Building an integration for the Gecombineerde opgave
In 2026 the submission deadline for the Combined Declaration moved to 18 May because Ascension Day fell on 14 May. The reference date stayed at 15 May. That three-day gap is exactly where things go wrong: your declaration describes the situation on 15 May, even if you submit it on 18 May. If you change a parcel during those days, you record the wrong position.
Why this declaration runs all year
The Combined Declaration is a single form with many destinations. The data goes to the Agricultural Census, it is used for the Common Agricultural Policy, and it feeds obligations under manure legislation. One incorrectly completed parcel therefore affects your subsidies, your manure allowance and your statistics at the same time.
The window is short, but the work is not. In 2026 you could submit from 1 March until 18 May, which was already an exception: normally 15 May is the closing date, but Ascension Day fell on 14 May that year. The reference date remained 15 May, so for parcels, crops and farm transfers, the situation on that day counts. That distinction between submission date and reference date is structurally overlooked.
The real cause of errors lies earlier in the year. You keep your parcel data in Mijn percelen: area, land-use right and crop. If you only check that in April, you have to reconstruct a year of changes from lease contracts, exchanges and a crop plan that has since been adjusted. In 2026, additional European questions also arose on, among other things, farm management, housing systems and manure storage. RVO describes the declaration and the current dates on rvo.nl.
How we build this
The declaration itself is a moment; the data behind it is a year. We focus on that year, not on the weeks before the deadline.
Which parcels, which area, which land-use right and which crop, and where your own records differ from what RVO holds. That difference is almost always the starting point.
A lease that expires, an exchange, a change of crop, a farm transfer. Knowing who knows about these and when determines where the registration needs to catch them, because that information rarely reaches the person completing the declaration.
Each sprint ends with something you can check yourself, and we start by tracking parcels throughout the year. The declaration is derived from that.
We have the system compile the position as at the reference date and set it beside your last declaration. Differences point to changes that were never recorded anywhere.
What the integration actually does
The parcel administration with a timeline is the core. The integration with RVO and the reference-date logic make it manageable.
Parcels with a timeline
Each parcel with its area, land-use right and crop, and with the date on which something changed. That makes any given day reconstructable, including the reference date.
Reference date and submission date kept apart
The system compiles the declaration on the position at the reference date, not on today's. That may sound like a detail until the submission date shifts and the reference date does not.
Comparing with what RVO holds
Your own administration alongside the registered position, with the differences highlighted. We will survey beforehand what data exchange is possible; we do not promise an integration until we have established what is available.
Alert on an event
An expiring lease or a crop rotation becomes an open task rather than something someone has to remember in May. That way, the declaration is built up over the course of the year.
Checks before submission
Areas that don't add up, plots without a legal right of use, crops that don't match the plot. Better a flag in April than a correction request in September.
Supporting evidence kept per declaration year
Which position was declared, what it was based on, and which changes followed. In an inspection or a correction, the question concerns that year, not your current situation.
Who we build for
The number of plots and whether you submit yourself or through an adviser determine the setup. Four situations.
Arable farming and open-field horticulture
Many plots with changing crops and exchanges with neighbours. Here the plot records are the whole story and the declaration is derived from them. If you farm organically, a separate administration runs alongside it; see Skal administration.
Livestock farming
Alongside plots, the manure side matters, with housing systems and manure storage, on which additional questions were added in 2026. That data comes from a different part of the business than the cropping plan. If a crop registration also runs under a retail scheme, see GlobalG.A.P..
Accountants and agricultural advisers
You submit for dozens of businesses and need the same structure per client, with a strict separation between them. Your bottleneck is the peak: all clients share the same deadline.
Businesses with multiple sites or entities
Parcels spread across several businesses or partnerships, with transfers between them. This is most sensitive right around the reference date. The connection to your farm management system runs through integrations.
Technology and integrations
Plot data is geographic data and should be stored as such, not as an area in a text field. And because the questions change every year, the declaration structure should be configurable and kept per year.
Why Appfront
The reference date and the submission date are two different things
In 2026 they were three days apart. We build the declaration on the position at the reference date, because that is what is asked.
A plot has a history
Without a timeline you cannot reconstruct an earlier position, and that is exactly what a correction or an inspection requires.
The declaration is built during the year, not in May
Whoever starts in April is reconstructing. We set up alerts for the moment something changes.
Honest about what we don't do
We are not an agricultural adviser and we do not submit anything on your behalf. Which declaration you must make and how you answer questions is decided by you, with your adviser, or with RVO.
Security and privacy
Plot and business data is commercially sensitive. Anyone who knows your plots, crops and animal numbers knows your scale, your lease position and part of your business results. With an adviser who works for dozens of businesses, confidentiality between clients comes into play: one client must never see another's plots, not even by accident in an overview. Separation per business is therefore a design requirement, not a setting.
For a sole proprietorship or partnership, business and personal data are also intertwined: a parcel can be traced back to a person. Handle them accordingly and keep the retention period tight, with an exception for what you need to account for an old return. We store those returns unchanged per year: a correction is placed alongside the original position, because an inspection concerns what you declared at the time and what that declaration was based on. How we ourselves handle security is set out in our information security policy; reports from outside reach us through our responsible disclosure policy.
Frequently asked questions about the Combined Declaration
The reference date is the day whose situation is decisive; the submission date is the final day on which you send the declaration. In 2026 these differed: submission was possible up to and including 18 May because Ascension Day fell on 14 May, but for parcels, crops and farm transfers 15 May remained decisive. Anyone who changes something on those days records the wrong position.
In 2026 it ran from 1 March to 18 May. The dates shift each year, partly because of public holidays, so check them with RVO before basing your planning on them. What does not shift is that the work starts earlier: the parcel records on which the declaration rests must be accurate all year round.
For the Agricultural Census, for the Common Agricultural Policy and for obligations under the manure legislation. One form with three purposes, which means an error in one parcel affects your subsidy, your manure allowance and the statistics all at once. That is why checks before submission matter more than the filling-in itself.
We will not promise that until we have established which data exchange is available for your situation. Even without an integration, the system adds value: it keeps your parcels tracked with a timeline, compiles the position on the reference date and checks it before submission. Submitting itself then takes only minutes.
Especially then. Your adviser works with the data you supply, and in April that is often a reconstruction. If your parcel records are accurate all year round, his work becomes checking rather than investigating. For the advisory firm itself, the gain is that all clients share the same structure in a period when everyone has a deadline at the same time.
Then it does not belong in that year's declaration but it does belong in your records, so that the position for the following year is correct. The system keeps both: the position declared this year and the ongoing reality. Without that distinction, your records drift out of step with what was declared within two years.
Because area is an outcome, not a datum. A parcel that is split or exchanged changes shape, and then a figure in a field no longer matches. With parcels stored as polygons with history, you can retrieve any earlier position and have the area calculated rather than having to remember it.
That depends on the number of parcels and businesses, whether integrations with your farm management system are needed, and whether the manure side must be included. The parcel administration with reference-date logic is usually quick to put to use and delivers the most value; the integrations cost more. We give a reasoned estimate after the discovery phase.
Ready to build an integration for the Combined Declaration?
Try to write down how your parcels looked on 15 May last year. If that turns into a search, you'll understand why this administration needs a timeline. We build this as a standalone application and as part of a wider custom software development project. If parcel registration happens in the field, we build that as an app.