Accounting
What Dutch SMEs Actually Want From Their Accountant (And Are Not Getting)
64% of Dutch SMEs say their accountant is too reactive. See what’s missing and why businesses are turning to AI and alternative advice.
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10 mins
Intro
A new research report surveyed 200 Dutch business owners, directors, CFOs, and financial managers about their relationship with their accountant. The findings are striking, not because the profession is failing, but because the gap between what it delivers and what businesses actually need has become impossible to ignore.
If you have ever felt your accountant is more of an annual filing service than a genuine financial partner, you are not alone. The data says most Dutch SMEs feel exactly the same way. We started Neno to solve this problem and out an end to the high fees and underwhelming service Dutch businesses owners have been accepting for 50+ years.
The state of accounting relationships in the Netherlands
The Ravical research report, conducted by Multiscope in early 2026, paints a clear picture of where the accountant-client relationship stands today. Nearly every Dutch SME works with an external accountant or tax advisor. The relationship is long-standing and, on the surface, broadly satisfactory.
But satisfaction and value are not the same thing.
When asked to describe their relationship, 39.7% of respondents said their accountant mainly handles compliance with little contact beyond that. A further 22.9% said contact is primarily around deadlines or problems. That means nearly two-thirds of Dutch SMEs (64.2%) are in a relationship that is primarily reactive and transactional.
Only 13.4% describe their accountant as a true sparring partner, someone who proactively brings ideas and insights on a regular basis.
The gap is not in understanding. Most businesses (86.6%) say their accountant has at least a basic grasp of their business. The gap is in how often that understanding translates into proactive contact and meaningful input. According to the data, 40.2% of respondents say their accountant reaches out proactively only roughly once a year, and for 9.5% it is even rarer.
Where the advice is missing most
Ask Dutch SMEs where they received no meaningful input from their accountant in the past year, and the list tells its own story. Business strategy tops the table: 35.8% said their accountant had no notable involvement in general business strategy or planning. More than three in ten reported no input on staffing decisions with financial consequences (30.2%), tax planning beyond the annual filing (30.2%), or pricing and margin decisions (29.6%).
Only 11.7% said their accountant was involved in all major business decisions.
These are not trivial gaps. Hiring decisions, pricing strategy, cash flow management and growth investment are the moments that determine whether a business succeeds or stagnates. They are also precisely the moments where a trusted financial advisor with real-time knowledge of the business could add the most value. For the vast majority of Dutch SMEs, that voice is absent.
When asked what single additional service they would most value, two-thirds (64.8%) named something they do not currently receive. The most common requests were regular check-ins on business performance and what the numbers actually mean (15.6%), clearer explanations of complex financial or tax matters (14.0%), and more proactive tax planning and financial advice throughout the year (10.6%).
The message is consistent: businesses want more engagement, more often, on the things that matter to running the business, not just on the things required to stay compliant.
Something else is already filling the gap
When accountants are not at the table, businesses find other ways to get answers. For an increasing number of Dutch SMEs, that alternative is AI.
More than half of respondents (57.5%) say they use AI tools to answer financial or business questions. Of those AI users, 35.9% use AI specifically for tax planning or financial questions. Nearly a third (33.0%) use it to prepare for financing or credit applications, and 29.1% for workforce and reorganisation decisions with financial implications.
Perhaps the most significant data point: nearly one in five AI users (18.4%) uses AI to verify or cross-check advice received from their accountant. For a meaningful segment of the market, AI is not supplementary to the accountant relationship. It is a quality check on it.
AI is not the only alternative filling the gap. Two in five respondents (39.7%) turn to their bank or financing partner for financial or strategic guidance. Peer networks (22.9%), online sources (21.2%), and industry associations (21.2%) are all widely used. Only 17.9% rely solely on their accountant for strategic or financial advice. The rest have built a patchwork of informal advisors and digital tools to compensate for the absence of proactive advisory from their accountant.
This is a meaningful market shift. The accountant used to be the default answer to financial questions. That is no longer automatically true.
Loyalty is more fragile than it looks
Against the backdrop of a largely transactional relationship, the switching data deserves attention. More than six in ten Dutch SMEs (60.3%) have at some point thought about switching accountants in the past year. Of these, 38.5% did so seriously, either actually switching or seriously considering it.
This is not a crisis. Most businesses are not cancelling their contracts tomorrow. But the surface-level satisfaction scores may be masking a more fragile relationship than they appear. A business that is broadly satisfied but feels underserved is one that will switch when a better alternative appears.
The technology horizon adds another dimension. More than half of respondents (55.9%) believe compliance work will be largely replaceable by software or AI within the foreseeable future, including 15.1% who say it is already possible today. If the perception of compliance as a commodity continues to grow, the fee pressure on traditional compliance-only relationships will intensify significantly.
Currently, 55.9% rate the value for money of their accountant's compliance work as good and 12.3% as excellent. But 18.4% call it merely acceptable and 8.4% see it as poor value. As AI tools become more capable and more accessible, those numbers are unlikely to move in the accountant's favour.
The market for something better is real
The research is not a story of dissatisfied businesses ready to abandon their accountant. It is a story of businesses that are open to more and willing to pay for it.
A third of Dutch SMEs (33.5%) say they would pay the same fee but expect significantly more service. A further 37.4% would actively pay more: 27.9% up to 20% more, and 9.5% would pay over 20% more. Combined, 70.9% of Dutch SMEs expect greater value from the relationship, whether through a higher fee or more service at the existing price.
Only 14.0% say they would not pay more regardless of the service level.
This is a substantial and underserved market. The demand for proactive advisory, regular check-ins, and real engagement with the business is not niche. It describes the majority of Dutch SMEs. The research asks not whether the market exists, but whether the profession is ready to meet it.
What proactive financial support actually looks like
The data points to a clear picture of what Dutch SMEs want from an accountant relationship in 2026. Not just compliance. Not just the annual meeting. But a consistent presence that engages with the business throughout the year, explains the numbers in plain language, flags issues before they become problems, and contributes to the decisions that actually move the company forward.
That means a few concrete things in practice:
Proactive outreach, not deadline-driven contact. The businesses in the survey who describe a genuinely valuable relationship are those where their advisor reaches out unprompted, not just when a filing deadline is approaching or a problem has arrived.
Real engagement with business decisions. Strategy, hiring, pricing, cash flow management. These are not peripheral to financial advice; they are the context in which financial advice is most valuable. A financial partner who is absent from these conversations is only doing part of the job.
Explanations that make sense. One of the most common requests in the survey was for clearer explanations of complex financial or tax matters. Understanding your financial position should not require translating what your accountant has given you. It should be explained in language that helps you make better decisions.
Faster, more accessible communication. The survey identified faster responses as a meaningful unmet need (8.4%). For a business owner making decisions in real time, waiting days or weeks for a response to a financial question is not a viable model.
Why compliance alone is no longer enough
The Ravical research captures something that has been true for some time but is becoming harder to ignore: the traditional compliance-based accountant relationship is being outflanked from multiple directions simultaneously.
AI tools are answering the questions that used to be kept for the annual meeting. Banks and financing partners are filling the financial planning conversation. Peer networks are replacing the trusted advisor for strategic decisions. The accountant who waits to be asked is progressively less central to how Dutch SMEs actually navigate financial and business decisions.
The businesses that are best served are those with a financial partner who does not wait. Who looks at the numbers and asks what they mean for the business. Who flags a cash flow risk before it becomes a cash flow crisis. Who knows when a pricing decision deserves a conversation about margins, not just a note in the accounts.
That kind of relationship is what 70.9% of Dutch SMEs say they want. It is not what 64.2% of them currently have.
What this means if you are an SME owner
If you recognize your own accountant relationship in the data above, it is worth asking what that means for your business. Not in terms of whether to switch, but in terms of what you might be missing.
A business operating without proactive financial input is making decisions with incomplete information. Pricing without margin analysis. Hiring without cash flow modelling. Growing without a clear picture of the tax implications. The compliance work gets done and the annual accounts get filed, but the strategic value that a genuinely engaged financial partner could contribute simply does not happen.
The research is clear that most Dutch SMEs are not getting this. It is equally clear that most of them want it and are willing to pay for it. The question is whether the relationship you have today is delivering it.
How Neno approaches this differently
At Neno, we built the service around exactly the gap this research describes. We combine AI-driven bookkeeping automation with chartered accountants who stay actively engaged with your business throughout the year, not just at filing time.
That means your accounts are always current, your VAT and payroll are handled automatically, and your Neno accountant is accessible via a dedicated Slack channel for the questions that cannot wait for an annual meeting. When something changes in your numbers, you hear about it. When a decision has financial implications worth discussing, we start the conversation.
The research confirms what we see in practice: Dutch SMEs want a financial partner who shows up for the business, not just for the compliance calendar. That is what Neno is built to be.
Get in touch to see how Neno works for Dutch BVs and growing SMEs.
Written by
Nick Knuppe
CEO & Founder
