0001. Leave Zoho Books for Jortt MKB

Driver: Bence | Approver: Bence | Contributors: — | Informed: whoever handles invoicing next Date: 2026-08-20 | Status: proposed | Classification: confidential

Context

The rename from GradeGuru to erudeon v.o.f. forced a look at the accounting stack rather than a straight migration of it.

Zoho Books had been the intended system of record for VAT invoices and credit notes, with seven-year retention and Stripe receipts switched off so there is only ever one document issuer. That requirement has not changed. What changed is that erudeon pays contractors, and paying contractors properly in the Netherlands means self-billing: issuing the invoice on the contractor's behalf rather than waiting for one.

Options considered

A. Stay on Zoho Books

Already integrated in the codebase behind the accounting seam, and the team knows it. Self-billing is not a first-class feature, which is the whole reason this decision exists.

B. Jortt MKB

Dutch, built for the Dutch VAT regime rather than localised into it, and handles self-billing natively. Means unpicking the Zoho integration and re-testing the invoice path end to end.

C. Do it by hand until it hurts

Viable at the current contractor count and genuinely cheap. Rejected because invoice errors are expensive to unwind after the fact, and because the seven-year retention obligation does not care how small we were at the time.

Decision

Move to Jortt MKB, subject to three trial tests passing:

1. A self-billed contractor invoice, VAT inclusive, matching finance/contractor-pay.md.
2. A normal sales invoice with correct Dutch VAT treatment.
3. A credit note against that invoice.

Until all three pass, this record stays proposed and Zoho Books remains in place.

Consequences

The accounting integration in the app has to be rewritten against a different provider, and passtheyear/docs/STRIPE.md and CLAUDE.md both name Zoho as the accounting system of record, so both need updating when this is accepted.

Self-billing becomes possible, which removes a manual step per contractor per month and removes a class of error where a contractor invoices the wrong amount or the wrong VAT treatment.

We take on a migration we would not otherwise have done this quarter.