What is an audit file (XAF)?

Every Dutch accounting package can create an audit file. The file is meant to hand over your accounts in a fixed way, for example to an accountant or in a check. Because the format is the same for all packages, you can also use it to change package.

The audit file holds the ledger accounts, the relations and all bookings of the chosen period. So it is more than a list of balances: you can work out from it how an amount came about. That makes it suitable as the basis for the current financial year if you switch mid-year.

What is not in it is the operational side. Open orders, stock per location or active subscriptions are usually not bookings, so they are not in the file. For those parts we ask you to export separate lists. The audit file is the basis, not the whole.

There are versions of the format. Uniconta imports XAF 3.2 and 4.0. If your package creates another version, we work out together how to use the file anyway. We discuss that in the introduction, before the trial conversion starts.

For older years the audit file has a second function. You have to be able to produce your administration for a certain period. An archive of audit files per year covers that retention obligation without you having to load those years into your new system. That keeps Uniconta clear and still meets the rules.

Always check an audit file before you use it. Open it, see whether the period is right and whether the balances match your trial balance. A file that was exported incompletely gives an unexplained difference in the opening balance later.