Professional indemnity insurance (BAV) for a self-employed bookkeeper
Bookkeeping looks like routine work, until a missed filing or VAT posted incorrectly produces a bill for your client years later.
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In brief
A self-employed bookkeeper works with other people's deadlines and figures, and that is exactly where liability arises. Think of VAT posted at the wrong rate that only surfaces in an audit, a supplementary return left undone, a payroll return filed late, or annual figures in which a provision is missing. Your client thereby suffers pure financial loss: money, without anything being broken or anyone being injured. Only professional indemnity insurance covers that type of loss. For the structure, see the hub page on the BAV.
One risk is consistently underestimated: filing the annual accounts. A private limited company must publish its annual accounts within the period in Article 2:394 of the Dutch Civil Code. If that is done too late and the company later becomes insolvent, then under Article 2:248(2) of the Dutch Civil Code improper management is presumed, with personal liability of the director for the deficit in the estate. That director then seeks recovery from whoever was to arrange the filing. So record in writing who files the accounts and when it was done.
Also watch the boundary between bookkeeping and advising. You are not a tax adviser, but you are the first to see that an owner-director is not paying the customary salary, that a current account debt is growing or that an investment should fall just before or just after the year end. The duty of care in Article 7:401 of the Dutch Civil Code gives rise to a duty to flag issues: what you see and ought reasonably to understand, you report. Referring the client on is fine, but record it, otherwise silence is read afterwards as a mistake.
This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Compare professional indemnity insurance (BAV).
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Professional indemnity insurance (BAV)
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What to look out for
Four points where things go wrong in practice for a self-employed bookkeeper.
The insured capacity must cover your whole range of work
If the policy schedule says only 'bookkeeping', a claim about tax advice, a payroll or compiled annual accounts can fall outside the cover. When a claim arises, insurers check whether the work fell within the described business activity. So make sure the description matches what you actually do, and update it as soon as your services change.
Figures used by third parties
A bank, a landlord or a buyer sometimes relies on your figures. If they turn out to be incorrect, a party with whom you have no contract can hold you liable under Article 6:162 of the Dutch Civil Code. State expressly in compilation reports which work you did and did not carry out and that no audit was performed. Without that caveat your report is read as a statement it is not.
Access to banking systems
Preparing or making payments for a client is something other than bookkeeping. Insurers assess work in which you have access to other people's money separately and sometimes exclude it. Declare it when you apply, work with clear authorisations and let the client approve payments where possible. That limits both your liability and the risk of payment fraud.
Where the policy stops
Not insured are: default and offence penalties, because a penalty is not compensation for damage; intent and wilful recklessness under Article 7:952 of the Dutch Civil Code, including deliberately keeping turnover off the books; and redoing your own work, including repaying or crediting your fee. Where information from the client is missing or incorrect, the compensation can also be reduced under Article 6:101 of the Dutch Civil Code.
What does your premium depend on?
- Annual turnover of your practice: the usual measure for a bookkeeper without staff
- Composition of your client base: private limited companies with a filing obligation give a different risk from sole traders
- Volume of compilation work: annual accounts weigh more heavily than posting entries and filing returns
- Payroll administration: wage taxes and pension registrations have deadlines of their own
- Sum insured and excess: set per claim and per insurance year
- Retroactive date: how far back activities fall within the cover
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
What is covered
| Situation | AVB | BAV |
|---|---|---|
| You fail to apply the investment allowance and your client misses a full year of relief | No | Yes |
| Your client claims the cost of the tax audit that followed VAT posted incorrectly | No | Yes |
| Your client files are encrypted in a ransomware attack and returns are delayed | No | Provided that |
| You spill coffee over the original files a client left with you | Provided that | No |
| A client trips over an extension lead in your office | Yes | No |
| A payment you prepared goes to a fraudster on a forged invoice | No | No |
Money that disappears is not a professional error but a property offence; separate fraud or cyber cover exists for that.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
The client did not supply invoices. Am I still liable?
Not for a mistake you could not prevent, but you must be able to show that you asked for the documents and sent reminders. Keep those emails. If the client contributes to the loss, the compensation can be reduced under Article 6:101 of the Dutch Civil Code. Missing documents that you notice but do not report, on the other hand, are at your expense.
Is a default penalty for a late return covered?
No. Fines and penalty payments are excluded on virtually every liability policy, even where the client recovers them from you. What can count as loss are the consequences going beyond the fine itself: tax interest, a relief missed or the cost of putting things right. Prevention is cheaper here than insurance; demonstrable deadline monitoring helps with both.
What if my accounting software or my laptop is hit by ransomware?
Then your entire client administration stops and you face restoration costs, a duty to notify the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (the Dutch data protection authority) and possibly claims from clients. The BAV covers only that last category, and then only where there is a professional error. For investigation, restoration and downtime there is cyber insurance.
I often work at clients' premises. Is that included?
Not on the BAV. If you knock over a monitor or someone trips over your bag, that is property damage or injury and for that you need liability insurance for self-employed professionals. The two policies join up: one covers financial detriment caused by your work, the other damage to people and property.
Every situation is different. For these situations we have a separate page.
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