Quoting software for Belgian builders: how to choose

Since January 1, 2026, an invoice between 2 Belgian businesses has to travel through Peppol, which is usually when an owner ends up with 3 browser tabs open in the truck, between a job in Namur and the next one. Sometimes a quote that went out late already cost the work. Sometimes it is the bookkeeper, who wants paperwork that can be filed without being retyped. The useful question is not which product won a roundup. It is whether the tool can hold Belgian rules, and whether you will price at a desk, inside an app, or on the way back from the visit.

I would settle the rules first. The place you write the quote comes after, and it knocks out as many tools as the VAT does.

The short answer, 5 Belgian rules and 1 practical question

5 things to demand in a demo, then the question comparison pages almost never ask.

1. VAT at the reduced rate or the standard rate on each line, with the wording that already has to sit on the invoice when the home is over 10 years old and used as a private dwelling.
2. Reverse charge when you work for a taxable co-contractor, flagged on the quote, not discovered when the invoice goes out.
3. The BCE company number and the lines the FPS Economy expects on a price offer: who is selling, the work, the price, the date, how long the price stands, how long the job takes.
4. An order form as soon as a household pays a deposit, because a signed quote on its own is not what article VI.88 asks for.
5. A structured invoice between businesses, through Peppol since January 1, 2026, checked on the way out and on the way in.

Then: where does the quote actually get written? At the desk in the evening, in an app on the phone, or on WhatsApp right after the visit? A tool built for a wide screen stays shut if the quote happens in the truck, and a WhatsApp flow that ignores the reduced rate and the BCE number will have you editing every PDF by hand. The WhatsApp walkthrough is in how to send a quote from WhatsApp.

What quoting software has to handle in Belgium

6% or 21% VAT per line, and the wording

The FPS Finance applies 6% to certain renovation work on a home older than 10 years used as a private dwelling, and the standard rate stays at 21%. The rate is decided line by line: strip-out and tile can sit at the reduced rate, a supply outside that scope at the standard rate, and a client who accepts a quote with no rate on it meets the difference on the invoice. Since July 1, 2022, the client attestation has been replaced by wording on the invoice. The quote still has to show the rate, or the total they accepted is not the total they will owe.

In SHAPP, VAT is set per line, reduced rates included, with a field for the wording on the quote.

Reverse charge, the co-contractor case

When the work is for a taxable person acting as co-contractor, VAT changes regime. The invoice has to carry the reverse-charge wording, and the quote should already say so, or the client accepted a total that will not match what they pay. On its features page, Synobat describes the co-contractor case with the wording "Autoliquidation". That is a real strength of that tool, and I would say so to anyone who mostly bills general contractors.

In SHAPP, the quote has a field for the VAT wording, which you fill for the job, ideally after a call with your accountant when the regime is the part you are unsure about. In a demo, with any vendor, ask to see a full co-contractor quote, wording included. If the rep moves past it, write that in the margin.

The BCE number and the FPS Economy lines

The FPS Economy expects a price offer you can identify: who is selling, the company number, a description of the work, the price, the date, how long the offer stands, and how long the work should take. "Devis" and "offre de prix" are the same document. Among the pages reviewed, Synobat is the one that states outright that the BCE number is printed on the quote. SHAPP prints it too.

A French tool that prints a SIRET and an RCS number instead will have you editing every PDF, or sending a file a Belgian architect sets aside before the price even comes up.

A household deposit and the order form

None of the pages at the top of this subject mention the order form. The rule is still there. As soon as a consumer pays a deposit, article VI.88 of the Code of Economic Law and the Royal Decree of June 30, 1996 require one. A signed quote gets close, and the order form is still the document the statute asks for beside it. In a demo, ask where it lives, and how it stays attached to the deposit invoice. If the answer is "we don’t have that", plan the paper next to the software. I would not treat it as a footnote.

Peppol, the invoice that follows the quote

Since January 1, 2026, an invoice between Belgian VAT-registered businesses has to be structured and travel through Peppol. The official site is efacture.belgium.be. For a household client, a PDF is still allowed. Check the send and the receipt, including when a supplier invoices you. Hit-Online states send and receive. Synobat’s homepage talks about Peppol as UBL BIS 3.0 and about Mercurius. atta-ai, in its comparison, writes that an FPS Finance list of June 26, 2026 names Vertuoza and does not name Obat or Tolteck.

In SHAPP, Peppol e-invoicing is included, and deposit, progress and final invoices are created from the quote.

Where the quote gets written, the test comparison pages skip

The pages that rank judge compliance and price. They rarely ask when the quote is written. For a renovation firm of 1 to 10 people, that place decides which tool you will still open in March, once the demo is forgotten and it is raining.

At a desk, in an app, or from WhatsApp

At a desk, a wide screen and a price library suit the large files, an apartment building or a bill of quantities. Synobat, Hit-Online and Trustup sit there. The quote waits until you are home, and a client seen that morning may already have said yes to someone else before dinner.

In an app, you price inside the vendor’s software. Vertuoza describes dictation in the app, with a 45-second claim on its quote page, and a mobile app. Hit-Online runs in the phone browser. Costructor, reviewed November 4, 2026, does AI quotes inside its software, with an AI agent and an MCP server for Claude and ChatGPT. Obat advertises AI voice quotes from the site, inside its app. You have to open their software, or go through an assistant that uses it as it stands. That works if the crew already lives in that app every day.

On WhatsApp, the voice note or the message goes into the thread that already exists, the one where the client sent a photo of the damp wall at 9 p.m. Shappy drafts the quote from that message. On a phone it is easy to send too fast, and the read is where the rate and the quantity get caught.

Read it, then approve the send

A clean dictation still produces a wrong quote if the quantity or the rate is off, and the PDF looks the same either way. In SHAPP, the send waits for your agreement: you correct the lines, the rate and the timing, then the PDF, the link or the email goes. The history keeps the revisions. Ask the same of tools that dictate inside their app, and have them do it in front of you, not on a promise.

SHAPP data is hosted in Europe. The Security page says how that is handled.

Quoting tools used in Belgium, side by side

Peppol stays in the text, because vendors do not describe it at the same level of detail, and a single column would flatten that. Where a page says nothing, the cell says "not stated".

Sources: vendors’ public pages, November 3, 2026. Costructor and Kompa, November 4, 2026. Teamleader Focus via anchordynamics, October 15, 2026.

Signature is not a column, because the pages do not describe it the same way. Vertuoza announces an electronic signature. SHAPP has a signature on the screen, by the client and by the company, including on a phone. If a contract requires a qualified signature, ask for the exact level in the demo.

Synobat, Vertuoza, Hit-Online, Trustup Pro

Synobat is the most explicit on Belgian rules among the pages reviewed: VAT per line, co-contractor, BCE number, quote to invoice, deposits and progress. Email starts at the Solo tier on the features page. The homepage adds Peppol (UBL BIS 3.0), Mercurius, and a quote in under 5 minutes. The public prices do not agree from one page to the other, features on one side, the homepage on the other, with a Starter at 3 quotes a month in one place and a plan presented as free for life in the other. I would get the list that applies in writing before signing, because a subscription signed on the wrong grid is a miserable argument 3 months later.

Vertuoza describes tasks, a price library, VAT at both Belgian rates, progress bills and payments. The quote page adds dictation in the app, an electronic signature and mobile. Packs Pro, Pro+ and Expert, price on request, as anchordynamics also had it on October 15, 2026.

Hit-Online presents itself as ERP software for Belgium and Luxembourg: a library, a project when the quote is accepted, deposit invoices, Peppol for send and receive, planning, costs. It runs in the phone browser, paid per use, with no figure on the page reviewed. I would get that usage price in writing before the bookkeeper is plugged into it.

Trustup Pro covers quotes, invoices, the job and introductions to clients. The pro page states "+4,600 contractors". societe.tech gives a free entry, then Essential and Expert at the figures in the table. VAT and the BCE number were not on the pages reviewed: ask in the demo, on a real quote, not on a brochure.

Teamleader Focus and general tools

Teamleader Focus comes from the anchordynamics comparison of October 15, 2026, on invoicing and Peppol: €37.50 per user. Like a general-purpose ERP, it produces quotes and invoices. These tools are not built around a site task, a progress bill or reduced-rate renovation. At 10 people, €37.50 becomes €375 before add-ons, and a company plan is not a per-seat price until you have done that multiplication.

Kompa, Costructor, Obat, Tolteck

Kompa shows WhatsApp, voice notes, photos and documents, on kompa.pro, with no mention of Belgium. Invoicing points at Pennylane, so at the French reform. The flow on its own does not settle the BCE number, the reduced rate or Belgian Peppol. The public figures are in the table.

Costructor presents itself as construction software it calls "AI-boosted" for quotes and invoices. From the Pro plan it adds an agent and an MCP server (Claude, ChatGPT). On Premium, an assistant uses Costructor as it stands. Entry is free, then the yearly tiers in the table. Its legal notice shows a company registered in Nantes. Its agent is the closest thing to the way Shappy works: the agent uses the software as it stands. Shappy also adapts SHAPP to the company’s rules.

Obat and Tolteck are treated by atta-ai as French tools, at the ranges in the table. The same article notes they are absent from the FPS Finance list of June 26, 2026, where Vertuoza appears. Before you sign, ask for the reduced rate, the standard rate, reverse charge, the BCE number and Peppol, on a Belgian file, not on a Paris example.

SHAPP, the quote from WhatsApp

With SHAPP, Shappy drafts the quote from WhatsApp, from a voice note or a written message, and it also adapts the software to the company’s rules. You read it, you approve it, then the file goes. The client wants the screen as an option? It is a line they can take or leave. The deposit for the pan, the progress invoice and the final invoice come out of the same file, and Peppol is included for an invoice between businesses. The signature happens on the screen. The margin stays on your side.

On Pricing: Solo €29 before VAT per month, or €24 before VAT per month yearly, which is 10 months out of 12. Team €139 before VAT, or €115 yearly. Business €499 before VAT, or €415 yearly. Above 50 users, Enterprise is a custom quote. 50 Shappy credits cost €15 before VAT, and they are spent when Shappy works, not when you open the app. Quotes and follow-up: Sales. Paperwork and money: Finance.

You type the price library, or you start from the templates. The subscription price does not cover that setup, here or anywhere else, and it is usually the half-day nobody put on the calendar.

What quoting software costs in Belgium

4 ways to pay, as of November 3, 2026, with the figures in the table.

A capped free plan, or one presented as free for life. A Starter at 3 quotes a month does not cover 2 visits a week, and the "for life" wording needs a confirmation, because Synobat’s pages do not say the same thing.

A company tier, which is what you compare once the grid is in front of you: Synobat, Trustup, Costructor, Kompa, and SHAPP Solo on a yearly bill, in the table.

A price per user. Teamleader Focus is €37.50, and at 10 people the bill is €375 before add-ons. Most general-purpose ERPs are built that way.

A price on request, or pay per use: Vertuoza, Hit-Online. Without the figure in writing, the comparison stops at the demo.

Which tool for which firm

A sole trader just starting, with few quotes: Synobat Starter or Trustup at the door, after you have checked VAT, the BCE number and the cap.

A small crew that prices in the evening at a desk: Synobat or Vertuoza. Ask about the reduced rate, the co-contractor case and progress bills, on a file that looks like yours.

A firm that wants planning, cost and Peppol in one tool: Hit-Online, and get the usage price in writing before you move the history.

The owner who dictates while leaving the visit, wants to keep the send, and wants software that follows their rules: SHAPP. Voice note or message on WhatsApp, a read on the quote, send after approval. The 4 steps are in the WhatsApp guide. If you price apartment buildings at a desk, Synobat or Vertuoza. If you price them climbing back into the truck, look at SHAPP.

6 questions to ask before you subscribe

Ask them in the same order, and write down what the product shows.

1. Show a line at the reduced rate and a line at the standard rate on the same quote, with the wording that appears on the invoice.
2. Open a quote for a co-contractor, reverse-charge wording visible, and say who writes it.
3. Send a Peppol invoice on a Belgian file, outbound and inbound, or say plainly where that happens in the tool.
4. When I am on site, where is the quote created: back at the desk, in your app, or on WhatsApp?
5. Who approves before the client receives the PDF, and where do I reread the previous version?
6. How do I get my quotes, my prices and my clients out if I leave in 1 year, and how long am I committed?

A demo that dodges the invoice or the export will cost more than the subscription. The lists are from November 3, 2026, except anchordynamics, dated October 15, 2026. Open the vendor’s page on the day you sign.