Guide: How to use Accountable as a retail professional

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Whether you run a physical shop, a digital storefront, or both, this guide will help you keep your accounting in order, stay compliant, and save time with Accountable.

Here’s what we will cover in this guide:

1. The essentials first

2. How to keep track of your revenue: cash books, invoices & sales rules

3. Managing and deducting business expenses

4. What you need to know about inventory, payroll, taxes & online payments

Let’s tackle the essentials first

👉 Cash-only retail shop

• Requirement: A cash book is mandatory.

• Action: Daily receipts must be encoded as income in the cash book.
This practice is crucial for maintaining accurate financial records.
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👉Digital-only retail shop

• Requirement: A cash book is not necessary.

• Action: Daily receipts should still be encoded.
While the cash book is not required, capturing daily transactions is essential for financial oversight.
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👉 E-Shop

• Requirement: A cash book is not needed.

• Action: Monthly payouts should be encoded, and attention must be paid to OSS (One Stop Shop) thresholds.
This ensures compliance with digital sales regulations and proper income reporting.​

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How to keep track of your revenue: Cash books, invoices & sales rules

What's the difference between a cash book and a daily receipt book — and do I need both?

As a shop manager (or e-shop owner) in Belgium, it's important to maintain accurate financial records, including a daily receipt book (dagontvangstenboek) and a cash book (kasboek). The daily receipt book is required by law, so you are obligated to use it.
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What is a daily receipt book? 🤔 A daily receipts book is a book in which you record daily all your sales, for which you do not draw up an invoice, regardless of the payment method used by the customer.
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What is a cash book? 🤔 A cash book is a financial journal in which you record all cash receipts and expenses. Both simplified and double-entry bookkeeping require you to keep a cash book. This can be done either on paper, or digitally via specialised software.

Here's what you need to know about keeping physical copies:

Daily receipt book:

• It’s mandatory for businesses that don’t issue invoices for every transaction.

• The book must be an official, physical book with consecutively numbered and bound pages. Loose sheets are not allowed. (You can find one here)

• In case of an audit, you must be able to present this physical book along with supporting documents.

How to use the daily receipt book 🤓

Physical copy
Enter the information below on a daily basis: Date of receipts Total of daily sales including VAT Total sales at 0% VAT Total of sales including VAT broken down by VAT rate

How to encode this in the app 📱

1. Go to the ‘Revenues’ section in the Accountable app.

2. Select ‘Add another revenue’ to create a new entry.

3. Enter the date on which the sales were recorded.

4. Input the total daily revenue, ensuring that only transactions under €250 without an invoice are included in the receipts book.

5. Select the applicable VAT rate for the revenue. Create a separate item in Accountable for each VAT rate.

6. Upload a scan of the page, such as a copy of the physical receipts book or a digital summary.

Confirm the entry and ensure it is correctly recorded in your bookkeeping.

Cash book (when you frequently handle cash transactions):

• It's used to record all cash inflows and outflows.

• Like the daily receipt book, it should be a bound book with numbered pages. (You can find one here)

For e-shops 👩‍💻
For your local online sales to Belgian private individuals, you can find a monthly sales statement on the platform you use.
This statement should include the total amount sold (VAT incl.) and serve as supporting documentation for your accounting. You can then encode this total as a single invoice, using “Belgian private indivudal” as the client.

Should I recognize revenue when the sale is made or when the goods are delivered?

You have to register income at the time the invoice is issued, not when the service or product is delivered.
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Key principles:

• Invoice date is leading: For accounting and VAT purposes, the date of the invoice is used to determine the period in which revenue should be recorded.

• VAT declaration: VAT should be declared in the quarter in which the invoice was issued.

• Tax return: For income tax purposes, income should be recorded in the year in which it was actually earned, regardless of the invoice date.

How to successfully encode gift cards

1) Gift card for a product/service with a single VAT rate

• If the gift card is for a product or service subject to a single VAT rate, it can be immediately recorded as a sale, applying the appropriate VAT rate.

• When the gift card is redeemed, no further accounting action is required, as the sale has already been recorded.
  → In this case: just record the sale of the gift card

2) Gift card for products/services with multiple VAT rates

• If the gift card can be redeemed for products/services subject to different VAT rates (e.g., books at 6% and CDs at 21%), no accounting entry is made at the time of issuance.

• The transaction is recorded only when the gift card is redeemed, as this is when the applicable VAT rate(s) are determined. At that point, a sales invoice or accounting entry must be created.
  → In this case: just record the sale of the goods or services but not the sale of the gift card.

Managing and deducting business expenses

As a shop manager you can deduct the following expenses for 100%:

The following expenses you can deduct only partially:

Other deductible expenses that you might not have thought of:

What you need to know about inventory, payroll, taxes & online payments

How should I account for inventory my accounting system?

“In Belgium, companies that buy and sell goods are required to keep a record of their stock levels and report them in their accounts. The inventory book must include information on the cost of goods sold and the value of unsold stock at the end of each accounting period.”
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This article explains the importance of your inventory and how to track it.

How do I calculate employee salaries and social security contributions in Belgium?

This article explains the costs of having an employee.

What are my (income) tax obligations as a shop or e-shop owner in Belgium?

Income Tax:

As a self-employed person, you have to file an annual personal income tax return. Your taxable income is calculated by deducting your professional expenses from your income. The resulting net taxable income is added to any other income (such as a main occupation if you work in a secondary occupation) and taxes are calculated on this.

As a (web)shop owner, you need to take into account specific VAT rules:

• Standard rate: 21% VAT on most products (6% for specific products such as food or books)

• Small businesses: If your turnover is less than €25,000 per year, you can apply for a VAT exemption (small business)

Tax obligations:

• If you are subject to VAT: quarterly VAT submission

🇪🇺 Sales to private customers in the EU (outside Belgium)

If your total sales to EU-based individuals (outside Belgium) exceed €10,000 per year, you must:

1. Charge the VAT rate of your customer’s country, not Belgian VAT.

2. Declare this foreign VAT in each relevant country — unless you register for the OSS scheme.

💡 With the One Stop Shop (OSS), you can report all your EU VAT obligations in one single quarterly return, via the Belgian tax portal. This saves time and avoids multiple VAT registrations.

👉 Until you reach the €10,000 threshold, you can still apply Belgian VAT on all EU B2C sales.

• This article can guide you in what to expect when setting up your e-shop.

Now that you have gone through a list of most asked questions, it might be a lot to take in. If you have any other questions that have not been answered in this guide, please ask them through the chat function in the app or by emailing tax-coach@accountable.eu.

We will happily guide you further on your journey as a self-employed and within Accountable. 😊

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 ?