Guides for the things you do once and have to get right
Registering, closing a quarter, setting up an association. Whole tasks told from beginning to end, with the rule cited and no invented figures. When a figure changes every year, we say so instead of giving it to you wrong.
The guides
Each one accompanies a complete task. If what you are after is a single word, it is in the glossary.
Registering as an autónomo
The right order for the two procedures, the IAE heading and which forms apply to you from day one.
An autónomo's deductible expenses
The rule that decides everything, the five hard cases and what Hacienda wants in order to accept an expense.
How to make an invoice
The compulsory fields, a full invoice against a simplified one with their real limits, series, numbering and deadlines.
Closing the quarter
The checklist that separates a half-hour close from a whole afternoon.
Setting up an association
The articles of association, registration, the NIF and the tax obligations that appear in the first year.
Collecting fees by direct debit
The mandate, the SEPA file, the notice and bank submission deadlines, and what to do about returns.
The one for you, depending on where you are
The six guides can be read in any order, but hardly anyone needs them all at once. This is the route people usually come by.
| If you are… | Start with | And carry on with |
|---|---|---|
| Thinking of registering | Registering as an autónomo | The one on expenses, before the first big purchase |
| Newly registered | How to make an invoice | The one on deductible expenses |
| With the first quarter upon you | Closing the quarter | The tax calendar, so that you never have to look the date up again |
| Losing money on expenses you do not record | Deductible expenses | The one on the quarter, where they get applied |
| Setting up a non-profit organisation | Setting up an association | The one on collecting fees, which is what comes next |
| Chasing fees or monthly payments | Collecting by direct debit | It works just as well for a club or a training academy |
And if what you are after is understanding one word you have seen on a form or an invoice, do not start here: it is in the glossary.
How these guides are written
With three rules, and you notice them as you read.
Every figure carries its rule. When we say that the limit for a simplified invoice rises to €3,000 in hospitality, there is an article behind it and it is linked at the foot. Not because it looks serious, but so that you can check it yourself.
What changes every year is not given. The autónomo contribution bands move every year. A guide that publishes them will be wrong in twelve months' time and nobody will notice. We would rather say that they change and link to the body that sets them.
And we say what the program does not do. Cairos does not file forms with the Spanish Tax Agency and does not process registrations: it leaves the numbers ready. Putting it any other way would make for a more commercial guide and a disappointed customer on day one.
If you were looking for a word
These guides describe processes. For individual concepts — taxable base, prorrata, chargeable event, bill of materials, cooperative refund — there is the glossary, with forty-eight terms explained with an example and the mistake most often made with each one.
And what these guides describe, solved
Cairos keeps the invoices, the expenses and the forms with the same data, so the theory turns into boxes already filled in.