A small Belgian company may file its annual accounts using an abridged format, and that format generally does not disclose turnover. A large company, on the other hand, files a full format with a detailed income statement. That, in one sentence, is what changes everything when you open the accounts of a competitor, a client or a supplier: depending on the format filed, you are not reading the same document, and you cannot draw the same conclusions.
In Belgium, companies file their annual accounts with the Central Balance Sheet Office of the National Bank. These accounts are public and can be consulted online free of charge. But the level of detail depends on the size of the company. This article shows you who files what, what the abridged format leaves unsaid, and how to conduct a rigorous analysis despite these limits.
Who files what: the size criteria of the Companies Code
The Belgian Code of Companies and Associations (article 1:24) defines a small company on the basis of three criteria. For financial years starting on or after 1 January 2024, the thresholds are: a balance sheet total of 6,000,000 euros, a turnover excluding VAT of 11,250,000 euros and an average workforce of 50 full-time equivalents.
The reading rule is precise: a company remains small as long as it does not exceed more than one of these three criteria. It can therefore employ 70 people and still be small, provided its balance sheet total and turnover stay below the thresholds. Another subtlety: a change of category only takes effect if it is repeated over two consecutive financial years. One exceptional year does not move a company from one format to the other.
Three formats follow from this. Small unlisted companies may file the abridged format. Among them, micro companies (article 1:25: balance sheet total of 450,000 euros, turnover of 900,000 euros, 10 employees, and neither a parent nor a subsidiary) may opt for the micro format, which is even more succinct. All others, as well as listed companies whatever their size, file the full format.
| Full format | Abridged format | Micro format |
|---|
| Who files | Large and listed companies | Small unlisted companies | Micro companies |
| Turnover | Published | Optional disclosure | Optional disclosure |
| Income statement | Detailed | Starts at gross margin | Starts at gross margin |
| Notes | Complete | Reduced | Minimal |
What the abridged format does not show
In the abridged format, the income statement does not start with turnover: it starts with the gross operating margin. This margin aggregates into a single amount the sales and services on one side, and the purchases of goods, raw materials and miscellaneous services on the other. The separate disclosure of turnover is optional, and most companies do not provide it.
In practice, three essential pieces of information disappear. First, turnover itself: you know neither the volume of activity nor its growth. Second, the structure of operating costs: it is impossible to distinguish what the company buys from what it outsources, or to compute a gross margin rate as a percentage of sales. Third, the notes are significantly reduced, with less detail on commitments, guarantees and related-party dealings.
What the abridged format still shows, and this is valuable: the balance sheet in full (equity, debts and their maturities, inventories, receivables, cash), staff costs, depreciation, the result for the year and the average workforce. The snapshot of the company's financial position is complete; it is the film of its activity that is missing.
Reading a competitor, a client or a supplier: what changes
If the company you are analysing files an abridged format, draw the consequences before concluding.
You cannot measure its real size or market share: without turnover, there is no way to compare its volume of activity to yours. You cannot compute its commercial margins: the gross margin rate and operating profitability as a percentage of sales remain out of reach. Rotation ratios (days sales outstanding, days payable outstanding, inventory turnover) require turnover or purchases: they cannot be computed properly. Finally, the "estimated" turnover figures offered by some commercial databases are extrapolations, not published data: treat them as assumptions, never as facts.
The balance sheet, however, hides nothing about the financial structure: solvency, net cash, working capital and financial balance can be read in full, whatever the format. A company that does not publish its turnover can still reveal eroded equity, swelling short-term debt or cash under pressure.
How SAGORA analyses an abridged format: the prudent methods
Faced with an abridged format, the temptation is to "reconstruct" a turnover figure. That is the first mistake to avoid: an invented number contaminates the entire cascade of analysis built on top of it. Our approach rests on four principles.
Work first on what is published. The structure of the balance sheet says a great deal: financial autonomy, net working capital, working capital requirement, net cash position, weight and maturity schedule of financial debts. All of these indicators can be computed in full from an abridged format.
Bracket rather than estimate. Staff costs related to headcount, gross margin and depreciation provide orders of magnitude: a plausible range of activity, never a precise figure. The difference between an assumed range and a falsely precise number is the difference between an analysis and a fiction.
Compare over time. Three to five filed financial years draw a trajectory: the evolution of gross margin, equity and cash. The trend is often more telling than the absolute level.
Cross-check with the sector. Sector statistics built from filings with the Central Balance Sheet Office make it possible to position a company on ratios that do not depend on turnover.
This is the method we apply in our financial diagnostic for SMEs, and the one that powers our tool to check the financial health of a Belgian company.
Do you need to read the accounts of a Belgian company?
SAGORA analyses annual accounts as they are filed: no invented turnover, with methods that distinguish what the accounts prove from what they merely suggest. Balance sheet structure, cash, working capital requirement, sector comparison: a rigorous diagnostic, even from an abridged format.
Discover the SME financial diagnosticSagora Finance, editorial line.
Sources: size criteria of articles 1:24 and 1:25 of the Code of Companies and Associations and filing formats (full, abridged, micro): Central Balance Sheet Office of the National Bank of Belgium (nbb.be), thresholds applicable to financial years starting on or after 1 January 2024; structure of the abridged income statement and content of the notes: Belgian Accounting Standards Commission (cnc-cbn.be).
Mathias Schmit
