1 in 3 SMEs send invoices by post
October 2023 - 1 in 3 Belgian SMEs still sends invoices by post. Remarkable, because from 1 January 2026 electronic invoicing between companies will become mandatory.
The figures come from a survey by Horus Software, which asked 452 Belgian SMEs about their invoicing habits. To the question 'I send my invoice via ?', 35.8 per cent replied 'The post'. 79.6 per cent use e-mail to send an invoice. Even more striking: only 27.9 per cent of respondents use an invoicing programme to prepare and send invoices. 37 per cent of those surveyed use Word.
In terms of electronic invoicing, Flanders is doing slightly better than Brussels and Wallonia: only one in four (27%) SMEs still sends their invoices by post.
Some more striking figures from the survey:
· 39 per cent of entrepreneurs see accounting purely as an expense
· 18 per cent even consider accounting completely useless
· Belgian SMEs spend an average of 33 hours per month on accounting administrative tasks
· 1 entrepreneur in 2 says he receives financial advice from his accountant
· 59 percent of surveyed entrepreneurs meet with their accountants less than four times a year.
E-invoicing from 2026
As previously announced, business-to-business e-invoicing will become the norm from 1 January 2026. A lot of SMEs therefore still have a lot of catching up to do.
