ERP Business Analyst, Belgium

Peppol and structured invoicing as requirements

Belgium has moved toward structured electronic invoices between businesses, exchanged through the Peppol network, in line with the broader EU direction on digital invoicing. Your accountant or advisor should confirm what applies to your organization and from when. Whatever the timing, an ERP chosen today needs to handle structured invoices in both directions, and that is a requirements question before it becomes a technical one.

On the sending side I write requirements for generating structured sales invoices and credit notes, delivering them through an access point, and recording delivery status so finance can see what reached each customer. On the receiving side the requirements cover importing supplier invoices, matching them to purchase orders and goods receipts, routing exceptions for approval and keeping the original structured file. Master data gets its own section, because missing or wrong company numbers, VAT numbers and Peppol identifiers will stop invoices moving whatever the software.

Each requirement comes with a test case using a real document type from your business. In the fit-gap matrix I record whether a platform handles Peppol natively, through a vendor-supplied connector or through a third-party service, because support and maintenance differ in each case. The Odoo and Zoho pages for Belgium go into platform detail.

VAT listings, bank files and the accountant's view

Belgian VAT returns are filed electronically, and businesses typically also produce an annual listing of domestic customers registered for VAT and a listing of intra-EU supplies. Your accountant decides the treatment of each transaction and whether each listing applies. What I ensure is that the system holds the data those outputs need and that every figure can be traced back to individual invoices.

Banking brings its own requirements. Belgian banks supply statement files in the CODA format, and customer payments often carry a structured communication that identifies the invoice being paid. I write requirements for importing statements automatically, matching payments through those references, handling partial and combined payments, and generating supplier payment files in the SEPA format your bank accepts.

Belgian accountants also work with a standardized minimum chart of accounts and expect annual accounts in a prescribed structure. I ask your accountant to review the chart of accounts requirement and the reporting outputs early rather than at the end, because an accountant who has seen the design can point out problems while they are still inexpensive to correct. My BRD consulting page explains how these sections fit into the complete document.

Payroll from a social secretariat and other incoming data

Payroll in Belgium is often handled by an external social secretariat rather than inside the ERP. That keeps salary calculation and social filings with a specialist, but the ERP still needs the result: gross pay, employer contributions and related costs posted to the right accounts, frequently split by department, project or funding stream.

I capture that as an interface requirement: the file or connection the secretariat provides, how often it arrives, the mapping from payroll codes to accounts and dimensions, and the reconciliation finance performs after each posting. Where staff time is charged to projects or grants, I also define how timesheets and payroll cost come together, since funders may ask for evidence that the two agree.

The same approach applies to other inbound data: expense tools, meal voucher and fuel card providers, card statements and webshop orders. Each source gets a short specification describing the data, its owner and what happens when an import fails. For associations and consultancies around Brussels this can matter more than stock control, and the requirements reflect that balance. The Belgium ERP consultant page describes how such organizations tend to be structured and what that means for the wider project.

Interviewing teams across languages and regions

A Belgian requirements exercise often involves people who work in different languages and sometimes different regions. Finance may sit in Brussels, a warehouse in Flanders and a sales team in Wallonia, with a group controller abroad. If interviews run only with the English speakers, the requirements will reflect management's picture of the process rather than the process itself.

I run the interviews in English and ask each team to bring a bilingual colleague when key users are more comfortable in French, Dutch or German. Notes are shared in writing after every session so the team can correct anything misunderstood. Requirements that touch language, such as customer document templates, interface language by user group and reports for regional managers, are listed with the language each one needs and reviewed by your own staff. French, Dutch or German text is written or translated by your team or a local partner.

Group stakeholders get separate sessions on reporting, intercompany and security, and disagreements go into a shared decision log. All sessions are remote and take place in the Belgian morning, during my afternoon in India. If you are weighing broader outside support, the freelance ERP consultant page for Belgium sets out the engagement options, and the Dynamics 365 and ERPNext pages cover platform fit.