - private customers - month".
Select "Sale of goods" as the category.
Enter the total gross revenue from private customers only for that period, shown as "Total revenue" on your settlement invoice before any deductions.
Select 21% (standard rate) as the VAT rate.
You can record your revenue using the non-invoice method above, as long as each individual sale stays below €500.
If a single sale to one private customer reaches €500 or more, you must create a separate sales invoice for that transaction, charging the applicable Belgian VAT rate. Since Bol.com doesn't generate invoices for these cases, you'll need to create the invoice yourself in Accountable. You may choose whether or not to send this invoice to your customer, but it must be recorded in your accounting records.
For sales to private customers in the Netherlands: keep track of the EU-wide €10,000 threshold for cross-border B2C sales. Once you exceed this threshold, the VAT rate of the customer's country applies. You can report this VAT through the OSS scheme.
🚨 This threshold is currently not tracked automatically in Accountable, you need to monitor this manually. More info on e-commerce and VAT: Navigating e-commerce taxes in Belgium
For B2B transactions on Bol.com, you must create the invoice yourself. Bol.com only forwards the customer's invoice request; it does not generate the invoice on your behalf. Create and record a normal sales invoice in Accountable for that client, just as you would for any other business customer: How do I create a sales invoice or record other income?
Belgian B2B customers: charge the applicable Belgian VAT rate (usually 21%) and issue a separate sales invoice in Accountable. Send it via Peppol.
Dutch B2B customers with a valid VAT number: apply the reverse charge mechanism. Do not charge Belgian VAT. Peppol is not mandatory for these cross-border invoices.
⚠️ Don't book the same sale twice. If you already created a separate invoice for a business client or a private client above €500, exclude that amount from your bundled "Non-invoice revenue" entry for that period. Otherwise that sale gets recorded as income twice.
Bol.com doesn't require you to issue an individual invoice to private customers, so you can bundle all your private-customer sales for a settlement period into one entry, using "Non-invoice revenue" in Accountable. Use the document you get from Bol.com to record this correctly:
Go to the Revenue tab and add a "Non-invoice revenue" entry.
Upload the settlement invoice as an attachment.
Use the date of your settlement invoice as the issue date.
Leave the client field empty, or give it a clear name like "Bol.com - private customers - month".
Select "Sale of goods" as the category.
Enter the total gross revenue from private customers only for that period, shown as "Total revenue" on your settlement invoice before any deductions.
No VAT is charged on your sales - import the statement as is, the amount is already inclusive of VAT.
You can record your revenue using the non-invoice method above, as long as each individual sale stays below €500.
If a single sale to one private customer reaches €500 or more, you must create a separate sales invoice for that transaction, without charging VAT. Since Bol.com doesn't generate invoices for these cases, you'll need to create the invoice yourself in Accountable. You may choose whether or not to send this invoice to your customer, but it must be recorded in your accounting records.
For sales to private customers in the Netherlands: keep track of the EU-wide €10,000 threshold for cross-border B2C sales. Once you exceed this threshold, the VAT rate of the customer's country applies. You can report this VAT through the OSS scheme.
🚨 This threshold is currently not tracked automatically in Accountable, you need to monitor this manually. More info on e-commerce and VAT: Navigating e-commerce taxes in Belgium
For B2B transactions on Bol.com, you must create the invoice yourself. Bol.com only forwards the customer's invoice request; it does not generate the invoice on your behalf. Create and record a normal sales invoice in Accountable for that client, just as you would for any other business customer: How do I create a sales invoice or record other income?
Belgian B2B customers: do not charge VAT. Issue a separate sales invoice in Accountable and send it via Peppol.
Dutch B2B customers with a valid VAT number: the reverse charge mechanism also applies. Do not charge VAT. Peppol is not mandatory.
⚠️ Don't book the same sale twice. If you already created a separate invoice for a business client or a private client above €500, exclude that amount from your bundled "Non-invoice revenue" entry for that period. Otherwise that sale gets recorded as income twice.
On the same settlement invoice as your revenue, Bol.com also lists the costs it deducted: a commission and a contribution to shipping/parcel labels. You never deduct these costs directly from your income - instead, book them separately as an expense, found under "Costs incurred" on your settlement invoice.
Go to the Expenses tab and click Add an expense.
Select "Bol.com BV" as the supplier.
Enter the total costs (commission + shipping costs), as shown under "Costs incurred" on your settlement invoice.
Select "Other fees" as the category.
Upload the same settlement invoice as an attachment.
⚠️ Bol.com is a Dutch company. Usually the reverse charge mechanism applies on these costs. Select "Reverse charge" as the VAT treatment for this expense in Accountable.
Do you advertise your products on Bol.com, for example via Sponsored Products Ads? You'll receive a separate invoice for this ("Advertising via bol"), separate from your settlement invoice. Record this under expenses, as it's a cost for you - the steps are the same as above, with two differences:
Go to the Expenses tab and click Add an expense.
Select "Bol.com" as the supplier and enter the total amount shown under "Total costs incurred" on the invoice.
Select "Advertising" as the category (instead of "Other fees").
Upload the advertising invoice as an attachment.
⚠️ The reverse charge mechanism applies here too. Select "Reverse charge" as the VAT treatment for this expense.
When a customer returns a product and Bol.com processes the refund, you record this in Accountable as a credit note. This correctly adjusts your revenue.
💡 You'll find an overview of all returns and refunds in your Bol.com settlement report. Use this as the basis for your credit notes. More info on how to create a credit note: How to cancel an invoice using a credit note
As a Bol.com seller, you likely also hold stock. It's important to keep track of your inventory correctly so your bookkeeping stays accurate and you always have a clear picture of what you have left in stock.
💡 More info on how to manage your inventory in Accountable: How to manage stock/inventory in Accountable
At the end of the year, you receive an annual overview from Bol.com with a summary of all your sales, commissions and costs. Always keep this document as proof in your document storage.
You can also use the annual overview to check whether everything you entered throughout the year in Accountable is correct - a handy way to close off your bookkeeping at year end.
Still have a question or unsure how to handle your specific situation? Reach out via the chat in the app. We're always happy to help. 😊
Author - Valesca Wilms
As content marketing lead at Accountable Belgium, Valesca writes about freelancing, self-employment, and taxes based on her own experience as a freelancer.
Who is Valesca ?Thank you for your feedback!
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