What your accountant actually needs
At VAT period, your accountant is not looking for a stack of PDFs or a vague summary. They need structured, complete data that maps directly to the boxes on your VAT return. Every missing piece means another email, another delay, and potentially another billable hour.
Here is what a competent accountant expects from you, broken down by category.
Invoice list with VAT treatment
Your accountant needs a list of every invoice issued during the period, with the VAT treatment clearly indicated for each one. "Domestic," "reverse charge," "OSS," or "outside scope" — they need to know which bucket every transaction falls into, because each treatment maps to a different line on the VAT return.
VIES validation proof
For any invoice where you applied reverse charge (EU B2B), your accountant needs evidence that the client's VAT number was valid at the time of invoicing. A VIES validation record — showing the VAT number, validation date, and result — is the standard proof. Without it, the reverse charge treatment could be challenged during an audit.
Credit notes linked to original invoices
If you issued any credit notes during the period, they must be clearly linked to the original invoice. Your accountant needs to see which invoice was corrected or partially refunded, the amount adjusted, and the VAT impact. A credit note floating without context creates confusion and slows down the filing.
Period totals by VAT treatment
Beyond the individual line items, your accountant needs summary totals grouped by VAT treatment: total domestic sales with VAT collected, total reverse charge sales, total OSS sales by destination country and rate, and total out-of-scope sales. These summaries are what actually get entered into the VAT return.
The minimum data set per invoice
✓
Invoice number and date
✓
Client name, country, and VAT number (if applicable)
✓
Net amount, VAT amount, gross amount
✓
VAT rate applied (and why — domestic, reverse charge, OSS, etc.)
✓
Currency and exchange rate (if not in your reporting currency)
✓
VIES validation reference (for reverse charge invoices)
Common formats: what works and what does not
Your accountant works with numbers in spreadsheets and accounting software. They need data they can sort, filter, and import — not documents they have to manually re-key.
What works
- CSV or Excel exports with structured columns
- Structured lists with one row per invoice
- Summary tables grouped by VAT treatment
- Machine-readable data they can import directly
What does not work
- A folder of individual PDF invoices
- Screenshots of your invoicing dashboard
- Bank statements without invoice references
- "I think it was about 15 invoices this quarter"
PDFs are useful as supporting documents — your accountant may want them as backup — but they should never be the primary data source. The primary source should always be a structured export where every field is in its own column, ready to be processed without manual extraction.
The back-and-forth problem
Most of the friction at VAT period comes from the same three issues, repeated every quarter.
Incomplete data
You send over your invoices, but the VAT treatment is not indicated. Or the client's VAT number is missing from some invoices. Or there is a credit note but no reference to the original invoice. Your accountant emails back asking for the missing pieces. You dig through your records, find some of it, guess at the rest. Another round of emails.
Wrong format
You send a zip file of 47 PDFs. Your accountant opens each one individually, types the numbers into a spreadsheet, and hopes they do not transpose a digit. This is slow, error-prone, and expensive. Every minute they spend on data entry is a minute they are not spending on actually reviewing your VAT position.
Missing context
An invoice shows VAT at 0%, but why? Is it reverse charge? Outside EU scope? An exempt supply? Without the VAT treatment explicitly stated, your accountant has to figure it out themselves — or ask you. And if you do not remember the details of an invoice from three months ago, the whole process stalls.
The hidden cost
Every round of back-and-forth adds days to your filing timeline and often adds to your accountant's bill. Most accountants charge by the hour, and time spent chasing missing data is time you are paying for. A clean handoff on day one can cut your quarterly accounting costs significantly.
Tired of the quarterly scramble?
Invoxo tracks VAT treatment on every invoice automatically, so when period-end arrives, your data is already organized and export-ready.
Try free for 14 days
Cross-border complications
If you only invoice domestic clients, the accountant handoff is relatively straightforward. But the moment you have clients in other EU countries — or outside the EU — the data requirements multiply.
Reverse charge proof
For every reverse charge invoice, your accountant needs to verify that the treatment was correctly applied. That means the client's VAT number was valid at the time (VIES proof), the service falls under the general B2B place-of-supply rule, and the invoice includes the required "Reverse charge" notation. If any of this is missing, the treatment could be disallowed on audit — which means you would owe the VAT yourself.
OSS destination VAT
If you sell digital services to consumers in other EU countries under the One Stop Shop scheme, each transaction needs to show the destination country and the VAT rate that was applied. Your accountant needs this broken down by country because OSS reporting requires country-level totals. A single "OSS total" for the quarter is not enough.
Multiple treatments in one period
A typical quarter for a cross-border service business might include domestic invoices (with VAT), reverse charge invoices (EU B2B, no VAT), OSS invoices (EU B2C, destination VAT), and non-EU invoices (outside scope). Each treatment has its own line on the VAT return, its own supporting evidence requirements, and potentially its own filing obligations. Your accountant needs all of this clearly separated — not mixed together in a single list.
What cross-border adds to the handoff
+
VIES validation records for every reverse charge invoice
+
OSS totals broken down by destination country and VAT rate
+
EC Sales List data (client VAT numbers and values for intra-EU B2B)
+
Clear separation of treatments so each maps to the correct VAT return line
How to streamline the handoff
The goal is simple: give your accountant everything they need in one go, in a format they can work with immediately, with no follow-up required.
Structured exports
Export your invoices as a CSV or structured report with one row per invoice and clearly labeled columns. Include the VAT treatment, amounts, client details, and any references (like VIES validation IDs or linked credit notes). This is the single most impactful thing you can do to reduce back-and-forth.
Consistent records throughout the period
The worst time to organize your invoice data is at the end of the quarter. If your invoicing system captures VAT treatment, client VAT numbers, and VIES validation at the time of invoicing, you have nothing to reconstruct later. The data is already correct and complete when you need it.
One-click period packages
The ideal workflow is a single export that bundles everything your accountant needs for a specific period: the invoice register, summary totals by treatment, VIES validation records, credit note references, and optionally the PDF invoices as supporting documents. One file, one handoff, no questions.
The ideal handoff
✓
Structured export with one row per invoice, VAT treatment labeled, amounts split into net/VAT/gross
✓
Summary totals grouped by VAT treatment, ready to map to VAT return lines
✓
VIES records for every reverse charge invoice, showing validation date and result
✓
Credit notes linked to original invoices with adjustment amounts
✓
OSS breakdown by destination country and VAT rate (if applicable)
✓
One package covering the full period, delivered in a format your accountant can import