How much does a self-employed professional in Belgium actually turn over in a year? Which professions come out on top, and why do two jobs that look similar on paper end up with such different numbers? For the second year running, the Accountable Index answers those questions with real data rather than guesswork.
The Accountable Index 2026 is based on anonymised invoicing data from around 7,100 Accountable users in Belgium, of whom roughly 4,050 are self-employed as their main occupation and about 3,100 as a secondary occupation.
In the Accountable Index we looks at three things:
One thing stands out immediately: not every self-employed professional builds turnover the same way. Some professions run on a handful of large projects. Others work through a high volume of smaller transactions. Both routes can lead to a healthy business, but they look very different along the way.
Curious how the numbers moved since last year? Read the Accountable Index 2025.
Across all full-time self-employed professionals who have been active for more than a year, the median annual turnover in the 2026 Index is €76,932, excluding VAT.
A quick reminder on what that number is and is not. It is turnover, so the total invoiced before business expenses, social security contributions and taxes. It is not take-home income. And because it is a median rather than an average, it is not pulled upwards by a small group of very high earners: half of the professionals in the sample sit above it, half below.
Here is how the professions in the Index compare, ranked by median annual turnover for full-time self-employed professionals active for more than one year.
Brokers and financial advisers lead the ranking with a median of €199,003. Car dealers follow at €141,016, ahead of doctors (€125,241), consultants, engineers and IT professionals (€120,720) and construction professionals (€105,065).
Nine of the fourteen professions clear €70,000 a year. Sales representatives and commercial agents, drivers and couriers, lawyers and legal professionals and maintenance professionals all sit comfortably above the overall median.
At the other end of the spectrum are hair and beauty specialists (€37,403), sports professionals (€39,498), copywriters and translators (€44,676) and coaches (€49,971). The gap between top and bottom is more than five to one, and it comes down to three things: the profession itself, the type of clients it serves, and how it sells.
The first year as a self-employed professional is rarely the most lucrative, but how slow that first year is varies enormously.
Among consultants, engineers and IT professionals, 59% stay below €20,000 in turnover during their first year. Among starting architects, that figure is 93%.
In other words, almost every architect spends their first year building up a client base before the revenue follows, while a sizeable minority of consultants are already invoicing serious amounts from the start.
Some of the most striking differences in the Index appear between professions that seem close together. Construction professionals reach a median annual turnover of €105,065. Architects and urban planners, who work on the very same buildings, land at €53,452: roughly half.
Consultants, engineers and IT professionals go higher still at €120,720. Larger, more specialised assignments and higher invoice values tend to play a role here.
The lesson is that a long education or a high degree of specialisation does not automatically translate into higher turnover. Rates, the type of assignments, cost structure and market demand all make a difference, and often a bigger one than the diploma on the wall.
Behind the turnover figures lie very different business models, and the number of invoices a professional sends tells you a lot about theirs.
The number of invoices alone therefore says very little. It is the combination of volume, rates and invoice value that determines how quickly a self-employed professional can build turnover. Sending more invoices is not the same as earning more.
The differences become even clearer when you look at how long it takes self-employed professionals to reach €100,000 in cumulative turnover, based on their pace in the first quarters after starting.
For other professions the road is considerably longer.
That is not a judgement on any of these professions. A hair salon and an IT consultancy are simply different businesses with different economics, and the Index makes that visible.
The figures show that there is no single financial profile of the self-employed professional. Turnover, the number of invoices and the value per invoice differ strongly from one profession to the next. That is why it is important not to look at total turnover alone, but also at costs, payment terms and cash flow. Together, they give a much more complete picture of how a business is really doing.
That is worth keeping in mind whichever end of the ranking your profession sits at. A consultant with €120,000 in turnover and three overdue invoices worth €15,000 may be in a tighter spot than a hairdresser with €37,000 in turnover and clients who pay on the day. Turnover tells you how much you sold. Cash flow tells you whether you can pay yourself this month.
Whether you are above or below the median for your profession, knowing where you stand is the first step to steering your business deliberately. Accountable helps you track your turnover, expenses and taxes in real time, so you always know how much you have really earned and how much you can safely keep.
✨ Find out more about Accountable here.
Author - Nicolas Quarré
Nicolas is co-founder and CEO at Accountable. His vision for the company has always been clear: free self-employed from administrative nightmares.
Who is Nicolas ?Thank you for your feedback!
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