The short answer
Credit management (debiteurenbeheer in Dutch) is the process that turns a B2B sale into cash: check the customer before you quote, set a credit limit and payment terms, invoice on the day you deliver, watch what is outstanding, remind on a fixed schedule and escalate when reminders fail. In Belgium the law sets the frame. Without an agreement, a business customer has 30 calendar days to pay; you can agree longer, but as a rule not more than 60 days. Once the term has passed, late-payment interest and a fixed 40 euros compensation are due automatically. The main number to track is DSO (days sales outstanding): trade receivables divided by revenue, times the number of days in the period. Compare it with your agreed terms, not with other companies.
The legal rules come from the consolidated law of 2 August 2002 on Justel, FPS Finance's e-invoicing site and the National Bank of Belgium, read on 1 October 2026. General information, not legal or financial advice.
The process from customer acceptance to collection
Most unpaid invoices are decided before the first invoice goes out. Give every step one owner and one trigger.
Step | Owner | Tool | Trigger |
|---|---|---|---|
1. Customer acceptance: entity, legal status, VAT number, Peppol ID | Sales, checked by finance | KBO, VIES, CRM | New account, before the first quote |
2. Credit limit and payment terms | Finance or credit manager | Filed annual accounts, internal limit rules | New customer on invoice, or a quote above your threshold |
3. Terms in writing | Sales | Quote template, general terms | Every quote and order confirmation |
4. Invoice | Billing or accounting | Accounting software, over Peppol | Delivery or milestone, same day |
5. Monitoring | Credit manager | Aged debtors report, new filings, Gazette publications | Weekly, and on every new filing or publication |
6. Dunning | Accounts receivable | Reminder templates, phone | Fixed days after the due date |
7. Escalation | Finance manager, then lawyer or collection agency | Formal notice, collection procedure | No payment or plan after the last reminder |
Customer acceptance and terms
Check the legal entity that will receive the invoice, not the group or the brand: active in the KBO, accounts filed on time, VAT number valid. How to run a company credit check covers the free sources and timing. Then put the terms in the quote: payment period, interest and compensation, and when you stop delivering. Agreed B2B payment terms have been capped at 60 calendar days since 1 February 2022; a clause with a longer term is void.
Invoicing on time, including Peppol
Every day between delivery and invoice is a day added to your DSO. Since 1 January 2026, invoices between Belgian VAT-registered businesses must be structured electronic invoices, which in practice travel over Peppol. The invoice lands in the customer's system at once, which removes "we never received it". Collect the Peppol ID at acceptance. Peppol in Belgium explained covers who must comply and the fines.
Dunning and escalation
A schedule that runs the same for every customer beats chasing by feel. For example: a reminder three days after the due date, a phone call at ten, a second reminder with a delivery hold at twenty, a formal notice at thirty. Under the 2002 law, interest runs automatically from the day after the payment term, at the European Central Bank's reference rate plus eight percentage points, and the 40 euros compensation is due on top, with reasonable recovery costs. The formal notice, the court route and the bailiff procedure for undisputed debts are in what to do about an unpaid invoice in Belgium.
How to calculate DSO
DSO = trade receivables at the end of the period / revenue for the period x days in the period.
An illustrative example: a Ghent wholesaler with annual revenue of 2,400,000 euros excluding VAT has 412,000 euros of open customer invoices on 31 December. 412,000 / 2,400,000 x 365 gives a DSO of about 63 days.
But the open invoices include VAT and the revenue does not. If all sales are domestic at 21%, receivables excluding VAT are 412,000 / 1.21, about 340,500 euros, and DSO drops to about 52 days. Pick one basis and keep it.
Same period on both sides. Monthly DSO uses the month's revenue and the month's days.
Compare with your terms. DSO minus your average agreed term is the late part. The rest is credit you chose to give.
Watch the trend. DSO rising three months in a row with revenue flat means collection is slipping.
The aged debtors report
DSO is one number; the aged debtors report (ouderdomsanalyse) shows where it comes from. It lists each customer's open balance by age: not yet due, 1 to 30 days overdue, 31 to 60, 61 to 90, over 90. Read it weekly, from the right. A customer sliding from the 30 into the 60 column is the one to phone today.
Setting internal credit limits from filed accounts
You do not need a third-party score to set a sensible limit. Belgian companies file their annual accounts with the National Bank within 30 days of approval and at the latest seven months after the year end, and they are free to consult. Three things matter.
Equity. Positive and ideally growing. Negative equity means liabilities exceed assets and, for a bv or nv, can trigger the alarm bell procedure.
Current ratio. Current assets divided by debts due within one year. Below 1, short-term debts exceed what the company can turn into cash within a year.
Trend. Three years side by side. Equity falling while short-term debt rises is a company funding losses with its suppliers' money.
The formulas and their limits are in how to check a company's financial health, and where each figure sits in how to read Belgian annual accounts. Turn them into a house rule, such as this example, which is not a standard.
What the accounts show | Example house rule |
|---|---|
Not active in the KBO, or no accounts filed for two years | Prepayment only |
Negative equity | Prepayment, or a small limit with a guarantee |
Positive equity, but current ratio below 1 or equity falling | One month of expected invoicing, 30-day terms |
Stable or rising equity, current ratio above 1 | Expected peak exposure, capped at a share of the customer's equity you set |
Peak exposure is what the customer can owe you at one time. A customer billed 20,000 euros a month on 30-day terms who pays 15 days late can owe you about 30,000 euros at any moment. Review the limit on every new filing or publication.
Opening a PDF filing per customer does not scale past a few dozen accounts. In Bizzy, each Belgian customer record carries its legal form and legal status from the KBO, up to four years of filed financials from the National Bank, including equity, cash and working capital, and the company's Official Gazette publications by type, such as director changes, a registered office move or a capital decrease. The credit review and the early warnings sit on the same record.
Credit insurance and factoring
Credit insurance. A credit insurer covers part of your loss when an insured customer does not pay. It sets its own limit per customer and expects you to report overdue invoices within the policy's deadlines; the premium is usually tied to the turnover you insure. It does not replace your own process: the insurer checks that you followed it.
Factoring. You transfer your invoices to a factoring company, which advances most of their value at once and collects the payment. With recourse, unpaid invoices come back to you; without recourse, the factor carries the customer's insolvency risk. You pay a fee plus interest on the advance. It solves a cash problem rather than a collection problem.
KPIs for credit management
DSO, monthly, on a fixed VAT basis.
Overdue share and over-90 share of total receivables.
Invoice lag: average days from delivery to invoice. Target zero.
Disputed invoices: a rising count points at sales or delivery, not at the customer's cash.
Bad debt: write-offs divided by revenue, per year.
Revenue from customers who pay in 90 days is worth less than it looks, so report DSO next to the B2B sales KPIs.
Related: working capital, factoring and credit insurance.
Frequently asked questions
What is debiteurenbeheer? The Dutch term for credit management: everything you do to get invoices paid on time, from customer checks to collection.
How do you calculate DSO? Divide trade receivables at the end of a period by revenue for that period and multiply by the number of days. Keep VAT on the same basis on both sides.
What payment term can I agree with a Belgian business customer? Without an agreement, 30 calendar days. You can agree longer, but not more than 60 calendar days; a longer clause is void.
Can I charge interest on a late B2B invoice in Belgium? Yes. Interest at the ECB reference rate plus eight percentage points runs automatically from the day after the payment term, plus a fixed 40 euros compensation and reasonable recovery costs.
Photo: the belfry of Bruges, Fred Romero, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons