Gripvol Advice Tool

Municipality of Amsterdam

The Gripvol advisory tool: an application that helps staff in the Business Support Department to determine whether a business is viable.

Last change on 2nd of July 2026, at 14:57 (CET) | Publication Standard 1.0

• Publication category: Other algorithms
• Impact assessment: DPIA
• Status: Out of use

General information

Theme

• Social Security
• Work

Begin date

2022-07

Contact information

[e-mail]

Responsible use

Goal and impact

The aim of the Gripvol advisory tool is to facilitate faster decision-making, reduce costs and ensure greater consistency in assessing a company’s viability.

Considerations

When an application is made under the Self-Employed Persons’ Social Assistance Scheme (Bbz), an eligibility check is carried out first. The next step is to assess whether the business is viable. A business is considered viable if, following the provision of support (temporary benefit or working capital), there is sufficient income to meet all business and personal obligations. Assessing viability is labour-intensive and complex. Staff in the Entrepreneur Support Department can assess viability themselves or outsource this assessment to external contractors. It takes a relatively long time to assess viability in-house, but an assessment by external parties is expensive. We therefore sought a tool to support staff in assessing a business’s viability. We opted for the Gripvol advisory tool. Gripvol helps to structure and support the assessment with financial calculations and sector-specific information. Staff discuss the tool’s recommendations with the entrepreneur and take them into account in the overall assessment of the application for the Self-Employed Persons’ Social Assistance Scheme (Bbz). Use of the tool is not compulsory. Staff may use it as one of the tools in their work.

Human intervention

Gripvol produces a report based on the data provided by the client and the assessment carried out by the staff member. The report is the outcome of this assessment and sets out the reasoning as to whether or not the business is viable. The staff member discusses the report with the business owner. In addition, the four-eyes principle applies within the Business Support department. Applications are also assessed by a colleague. 

Staff members can use Gripvol, but it is not essential. They can also process applications without using Gripvol. The staff member makes the final judgement on the viability of a business. This judgement is then reviewed by a colleague.

Risk management

The Gripvol advisory tool is based on a model (the decision tree), which is rule-based. The parameters are not dynamic; they are not adjusted (automatically) in response to the data entered. The advisory report displays the data entered and the corresponding advice. It is therefore entirely transparent what is happening, and the process can also be explained. The risks associated with using the tool are assessed as low.

The Gripvol advisory tool is provided by the company Gripvol, which supplies this tool to several local authorities. They regularly carry out so-called ‘pen-and-hack tests’ to check that the advisory tool cannot be hacked by third parties. Gripvol is ISO-certified. The City of Amsterdam’s Business Support Department is responsible for processing the data required to complete the process.

Impact assessment

Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA)

Operations

Data

Model architecture

The Gripvol advisory tool uses logic. This means that predefined calculations are compared with the information entered by the employee. The calculations are carried out on the basis of a decision tree. 

This comparison results in a notification to the employee indicating whether or not the conditions have been met. The employee can use this notification to inform their decision regarding the application for social assistance for the self-employed (Bbz).

External provider

High-grip