Standard Business Reporting (SBR)

As an entrepreneur in the Netherlands you are generally obliged to provide financial reports digitally to banks and government agencies. For example the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration (Belastingdienst), Statistics Netherlands (CBS) and the Dutch Chamber of Commerce (KVK). If you use your own administration software for this you must use Standard Business Reporting (SBR).

What is SBR?

SBR is the Dutch national standard for the digital exchange of business data with authorities and banks. You have to make sure you label all your financial data in the same way in your business administration. This way banks, intermediaries and authorities can process reports fast and easily. With SBR you use the same definitions, processes and technology.

Software for SBR

The software you use must be able to handle SBR. You can check with your software supplier of through SBRSoftwarecheck.nl (in Dutch) if your software has SBR functionality.

Using SBR

Do you use your own software for instance for submitting your tax return? You must use SBR. You file your return via the secure Digipoort portal (in Dutch). To use Digipoort you need a PKIoverheid service certificate.

Your financial intermediary will deposit your annual accounts with KVK. After this the Statistics Netherlands surveys and credit reports to banks will follow.

PKIoverheid service certificate

You need a PKIoverheid service certificate to send your confidential data safely through Digipoort. PKI stands for Public Key Infrastructure. You use it to put a lock on the data you transmit. Only the receiving party has the key to unlock your message.

You can request a government PKI certificate from one of the Certification Service Providers (in Dutch). If you are a foreign company that is not registered with the Dutch Chamber of Commerce, you should contact a CSP for the proper (extended) purchasing procedure.

For more information you can read the frequently asked questions (in Dutch) or contact Logius (in Dutch)

Please note: eHerkenning (assurance level 4) also uses government PKI certificates. For eHerkenning these are certificates for personal use. You can authorise staff members with these certificates. However, you cannot use these personal certificates for SBR. The reverse also applies. You cannot use the SBR server certificates for eHerkenning. Please be aware of this when purchasing SBR software and/or an eHerkenning tool.