Virtually no creator sits on one platform any more. Anyone earning seriously spreads out: a main platform, a second for a different audience, perhaps a third as a test, plus brand deals alongside. And then comes the question of whether that becomes four sets of records.
No. You have one business and therefore one set of records. What you do need is separate substantiation per platform, and that is something other than separate bookkeeping.
Why platforms are not interchangeable
You would think: it is all turnover, so onto one pile. The problem is that every platform can differ on four points, and each of those points ends up in your return:
- The commission. Every platform withholds a different percentage, and sometimes that changes by turnover level or by type of income.
- The currency. One platform settles in euro, another in dollars. That means converting, and exchange differences.
- Where the customer is established. This decides whether your turnover belongs in an ICP return or not. See the ICP return.
- The payout rhythm. Weekly, fortnightly, monthly, or only above a threshold. This decides what is still outstanding at 31 December.
Throw everything onto one pile and you lose exactly the information you need to handle those four points correctly. And in an audit a total amount can no longer be broken back down to its source.
Two VAT regimes in the same return
This is the scenario that most often goes wrong. Say you work with a platform in the EU and a platform outside the EU. Then in the same quarterly return you have:
- Turnover with VAT reverse charged to an EU customer, which belongs in your ICP return
- Turnover falling outside Dutch VAT, which does not belong in your ICP
Both amounts appear in your VAT return, in different boxes. One of the two goes in your ICP. If you only have a total, you cannot make that split and it becomes guesswork.
Add a brand deal with a Dutch company and you have three regimes: reverse charged to the EU, outside Dutch VAT, and Dutch VAT on your invoice. That is perfectly manageable. Just not on the basis of one turnover line.
How to set it up
The arrangement that works for our clients and asks little discipline:
- One business account. All platforms pay out into it. Not an account per platform, which makes it needlessly complicated.
- A ledger account per platform. In the bookkeeping your turnover is broken down by source. That is set up once and runs by itself after that.
- A folder per platform per year. Holding the monthly exports, under a fixed file name with the year and month.
- A note per platform with the fixed details. The legal entity, the country, the VAT number if there is one, the commission percentage and the currency.
That fourth point is the one nobody does unprompted and the one that yields the most. If that note exists, the VAT treatment per platform is a given rather than something to work out again each quarter. And if something changes, you update one line.
Check your platform details once a year
Platforms change the entity you contract with, move to a different country or change their commission structure. That is not theoretical, it happens.
So put it in your calendar once a year to check, per platform:
- Is the same legal entity still on your payout statement?
- Is the country the same?
- Is the VAT number still valid, checkable in the European VIES system?
- Has the commission percentage changed?
Fifteen minutes' work, and it prevents you applying the wrong treatment to one of your largest revenue streams for a year.
What to keep per platform
Per platform, per month, the same four figures:
- The gross earnings
- The commission withheld
- The amount paid out and the currency
- The balance still sitting on the platform at the end of the period
That fourth point is the item that becomes your receivable at year end. With a platform that has a payout threshold or a long payout cycle that can be a substantial amount belonging in the old year. See bookkeeping your payouts.
A worked example
A creator works on three platforms and does brand deals alongside. Over one quarter:
- Platform A, outside the EU, dollars: 9,200 dollars gross, 20 percent commission
- Platform B, in the EU, euro: 2,400 euro gross, 25 percent commission
- Platform C, outside the EU, euro: 700 euro gross, 30 percent commission
- Two brand deals with Dutch companies: 1,800 euro together
What has to happen in the records: convert platform A to euro and record the exchange difference, book three different commission amounts as costs, fill three boxes in the VAT return, put platform B in the ICP return and specifically not A and C, and account for Dutch VAT on the 1,800 euro of brand deals.
That is one set of records with four substantiations. Anyone recording this as a single turnover figure of roughly 12,000 euro has been unable to take any of those steps.
The platform note: what exactly goes in it
Of everything in this article this is the document that prevents the most work, so here it is written out. One block per platform, created once, checked once a year:
- The legal entity. Exactly as it appears on your payout statement or in your agreement, not the brand name of the app.
- The country of establishment. Your whole VAT treatment hangs on this.
- The VAT identification number, if the platform supplies one, plus the date you checked it in VIES.
- The commission percentage, and whether it varies by type of income or by turnover level.
- The currency settlement happens in.
- The payout rhythm and any payout threshold.
- Where you get the export, and whether there is a fuller version than the standard one.
With that block the VAT treatment per platform is a given rather than something to work out again each quarter. Without it, every quarter starts with the same question.
What happens when a platform changes entity
This is not an edge case, it happens. A platform moves the entity creators contract with to another country, and that changes your return from one quarter to the next.
What then has to happen:
- Establish from which date the new entity invoices. That is on your payout statement.
- Split the turnover into two parts: the old treatment up to that date, the new one after.
- Adjust the ICP return. If a platform moves from inside the EU to outside, the return stops; the other way round it starts, and you then need the new VAT number.
- Update your platform note, with the date of the change in it.
That fourth point is why the note deserves a date against each item. A year later the question is not what the situation is now, but what it was in the second quarter.
What to check per platform at year end
The year transition is where a set of records with several platforms most often goes out of true, because every platform has its own rhythm. Four questions per platform:
- What was still on the platform at 31 December and is therefore a receivable?
- Which turnover was earned in December and paid out in January?
- Does the annual total of the exports reconcile with the credits on your bank account?
- Are there corrections or chargebacks not yet processed?
With three platforms that is twelve questions you run through once a year. The alternative route, discovering it does not add up at the moment the return has to be finished, costs a multiple of that. See the income tax return as a content creator.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a separate business account per platform?
No, and it is usually less convenient. One account with a breakdown in the bookkeeping gives the same insight with fewer bank charges and less reconciliation.
I have just started on a second platform. What do I need to arrange?
Three things practically: record the entity and the country, download the first export as soon as there is one, and have the payouts come into your business account. Then it runs correctly from day one.
One of my platforms has shut down. What do I do with the outstanding balance?
It stays a receivable until it is paid or until it is clear it will not come. In the latter case you write it off, and that is a loss that belongs in your return.
How many platforms is too many for the records?
Administratively the number matters little if the set-up is right. What does mount up is the monthly work of fetching exports, and that is why we set it up properly at the start rather than later.
When it is better to close a platform than keep it
A third or fourth platform yielding little costs as much administrative attention as your main platform: an export a month, its own commission, its own VAT treatment, and at year end a balance you have to check.
That is a reason to look at it once a year with a simple question: does this platform produce more than the attention it costs? For a platform doing a few tens of euro a month where you also fail to reach a payout threshold, the answer is often no. If you close it, have the outstanding balance paid out before you cancel the account; a balance on a closed account is a receivable you will probably never collect.
In closing
One business, one set of records, separate substantiation per platform. That is the whole message. And of everything you can record, the note with entity, country, VAT number, commission and currency per platform is the one that prevents the most work.
We do this for creators on OnlyFans, F2F, Twitch and YouTube and every platform beside them, in one set of records and for one fixed monthly price.