A workable bookkeeping routine follows the documents: record the sale, retain the supplier invoice, match the money and review the reports. Do this regularly instead of trying to reconstruct every bank description at quarter-end. PayRequest Bookkeeping puts those steps in one workspace, with a preview before each confirmed ledger posting.
This guide uses a fictional Dutch business in EUR on the invoice basis. PayRequest's free bookkeeping rollout is planned; the current beta requires Business. It does not cover payroll, multi-currency accounting or direct tax filing. The example is a way to understand the records, not a tax determination for your business.
Set the starting point once
Open Bookkeeping from the PayRequest sidebar and choose More → Administration settings. Select a start date that fits the records you are bringing across. Check which earlier periods have already been reported before activating the ledger. The start date cannot be casually changed later in the settings form.
Record a balanced opening journal using a reliable previous balance. Debit balances are positive and credit balances negative. Confirm a zero opening only if the business genuinely had no opening assets, liabilities, receivables or bank balance. You do not start a new ledger or reset those balances every month.
Older unpaid documents need a deliberate opening-item treatment. If you import them individually as opening receivables or payables, do not also include the same amounts in an aggregate opening balance. They should not create the previous period's revenue, costs or VAT a second time.
Collect the month's source documents
Keep three groups together: sales invoices and credit notes, supplier invoices and credits, and the bank or provider records that explain payment. A bank line alone often cannot tell you the purchase's VAT treatment or whether a receipt is a sale, transfer or refund.
Under Purchases, save the supplier, invoice number, invoice date, received date and line amounts. Attach a PDF or supported image, or record a specific external evidence location. Saving a draft does not book it. Purchase evidence supports the later review; there is no promise that the software reads every receipt automatically.
Choose the actual VAT treatment from the document and the relevant circumstances. Supported choices include Netherlands 21% and 9%, no deductible VAT and the supported reverse-charge routes. Do not assign Dutch VAT simply because a supplier's name looks familiar. See the Dutch Tax Administration's input-VAT guidance for the applicable conditions.
Review and confirm sales and purchases
Open Sales to review existing PayRequest invoices. Check the original lines and credit-note signs before confirming their ledger postings. Resolve inconsistent source totals rather than editing the bank amount to make them fit.
For supplier documents, choose Controleren & boeken, inspect the proposed date, amounts, VAT and debit and credit lines, then explicitly confirm. The current purchase workflow uses the later of the invoice date and received date. Posted documents feed the ledger; drafts stay outside it.
A confirmed ledger posting does not send the invoice or change its payment status. That separation lets you review the accounting without replaying customer notifications or service provisioning.
Match the money and explain provider fees
Open More → Match payments after the relevant invoice postings exist. Select the final EUR bank transaction and enter only the allocations it actually covers. A partial receipt can settle part of an invoice; one transaction can cover several selected posted documents when the figures reconcile.
Keep withheld provider fees separate. A EUR 1,210 invoice paid through a provider might result in a EUR 1,180 bank receipt after a EUR 30 fee. Match EUR 1,210 to the invoice and record EUR 30 as the fee; do not book the EUR 1,180 payout as another sale. Record any deductible fee VAT from the actual fee invoice rather than inventing a percentage.
Transfers and owner movements have separate processing choices. Provider clearing accounts help track money between collection and payout, but their outstanding balances still need to be explained. Review the proposal before confirmation. A ten-minute preview must be prepared again if it expires or its source records change.
Ledger matching does not mark customer invoices paid or stop reminders. Where an eligible bank receipt must settle open customer invoices, use the separate reviewed bank allocation workflow. Review existing accounting entries before adding anything else.
Reconcile one small example from end to end
The following fictional month assumes no opening balances, one fully settled sale and one fully paid purchase. Both invoices use Netherlands 21% VAT; the purchase VAT is fully deductible in this example. The EUR 30 provider fee is assumed to have no deductible VAT. Use your actual invoices and applicable treatment in real records.
| Record | Net amount | VAT | Gross or bank amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sales invoice | EUR 1,000 | EUR 210 | EUR 1,210 receivable |
| Supplier invoice | EUR 200 cost | EUR 42 | EUR 242 payable |
| Withheld provider fee | EUR 30 cost | EUR 0 | EUR 30 withheld |
| Bank receipt | Not another sale | Not new sales VAT | EUR 1,180 received |
| Supplier payment | Settles the payable | Not a second VAT deduction | EUR 242 paid |
The profit before tax is EUR 1,000 − EUR 200 − EUR 30 = EUR 770. The VAT balance for these assumed transactions is EUR 210 − EUR 42 = EUR 168 payable. The bank movement is EUR 1,180 − EUR 242 = EUR 938.
Those numbers describe different things, but they connect. With both invoices settled and no other entries, the EUR 938 bank asset equals EUR 168 VAT payable plus EUR 770 result. A bank receipt is not the same as profit, and VAT collected is not extra revenue. If your report differs, trace the documents and allocations before changing a category.
Review monthly, close the completed quarter
Use Reports to inspect the quarter's profit and loss, the cumulative balance sheet and trial balance, and current open ledger items. Note the period of each report: current open items cover all dates, so they are not a historical quarter-end debtor list.
Use Quarter review to find draft purchases, unposted sales, unmatched bank movements, changed source records and missing opening information. The checks run from the administration's start through the selected quarter-end. Resolve unexplained transfer and provider-clearing balances. A clear list cannot detect a supplier invoice you never supplied.
At the end of a completed quarter, prepare the closing preview, review the blockers and explicitly confirm. The snapshot records your review; it does not submit a VAT return or pay the tax authority. The old historical bank VAT report and the invoice-basis ledger report are separate views, not two totals to add together.
Give your accountant a coherent handoff
Export the journal, VAT sections, profit and loss, balance sheet and trial balance as appropriate, and keep the underlying documents available. Current open items are another useful CSV, provided you label them as the current state. These exports are CSV files, not XAF.
If an entry is wrong, add a correction reason and prepare a reversal from Reports. Posted journals stay in the history. Reverse existing bank allocations before reversing the document they settled. Closed periods require a reasoned reopening, starting with later closed quarters when necessary.
For the software decision, read what free bookkeeping actually includes. To see the workspace and current access conditions, explore PayRequest Bookkeeping. The practical advantage is keeping the sale, cost, payment and report connected—not treating a refund, transfer or provider payout as unexplained revenue.
*Method: workflow checked against the current PayRequest Bookkeeping forms. All amounts are fictional and the VAT treatment is an explicit example assumption. No production invoices or payments were created for this guide. AI assisted the text and cover illustration.*
