5 Common Accounting Mistakes by Bol.com Sellers (and How to Avoid Them)

Error-free bookkeeping is crucial for every Bol.com seller. Yet in practice, we see many sellers making the same mistakes over and over — mistakes that can lead to tax assessments, a distorted view of profits, and unnecessary stress. In this article, we discuss the 5 most common accounting mistakes by Bol.com sellers and explain how to prevent them.

Mistake 1: Applying the Wrong VAT Rate

The Problem

The Netherlands has three VAT rates: 21% (standard), 9% (reduced), and 0% (zero rate). The most common mistake is invoicing all products at the standard 21% rate, while some products qualify for the reduced 9% rate.

Products that fall under the 9% rate include:

• Books and e-books
• Food and non-alcoholic beverages
• Medicines
• Newspapers and magazines
• Flowers and plants
• Medical devices

The Consequences

If you charge 21% VAT on a product that qualifies for 9%, you remit too much VAT to the tax authorities. This costs you money directly: on a book priced at EUR 15, you’d pay EUR 2.60 in VAT instead of EUR 1.24 — a difference of EUR 1.36 per book sold. With hundreds of sales per month, this adds up fast.

The reverse is even worse: if you charge 9% VAT on a product that should be 21%, you remit too little. During a tax audit, this leads to an additional assessment plus interest and potentially a fine.

How BolMoneybird Prevents This

BolMoneybird uses an intelligent three-layer VAT mapping system:

1. EAN recognition: the product is identified by its barcode and automatically matched to the correct VAT rate
2. Title analysis: if there’s no EAN match, the product title is analyzed to determine the category
3. Default rate: if no match is found, your configured default rate is applied

This system ensures the correct VAT rate is applied automatically, without manual input.

Mistake 2: Not Booking Returns as Credit Invoices

The Problem

When a customer returns a product, you need to create a credit invoice that (partially) reverses the original sales invoice. Many Bol.com sellers forget this, or book returns incorrectly:

• Not booking at all: the most common variant. The return is simply ignored in the accounting.
• Creating a negative invoice: a new invoice with a negative amount, without linking to the original invoice.
• Only booking the bank transaction: the refund is recorded as a bank transaction, but without a credit invoice.

The Consequences

If you don’t properly book returns as credit invoices:

• Overstated revenue: your accounting shows more revenue than you actually earned
• Too much VAT: you remit VAT on sales that have been reversed
• Records don’t add up: during a tax audit, missing credit invoices raise questions
• Bank statement doesn’t match: the refunds on your bank statement don’t match your accounting

With an average return rate of 15-20% on Bol.com, these are significant amounts that are incorrect in your books.

How BolMoneybird Prevents This

BolMoneybird automatically detects every return on Bol.com and immediately creates a correct credit invoice in Moneybird:

• Linked to the original sales invoice
• With exactly the same products, amounts, and VAT rates
• With the correct date (date of the return)
• Automatically, without any action required from you

Mistake 3: Forgetting to Book Bol.com Commissions as Expenses

The Problem

Bol.com charges a commission on every sale — averaging 10-18% of the selling price, depending on the product category. Many sellers forget to record these commissions as expenses in their accounting.

Some sellers think: “Bol.com already deducts the commission from my payout, so it’s already accounted for.” But that’s not how it works. In your accounting, you need to:

1. Book the full selling price as revenue (via a sales invoice)
2. Book the commission as an expense (via a purchase invoice)

The Consequences

• Overstated profit: without booking the commission as an expense, your profit appears higher than it really is. This can lead to poor business decisions.
• Bank statement doesn’t match: Bol.com pays you the selling price minus commission. If you only book the full selling price but not the commission, your accounting won’t match your bank.
• Missed VAT deduction: Bol.com commissions include 21% VAT that you can deduct as input tax. If you don’t book the commission, you miss this deduction.
• Incorrect tax return: your taxable profit is higher than actual, causing you to pay more tax than necessary.

How BolMoneybird Prevents This

BolMoneybird automatically creates a purchase invoice for the Bol.com commission with every order. Additionally, the monthly Bol.com invoices (with the complete overview of all commissions) are automatically imported as purchase invoices, including the original PDF as an attachment.

Mistake 4: Manual Data Entry Errors (Wrong Amounts)

The Problem

With manual entry of orders into your accounting, the chance of typos is high. Common errors include:

• Decimal mix-ups: EUR 24.99 becomes EUR 24.00 or EUR 249.90
• Forgetting items: in orders with multiple products, one product gets skipped
• Forgetting shipping costs: shipping charges aren’t included in the invoice
• Wrong customer details: name or address is copied incorrectly
• Forgetting the order number: the invoice can no longer be linked to the Bol.com order

The Consequences

• Inaccurate accounting: wrong amounts lead to books that don’t match reality
• Incorrect VAT return: if amounts are wrong, the VAT is wrong too
• Untraceable records: without the order number as a reference, you can’t link invoices to specific orders
• Time lost on corrections: finding and fixing errors often takes more time than the original entry

With 100+ orders per month, it’s statistically almost certain that multiple errors will be made.

How BolMoneybird Prevents This

BolMoneybird pulls all data directly from the Bol.com API:

• Amounts are transferred exactly, down to the cent
• All products in an order are automatically processed
• Shipping costs are always included
• Customer details are correctly transferred
• The Bol.com order number is included as a reference

There is no manual entry, so there are no entry errors.

Mistake 5: Not Booking Invoices on Time

The Problem

Many Bol.com sellers let their administration fall behind. Orders from weeks or months ago are only processed much later. The reasons vary:

• “I don’t have time for it”
• “I’ll do it at the end of the month”
• “My accountant does it quarterly”
• “I forgot”

The Consequences

• No current insight: you don’t know how much revenue you’re actually generating, what your costs are, or whether you’re making a profit or running a loss
• VAT return problems: if you file VAT quarterly, your books need to be up-to-date. Late booking can lead to an incorrect or late return
• Stress and rushed work: procrastination leads to a backlog. At the end of the quarter or year, you have to process everything at once, with a higher chance of errors
• Forgotten orders: the longer you wait, the greater the chance you’ll overlook orders
• Reconciliation issues: your bank already has all transactions, but your accounting lags behind. Matching them up becomes difficult

How BolMoneybird Prevents This

BolMoneybird synchronizes every 5 minutes. As soon as an order receives “shipped” status on Bol.com, a sales invoice is created in Moneybird within 5 minutes. Your accounting is always up-to-date in real time, without you having to think about it.

Bonus: How to Prevent All 5 Mistakes at Once

The common thread through all five mistakes is clear: manual bookkeeping is time-consuming, error-prone, and leads to an incomplete administration. The solution is equally clear: automate your accounting.

With BolMoneybird, you prevent all five mistakes automatically:

Mistake	Manual	With BolMoneybird
Wrong VAT rate	High risk	Automatically correct
Returns not as credit invoices	Often forgotten	Automatically created
Commissions not booked	Often forgotten	Automatically as purchase invoice
Manual data entry errors	Inevitable	No manual entry
Late booking	Common	Synchronized every 5 minutes

Checklist: Is Your Bol.com Bookkeeping in Order?

Use this checklist to check whether you’re making any of the five common mistakes:

• Are you applying the correct VAT rate for each product (21%, 9%, or 0%)?
• Are you creating a credit invoice for every return, linked to the original invoice?
• Are you booking Bol.com commissions as purchase invoices (expenses) in your accounting?
• Do all amounts in your invoices match the Bol.com orders exactly?
• Is your accounting up-to-date, with all orders processed within a few days?

If you have to answer “no” to any of these, it’s time to improve your bookkeeping process — or automate it.

Conclusion

The five most common accounting mistakes by Bol.com sellers — wrong VAT rates, missing credit invoices, unbooking commissions, data entry errors, and late booking — are all preventable. The most effective way is automation with BolMoneybird. The system handles the entire bookkeeping process: from sales invoices and credit invoices to commission bookings and invoice imports. This way you can focus on what you do best — selling products on Bol.com — and leave the accounting to software that never makes mistakes. Start your free trial and put an end to bookkeeping errors.