The ledger itself
Every account in your chart carries a description in your language, with the Dutch number next to it. That is where a wrong choice skews your return, and exactly where most packages stay Dutch.
Languages
Accounting software that speaks your language
Five languages, and not just in the menus: the ledger accounts, the guidance on every VAT box and your invoices are in the language you read. The bookkeeping underneath stays Dutch, because the rules are.
90 days free · no payment method needed · cancel monthly afterwards
Can you do your Dutch bookkeeping in English?
Yes. The booxx package is a Dutch accounting package that runs entirely in English, Polish, Hungarian, Romanian or Dutch — including the chart of accounts, the description of every VAT box and the invoices you send. Your books still follow the Dutch rules: the same chart of accounts, the same VAT return and the same listing of your EU supplies. You pick your own language and can switch at any time; your customer gets their invoice in their language, independently of yours.
What is in your language
The VAT boxes, explained
Each box on the return says, in your language, what belongs in it. Reverse charge, within the EU, outside the EU, private use — you do not have to guess which box is yours.
Your invoices, in your customer's language
The language of an invoice belongs to the customer, not to you. You work in English and your Dutch customer receives a Dutch invoice, with nothing to convert.
The help and the warnings
On-screen guidance, the assistant and the error messages are in the same language as the rest. A warning you cannot read is not a warning.
Why language makes the difference
Not because a menu is hard, but because bookkeeping terms are precise. If you can't read the difference between "deferred income" and "accrued income", you post to the wrong account — and you find out when the return doesn't add up.
Polskipl
Polish entrepreneurs are the largest group of foreign self-employed workers in the Netherlands, mostly in construction, transport and agriculture. The paperwork is nearly always the part that gets left.
PolskiRomânăro
Romanian entrepreneurs work here largely as self-employed contractors in transport, construction and services — often with clients in several countries, and therefore with reverse charge and EC Sales List filings.
RomânăMagyarhu
Hungarian entrepreneurs turn up in construction, engineering and retail. A smaller group, an equally real problem: everything that counts for tax is written in Dutch.
MagyarEnglishen
If you work in English — as an expat, as a freelancer with foreign clients, or simply because that's your working language — the whole set of books runs in English, including the invoices you send.
EnglishAnd what stays Dutch
The bookkeeping itself. The chart of accounts is the Dutch RGS standard, the VAT return follows the boxes of the Belastingdienst — the Dutch tax authority — and your annual figures are drawn up under Dutch rules. That is the point: you read your books in your own language, but what you file is a Dutch return. So the documents that leave the package — the return to the Belastingdienst, the listing of your EU supplies, the annual accounts for the KvK — stay Dutch.
Switching language takes one click
Language is a per-user setting, not a per-company one. If you work in Polish and your accountant works in Dutch, each of you sees the same figures in their own language: same account, same entry, two languages. Switch halfway through and everything stays where it was — nothing is reposted, it is only read differently.
Questions
Is the whole application translated, or only the menus?
The whole application: the ledger accounts, the VAT boxes with their guidance, the buttons and the error messages. You notice that difference at the moment it matters — when you pick an account.
Can I send invoices in a language other than the one I work in?
Yes. The language of an invoice sits with the customer, not with you. You can work in English and still send your Dutch customers a Dutch invoice and your Polish customers a Polish one. An invoice can be in any of the package's five languages.
Will my VAT return still be correct if I work in another language?
Yes. The return uses the boxes of the Belastingdienst, the Dutch tax authority; only the guidance beside them is in your language. What you file is and remains a Dutch return.
Which languages are there, and are they equally complete?
Dutch, English, Polish, Hungarian and Romanian — and no, there is no main language that gets more than the rest. New text ships in all five at once, or it does not ship.
booxx.nlYour books, in your own language
Start with the quarter you're in right now
Create a set of books, send your first invoice and see whether it works for you. The first 90 days are free and no payment method is asked for, so there is nothing to cancel later.
90 days free · no payment method needed · cancel monthly afterwards