Containment boosts electronic invoicing in Belgium

The need to work remotely has encouraged many companies to move to digital accounting and take advantage of its benefits.

The containment imposed in Belgium since March 18th will have truly transformed the way the business world, in the broadest sense, works. “Companies – whatever their size – are required to organize telework for any function where it is possible, without exception. For those for whom this organization is not possible, social distancing will be scrupulously respected. If businesses cannot meet these obligations, they must close,” said the government rules.

Find out more details about the digitalization of invoicing in Belgium and read the latest financial headlines with our companion app. Born2Invest mobile app makes it easy for you to keep informed, to intuitively move from story to story, and from section to section. Our clean design lets you read articles without clutter, and use the app with no limits on how many articles you can view.

Companies are moving towards digital invoicing

Forced to work at a distance, many companies have taken advantage of this period to make the leap to electronic invoicing.

“At the beginning of the year, we had an average of around 400 companies accessing our services every week. During the lockdown, we were registering a thousand new customers a week,” said Tom Vanhoorne, managing director of Clearfacts, a fintech company owned by Isabel Group, which offers digital accounting solutions.

Of course, digital invoicing is not simply a matter of converting paper invoices to PDF. “Working in this way does not bring any benefits, it is not fundamentally different from traditional invoicing,” explained Tom Vanhoorne.

Digitizing the accounts means turning these accounts into lines of code that can be directly read, interpreted, and processed by software. This is where CodaBox comes in, another fintech company owned by Isabel Group, leader in converting to “coda”, one of the reference formats. “Our activities have accelerated over the last two years, and this will continue to be the case for the next two years,” according to Marie Costers, Managing Director of CodaBox.

Saving time and money

Currently, only about 8% of invoices are completely electronic in Belgium, making it one of the worst in Europe. However, the advantages of this process are numerous. It saves a considerable amount of time, improves payment times, and reduces the number of errors. It is therefore a potential source of significant savings.

“The accountant has a much better view of the company’s situation and can anticipate liquidity problems much more quickly.”

The Flemish regional authorities thus paid ‘only’ $2.4 million (€2.1 million) in 2019 in interest for late payment. In 2015, this amount was still $5.7 million (€5 million). At the moment, almost two-thirds of the Flemish administration’s accounts are electronic.

In the current economic crisis, electronic accounting is proving useful for companies. “The accountant has a much better view of the company’s situation and can anticipate liquidity problems much more quickly,” said Marie Costers. “Our number of clients has increased, but it is mainly companies that have decided to accelerate this transition,” she added, with other firms remaining sceptical.

However, Belgium will not see all its invoices become electronic for several years, although Finance Minister Alexander De Croo is a strong supporter of the system.

__

(Featured image by JerzyGorecki via Pixabay)

DISCLAIMER: This article was written by a third party contributor and does not reflect the opinion of Born2Invest, its management, staff or its associates. Please review our disclaimer for more information.

This article may include forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements generally are identified by the words “believe,” “project,” “estimate,” “become,” “plan,” “will,” and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks as well as uncertainties, including those discussed in the following cautionary statements and elsewhere in this article and on this site. Although the Company may believe that its expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, the actual results that the Company may achieve may differ materially from any forward-looking statements, which reflect the opinions of the management of the Company only as of the date hereof. Additionally, please make sure to read these important disclosures.

First published in L’Echo, a third-party contributor translated and adapted the article from the original. In case of discrepancy, the original will prevail.

Although we made reasonable efforts to provide accurate translations, some parts may be incorrect. Born2Invest assumes no responsibility for errors, omissions or ambiguities in the translations provided on this website. Any person or entity relying on translated content does so at their own risk. Born2Invest is not responsible for losses caused by such reliance on the accuracy or reliability of translated information. If you wish to report an error or inaccuracy in the translation, we encourage you to contact us.