Belgian Invoice Template: Mandatory Mentions (Word, Excel, PDF)

Key Takeaway: A compliant Belgian invoice must carry continuous sequential numbering, your BCE business number, applicable VAT (21%, 6%, or art. 56bis exemption), be issued by the 15th of the month following service delivery, and be retained for 10 years. In B2B, it must be ready for structured transmission via Peppol UBL.

In Belgium, an invoice isn't just a payment document: it's a tax record the authorities can request years after it was issued. A Belgian invoice template is useless if it skips the mandatory mentions.

If you invoice in France (SIRET, 20% VAT, Commercial Code rules), check our dedicated guide: Compliant Invoice in France.

1. What mandatory mentions belong on a Belgian invoice?

The Belgian VAT Code sets out the list of details every invoice must carry, regardless of industry:

Your own details

• Trade name and legal form
• Registered office address
• Company number (BCE), in the format BE followed by 10 digits
• VAT number, if you're VAT-registered

The client's details

• Name or company name and full address
• The client's VAT number, if they're a VAT-registered business (a private individual doesn't have one, so the line is simply left out)

Details about the sale

• Issue date of the invoice
• A unique number, in a continuous chronological sequence
• Date the service was performed or goods delivered, if different from the invoice date
• A precise description of each service, quantity, unit price excl. VAT
• The applicable VAT rate (21%, 12%, 6% renovation, or an exemption mention)
• Total excl. VAT, VAT amount, total incl. VAT

Payment terms

• Due date or payment deadline
• The late-payment penalty rate applicable if payment is late (the regime depends on whether your client is a business or a private individual, see just below)
• A flat €40 recovery fee, only when the client is a business

Warning: In Belgium, you are legally required to issue your invoice by the 15th day of the month following delivery or service completion. Late issuance incurs progressive tax penalties.

If you're under the small-business exemption scheme (turnover below €25,000 excl. VAT per year), the invoice must carry the mention "Régime particulier de la franchise de taxe" (article 56bis of the VAT Code, exact wording since 1 January 2025).

The trap to avoid: applying B2B rules to a private client. The Belgian Act of 2 August 2002 on B2B late payments, the one that sets the €40 fee and the automatic late-interest rate, applies to "commercial transactions", meaning between businesses. Facing a private individual, that law doesn't apply: a late-payment penalty is still possible, but only if the clause is explicitly stated in your terms and conditions as accepted by the client, never as an automatic €40 fee. A clause copied over from a B2B invoice to a B2C one is, in practice, unenforceable against a private client.

And on the invoicing obligation itself: between businesses, an invoice is almost always mandatory. Facing a private individual, it only is in specific cases (real estate work is one of them), a point we cover in our quote vs invoice comparison.

2. Belgian invoice template: Word, Excel and PDF

Three formats, one thing to decide: what you're going to do with it. Word edits freely, line by line. Excel goes further: totals (subtotal excl. VAT, VAT, incl. VAT, net amount due) recalculate on their own the moment you change a quantity or a price. PDF doesn't edit at all: it's there to show what a correctly structured invoice should look like before you build your own.

Word template, Belgium

Excel template with auto-calculation, Belgium

Preview the PDF template, Belgium

Bracketed fields are placeholders to replace with your own details. None of these templates replace checking your own VAT status.

3. When must you issue the invoice?

By no later than the 15th day of the month following delivery of the goods or completion of the service. This deadline isn't symbolic: past it, you're in breach even if the client has already paid.

4. How long must you keep your invoices?

10 years, as a general rule, counted from January 1st following their issue date. This period was raised from 7 to 10 years by the law of 20 November 2022, applicable since tax year 2023.

There's one exception, but it's not about invoicing work to a client: if your own business owns a professional building (office, workshop, warehouse) and deducts VAT on it, the documents tied to that deduction must be kept for 15 years (article 60, §4 of the VAT Code), or even 25 years if the property is rented out. A construction contractor invoicing work to their clients still falls under the general 10-year rule for those invoices; the 15/25-year rule only applies if you're the one who owns and depreciates the building in question.

The format doesn't matter (paper or electronic), as long as the document stays readable and accessible for the whole period. A properly organised digital filing system is enough.

5. Numbering: a strict requirement

Every invoice must follow a continuous, chronological sequence. Deleting or skipping a number is strictly forbidden, even for an invoice cancelled before it was sent. In that case, you keep the cancelled invoice in your sequence and issue a credit note to cancel it on the books, you never reuse the number.

Personally, I've seen a freelancer get flagged during an audit simply because he'd deleted two test invoices from his sequence instead of cancelling them properly. The auditor didn't buy the "it was just a test" explanation.

6. What you risk with an incorrect or missing invoice

Belgian VAT authorities apply proportional fines for missing, incomplete, or incorrect invoices, on a scale that gets heavier for repeat offences. An invoice that's routinely filled in wrong (incorrect VAT rate, missing BCE number) draws attention during an audit far faster than a one-off mistake.

4 things to remember

1. Issue your invoice before the 15th of the month following the service, no exceptions.
2. Keep your invoices for 10 years, 15 years (or 25 years if rented out) if you own the property yourself and deduct VAT on it.
3. Never delete an invoice number: a credit note cancels, it doesn't replace.
4. The €40 fee and the Act of 2 August 2002 only concern business clients: never apply them to a private individual.

For the difference between a quote and an invoice, and exactly when each applies, see our guide quote vs invoice.

How HeyDevis Keeps You Safe From Invoicing Errors

Drafting invoices by hand to meet Belgian statutory standards is time-consuming and error-prone.

With HeyDevis, Belgian compliance is native:

• Automatic Belgian details and VAT: your BCE number, VAT rates (21%, 6%, or art. 56bis exemption), and late payment clauses are pre-filled.
• Continuous sequential numbering: every invoice follows a strict chronological sequence with zero gaps.
• Ready for Peppol 2026: export B2B invoices in compliant UBL format in one click for delivery through your access point.