How do you convert a PDF annual report to iXBRL for SBR?
The PDF stays your source. What you file is an iXBRL report package in which every amount is a machine-readable fact.
Short answer
A PDF annual report does not become an SBR filing by converting the file. Every line gets a concept from the Netherlands Taxonomy, a context carrying entity and period, a unit and a rounding. Those facts go into an Inline XBRL document, which is wrapped as a report package and validated against the SBR Filing Rules before you file.
Why a PDF cannot become an SBR file on its own
A PDF describes layout: which characters sit where on the page. An SBR filing describes meaning. To the receiver, 357,941 is only information once it also says which concept it is, which entity and period it covers, which unit it is expressed in and how far it has been rounded.
So the conversion is a translation, not a format switch. The figures and the narrative stay yours. What is added is the layer that lets the Chamber of Commerce, the tax administration and the statistics office read the same document without retyping it.
From PDF to filing-ready package in four steps
The order is fixed, because each step assumes the one before it.
- Extraction. The statements, the notes and the other information come out of the PDF, including the table structure that keeps each amount attached to its line.
- Concept mapping. Every line gets the concept the taxonomy has for it, in the right namespace. This is where most errors are made, and where a human review belongs.
- Contexts, units and rounding. Entity, period, currency and the number of decimals per fact, because without those four an amount is not a fact.
- Packaging and validation. The Inline XBRL document goes through validation as a report package: the XBRL specifications, the calculation relationships from the taxonomy itself, and the SBR Filing Rules.
The entry point decides the rest
The KVK framework selects the entry point by size class, with separate entry points for banks, insurers and housing associations. A wrong entry point fails validation immediately, however careful the tagging is.
For financial year 2025 the Netherlands Taxonomy is at generation NT20. Choose the taxonomy version that belongs to the financial year you are filing, not the newest one available to download.
What stays your judgment
Software can propose a concept. Only you can establish that the proposal matches the accounts the board adopted. Doc2iXBRL therefore puts every proposed mapping next to the source line from the PDF, so you review line by line instead of trusting a package in one go.
It is the same reason we keep validation separate from submission. You see what was tagged and what the rules make of it first; filing stays your act.
The four Dutch GAAP namespaces, and what belongs in each
Every concept lives in exactly one namespace. They are complementary, never interchangeable.
| Namespace | Carries | Example |
|---|---|---|
| bw2-titel9: | Core concepts from Book 2 Title 9 of the Civil Code | Assets, Equity, Revenue |
| rj: | Extended concepts from the Dutch Accounting Standards Board guidelines | CashFlowFromOperatingActivities |
| kvk: | Filing metadata only, never primary facts | LegalEntitySize |
| ww: | Housing Act vocabulary for housing associations, with BTIV and RTIV | Sector items reported by approved institutions |
Using rj:Assets where bw2-titel9:Assets is canonical breaks the calculation tree and fails validation. The KVK tree additionally imports wnt: for the senior-pay standards act and IFRS-NL entry points for entities using the IFRS option in article 2:362.
Questions that come with this
Can I just upload a PDF to the Chamber of Commerce?
No. The trade register receives the data electronically through SBR. The PDF is your source and stays that. What you deliver is the iXBRL report package built from it.
Does this work with a scanned PDF?
Yes, with one extra step: the text has to be recognised first. Watch for characters the filing rules disallow. Text recognition regularly leaves typographic quotation marks or bullet glyphs that rule FR-NL-1.02 rejects.
What if the accounts are in Word?
The same route, with less reading risk. A DOCX source keeps the table structure intact that a PDF forces you to infer from the layout.
How much of the notes has to be tagged?
That depends on the financial year. Annex II of the filing rulebook sets the detailed-tagging duty, and the markup rulebook in Annex IV bans voluntary block tagging for financial years beginning before 1 January 2026, pending the revised method.
Can I check the result before I file?
Yes. Open the package in the free iXBRL Reader and read the rendered report alongside every fact, or run the validator over the rule sets. Neither needs an installation.
Does our layout survive?
Inline XBRL is xHTML: the document a person reads and the document a machine reads are the same file. The design stays visible, with the tags underneath it.
Ready to convert your first annual report?
Show us the accounts you need to file and we will walk the route with you.