As a freelancer, you have a great deal of freedom, but also a very important responsibility: keeping your own records. Naturally, you want to have this in order to avoid unpleasant surprises.

What is self-employed administration?

Self-employed administration is essentially an overview of your turnover, costs, and profits. It is the financial reference document that you must send to the tax authorities and which must be accurate. Please note that your administration should not only cover the broad outlines, but also include receipts, time registration, travel expenses, and bank statements. It is everything that goes out and comes in for your organization. 

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Should you do your own self-employed administration or not? 

Keeping track of your administration is not only mandatory, but also extremely useful for yourself. It allows you to see how you are doing financially at that moment. As a self-employed person, you often have to file your VAT return every quarter, and even then it is useful to have everything organized. This saves you time at that moment. 

Most self-employed professionals outsource their administration so that they have extra time to focus on what they do best. In most cases, this is the best approach, but it can also be very expensive. Accountants are not cheap, and often a self-employed person's administration is not that complicated. However, if it causes you more stress than it saves you money, it is definitely advisable to outsource it. 

Are you good with numbers and spreadsheets? Then it is definitely advisable to find out how you can keep track of your self-employed administration yourself. Always do this online, so that if your computer crashes, you don't lose everything. Create a folder in which you put all your invoices and arrange the folders in order of date. Create different tables in Excel for income, expenses, time tracking, profit and loss, and a balance sheet. 

There are also handy online accounting tools for your self-employed administration. Not so good with spreadsheets? Then this is definitely recommended! You can often do more than just keep track of your administration! You can easily keep track of your hours, send invoices, and create quotes. In addition, you can also store your partners' details and file quarterly VAT returns. E-boekhouden.nl is one such handy tool that you can now even try for free! 

Ultimately, there is no right or wrong way to do your administration. The most important thing is that it gets done and kept up to date. Choose the method that suits you best, whether that's outsourcing or doing it yourself. 

Keep your self-employed administration

It is extremely important to keep your records. In fact, you are required to keep them for at least seven years. This includes accounts receivable and accounts payable, inventory, purchases and sales, the general ledger, and payroll! Keep this in mind when choosing how you will keep your self-employed records.