Your free invoice template, to fill in, designed for self-employed in Belgium

Do you need to figure out how to write your first invoices in Belgium? Download the invoice template and complete it following our advice below. You'll then make sure to have a safe, flawless, and ready-to-use invoice.

To download the invoice template, click here.

Step 1: your invoice's basis

You should start your invoice by completing the easiest part, the header. As a natural self-employed person, your entire name is sufficient. As a self-employed company, you are required to write down your official name as it is registered at the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises. The second step for completing the template is filling the addresses in. They should correspond to the companies' head office. A common mistake is to insert your co-working space or your foreign address. Don't do it 😇 🧩 Cannot find the requested information? Don't spend hours on the web. Find all companies' head office as well as their VAT number on the CBE website. 🇪🇺 Your client is European but does not live in Belgium? All his information is accessible through the EU's VIES tool.

Attention 💢 ! Belgian VAT laws are not always valid on your transactions with other EU countries. For those deals, VAT payment has to be paid in your client's country. This process is called reverse charge. Behind this obscure term, only hide a reversal of the legal responsibility for VAT. If you are in that case, we would advise you to create your invoices through our app. It takes care of the VAT report automatically.

This content is still hazy to you? Don't worry, it is completely normal. By creating your invoices straight from our app, you can deal with cross-countries transactions in a couple of clicks! No more need to remember exactly which rate has to be applied, leave it to our app! 🔑Download Accountable

Step 2: prices and VAT rates

After finishing the header of your invoice containing your information and that of your customer, it is time to tackle the central part of it: the content and the amount of the sale. Hence, you'll need to start by assigning your invoice a unique and sequential invoice number (top-right of the template). Those have to follow one another numerically but should not compulsorily start from number 1. Your invoice must contain the date of issue and the word invoice. Highlighting it is always useful. For higher clarity, indicate the due date of the invoice.

Small tip 👀: Not everyone should know that you are a starter : you might want to number your first invoice with a larger number than one to look professional.

Unit price is the amount you charge for one unit of the good. You are not selling goods but services? You would then have to use the hourly rate. It is common for a self-employed not to have any idea what VAT rate you should charge for the products and services you are selling. For instance, if you offer both sales and training, the rates you are going to exert for both are different. Even two pieces of the same bike might have different rates! Do you want to know which rate needs to be applied? Have a look at the official Belgian government website. It details it all on a case-by-case basis. As a self-employed starter, you might choose the franchisee status (only if your turnover is inferior to 25000€). In that case, you do not have to charge any VAT supplement but on the other hand, you cannot deduct the VAT from your purchases. Fortunately, Accountable is perfectly adapted for franchisees' needs. The next step to facilitate your accounting is just to download the app.

Step 3: legal notices and sample invoice

An invoice must contain certain legally required elements. You will be able to insert the legal notices in the "comments" section of the invoice template. For example, if you are a franchisee, you will need to include the following: " Special scheme for the exemption of small enterprises". By registering on our app, the legal notice corresponding to your invoice will be automatically proposed to you! Your customer will have no reason not to pay if your invoice is clear, complete, and irreproachable! 🧨 Then, you might want to add terms and conditions to your invoice to avoid unpleasant surprises. This usually includes payment terms and penalties for late payment. You can always add your e-mail address or a phone number for a better relationship with your customer. Save as well some time on the paying process by writing down your bank details.

Small tip 👀: To avoid administrative hassles, consider invoicing your customer on the day the sale or service occurred. You may be fined if you issue your invoice after the fifteenth working day of the month following the month in which your VAT is due.

With all the detailed steps above, your invoice should be complete and ready-to-use! However, you might have some questions about specific cases. You can send us a question through the website chat (bottom-right of the screen) or send us an e-mail at support@accountable.eu. Our team would be pleased to answer your questions as fast as possible.

Want to make sure your invoice is perfect and ready to use? Compare it with our invoice sample 📝.

Don't bother with invoices details anymore. Let our app do the job for you, you just need to install it!