Netherlands – bookkeeping for payroll

Three steps are involved:

1. Include journal entry for each payroll run
2. Book paid net salaries to the balance sheet
3. Book paid wage tax to the balance sheet

The process is slightly more complicated if employee expenses, pension premiums and prepayments are involved. Need help or are you looking for a payroll provider in the Netherlands, please contact us on info@ccount.nl, we’re happy to help!

1. Include journal entry for each payroll run
For each payroll run, we will provide you with a journal entry. These journal entries can be automatically synced to the bookkeeping software you use. This applies for example to Exact Online, e-boekhouden.nl and Xero. For the latter you can subscribe to this service for the automatic sync with Nmbrs.

If you want or have to manually include the journal entry a simple version will be as follows (using template Dutch account codes):

Note that typically the wage tax payable to the tax office is not (also) included as a separate creditor. The same applies for the net salaries payable.

2. Book paid net salaries to the balance sheet
Once the net salaries are paid to the employees, during bank reconciliation, the payments must be booked to the balance sheet, account code 2100 (in this example). After this entry #2100 should have a nil balance.

3. Book paid wage tax to the balance sheet
Once the wage tax is paid to the tax office, during bank reconciliation, the payment must be booked to the balance sheet, account code 1700 (in this example). After this entry #1700 should have a nil balance.

That’s it, great that you made it to the end of this blog! Need help or are you looking for a payroll provider, please contact us, we’re happy to help!