XAF Audit Export

When the Belastingdienst comes knocking — or you're handing your books to a new accountant, or doing a due-diligence review for an acquisition — you'll need to produce an audit file in XAF 3.2.1 format. This module generates one from your ERPNext data, validates it against the official XSD, and saves the result as an attachment.

What XAF is

XAF (Standard Audit File for Tax — Netherlands flavour) is the Belastingdienst-specified XML format for sharing accounting data with tax inspectors. Every accounting system used in NL is expected to be able to produce one. The current schema is 3.2.1.

The format covers everything an inspector wants to verify:

• Company info — name, tax number, period, currency, software version
• Chart of Accounts — every GL account with its RGS reference
• Customers and Suppliers — name, IBAN, VAT number, KVK number, address
• General Ledger transactions — every journal entry in the period with date, debit/credit, description, source document reference
• VAT codes — the tax codes applied per line
• Opening balances — starting position at the period start

When you'd need it

• Belastingdienst audit — they ask for an XAF covering the audit period; you give them this file.
• Year-end archival — many accountants ask for a yearly XAF as part of the close.
• Due diligence — when a buyer or investor is reviewing your books, an XAF is the cleanest way to hand over everything they need without exposing your live system.
• Switching accountants — the new firm can ingest an XAF directly into their audit tooling.

Generating an XAF file

1. Search NL Audit File in the awesomebar → New.
2. Company — pick the company.
3. From Date / To Date — the audit period. Typically a calendar year for yearly archives; can be any range for an inspection.
4. Save. The form now shows a Generate XAF button.
5. Click Generate XAF. The module:
   • Pulls every GL Entry in the period
   • Builds the XAF tree (header → company → general ledger → transactions → VAT codes)
   • Validates the result against the Belastingdienst's XSD schema
   • Attaches the file (or shows a validation error pointing at the issue)

A typical year for an SMB produces a 1–10 MB XAF. Large companies with millions of transactions can produce 100 MB+ files — the generator streams the output to avoid memory issues.

Schema validation

The file is validated against the official Belastingdienst XSD before being attached — you'll know immediately if anything's malformed (e.g., an account missing a description, a customer without a VAT number where one is required, a transaction with a date outside the declared period).

Validation errors are reported with the XPath of the offending node, so you can fix the underlying data and regenerate. The most common causes:

• A Customer or Supplier missing tax_id — XAF requires it for parties doing business above thresholds. Edit the party, fill in the VAT number, regenerate.
• An Account without an RGS code — fix by running Setup Dutch Localization again (it tops up missing RGS links).
• GL entries with no posting date — shouldn't happen in normal ERPNext flow; check for manually inserted journal entries.

What inspectors look for

Common questions during a tax audit, and where in the XAF the answer lives:

• Total sales in the period, broken down by VAT rate — the General Ledger section, filtered by your sales accounts and the VATCode field.
• Total purchases from EU suppliers vs domestic — the Suppliers section cross-referenced with transaction VATCodes (e.g. EU-B2B reverse charge).
• Cash transactions over €25,000 — flagged in the transaction descriptions if you've recorded them properly.

If the inspector has follow-up questions, you can usually answer them from the same data inside ERPNext (using NL VAT Return Details or General Ledger reports).

File retention

You're required to retain accounting records — including XAF files — for seven years. We recommend generating an XAF at the end of each calendar year and keeping the file in your document archive (Drive, Nextcloud, SharePoint — whichever you use). The Frappe Files area is also fine but tends to grow unbounded.