Your bookkeeping is your business in numbers: your turnover, your customers, your bank account, your citizen service number (BSN) on your tax return. So of course you want to know where that data is kept and who can see it. The good news: online bookkeeping can be made very safe. The less good news: the biggest risk is usually not the software, but a clever fake email.
The short answer
Online bookkeeping is safe when three things are right: your accounting package and your bank are well protected, you can spot a scam, and your accountant (human or AI) cannot do more than needed. People often forget that last one. An accountant does not need to be able to transfer money to do your bookkeeping.
Where are the real risks?
- Phishing. Emails and text messages that seem to come from the Tax Administration (Belastingdienst), your bank or your accounting package, with a link to a fake login page.
- Invoice fraud. A "supplier" emails to say their bank account number has changed. The invoice looks real, but the money goes to a fraudster.
- Weak or reused passwords. If one password leaks somewhere, criminals will try it everywhere.
- Too much access. A former employee or former accountant who can still log in. Or a connection that is allowed to do more than needed.
- Loose files. PDFs with bank statements in your email, on a USB stick or in a shared folder without a password.
What you can do yourself: 7 habits
- Turn on two-step verification for your bank, your accounting package and your email. It is the biggest step you can take in five minutes.
- Use a password manager and a different password for every service.
- Do not click on links in payment requests. Go to the website or app of the Tax Administration or your bank yourself. The Tax Administration will never ask you by text message or WhatsApp to pay something or to give your login details.
- Call when a bank account number changes. Do you get an invoice with a new IBAN? Call the supplier on the number you already knew, not the number in the email.
- Clean up access. Is someone leaving, or are you switching to another accountant? Remove their access the same day.
- Send documents through your package or portal, not as a loose attachment to a private email address.
- Keep your records, but keep them safe. The legal retention period for tax purposes (fiscale bewaarplicht) is usually 7 years (10 years for real estate). An online package keeps everything for you, in one place.
Not sure about an email or invoice?
Ask Fenna, on the right of this page. She helps you check whether something is right. Your conversation is not stored.
5 questions to ask your accountant
Whether you are with us or somewhere else: you are always free to ask these.
- Where are my records kept? In which package, and who has access?
- What can your system do? Can someone (or an AI) transfer money, delete something or submit something on their own?
- How do I log in? With what kind of security?
- What do you keep of my conversations and emails? And for how long?
- Do you use my data for anything else? For example to train AI or for marketing?
How Boekhoudlive handles it
With us, Fenna, our AI bookkeeper, works together with an accountant: AI bookkeeping, with a human involved. That raises questions, so we like to be specific about it.
- Fenna cannot transfer money. She works in your bookkeeping, not in your bank. She cannot pay anything, transfer anything or delete anything from your records. She also never submits a tax return on her own.
- A human always checks. An accountant checks what matters. A tax return is only sent after a check and your approval.
- Logging in without a password. In the client portal, you log in with a personal login link that is sent to your own email address. So there is no password that can leak or be guessed.
- Conversations are not stored. What you ask Fenna on the website is not stored. Only if you fill in a request yourself do we receive your details. That is your choice.
- Not used to train AI. Your records and your questions are not used to train AI models.
- Your records are in e-Boekhouden or Moneybird. Your bookkeeping is kept in a separate administration for your business in e-Boekhouden or Moneybird, not in a separate system of ours. The connection to it is shielded on our server, never in your browser. Everything runs over an encrypted connection.
Our own security. On top of this foundation, we are building our own security layer for Fenna and the client portal. As soon as it is ready, you can read here exactly what it does. How we handle personal data is explained in our privacy statement.
Frequently asked questions
Is online bookkeeping safe?
Yes, if it is set up well. An online accounting package with two-step verification and an encrypted connection is usually safer than a folder of paper or loose files on your laptop. The biggest risk is often not the software, but phishing and fake invoices.
Can AI simply transfer money from my account?
Not at Boekhoudlive. Fenna works in your bookkeeping, not in your bank. She cannot pay anything, transfer anything or delete anything from your records.
Are my conversations with Fenna stored?
No. What you ask Fenna on the website is not stored. Only if you fill in a request yourself do we receive the details you leave there.
How long do I need to keep my records?
The legal retention period for tax purposes (fiscale bewaarplicht) is 7 years in most cases. For data about real estate, it is 10 years.