As explained in the Mercurius section of the page "e-invoicing strategy of the Belgian public sector", the Mercurius platform acts as a central "electronic mail-room" for all Belgian public sector entities. the pages "Mercurius for the private sector" and "Mercurius for the public sector" provide more specific information applicable to their respective target audience.
This page focuses on the Mercurius Portal, an online tool providing access to the same information to both sender and receiver representatives, so both correspondents can track and trace reception and processing of their e-invoices, centrally and consistently, for all their documents. This tool gives access to both real e-invoices and test e-invoices. Last but not least, this tool includes an online web-form for suppliers to submit their e-invoices manually. It was added to accommodate the possible lack of IT solutions to transmit e-invoices automatically and cost-effectively - the Government strongly recommends all enterprises to look after real e-Invoicing tools, so that the manual submission of invoices is skipped, for it is the condition for reaping the benefits of e-invoicing.
This page is also the help section of the Mercurius Portal. It consists in the following sections:
There are several target groups:
You need to use your eID, and you need to have a valid representation of the legal entities for which you want to act.
If you have specific questions on the use of the site, don't hesitate to generate an issue on online assistance request.
Generally, all your questions regarding business processing should be addressed to your business contact, probably the procurement officer of the customer entity. In parallel, notice that the site offers you access to information regarding your flow of invoices. Besides, the procurement officer of your customer entity also has access to this information (ie, his flow of incoming invoices). This is of great help in the communication about common invoices.
Here are practical explanations about the features of the site:
Other articles about this subject:
Not all governmental entities are ready to receive invoices. If your customer does not appear in the customer selection list/search field, then it is probably not yet ready. Please contact your customer's procurement responsible. Tip: to be certain about the official name of your customer ask its enterprise number and look for the corresponding official name on Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (CBE)
This applies only to occasional suppliers, who have no machine-to-machine invoicing flows in place. The first time you use the site, the name of your company is not recorded. So the site only knows your enterprise number. If you create a new invoice, then the first time you must enter the company name in the corresponding field. From then on, the site will use this information instead of the enterprise number, in the suppliers selection list.
Please visit eid.belgium.be. This site contains all the information required to install and use the eID. If you still have issues then please fill in our online assistance request form.
It means that the site has not found a link between you and a legal entity ( a company or public administration). Please refer to 'What do I need to access and use the site?'
As stated in section "What do I need to access and use the site?"', only authorized individuals can send invoices and consult invoicing flows on behalf of companies (legal entities). The usual way to holding such an authorization is being a legal function holder, duly recorded in the CBE. The CBE Public Search site allows you to control the list of such functions: Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (CBE).
The other option is to use the eGOV roles management system. This system is available for all legal entities. It gives them the possibility to assign and revoke roles to their employees (or subcontractors), to perform administrative duties online on their behalf, in eGOV applications (such as the Mercurius web site). However, to be able to use it, a chief access manager must be designated by a legal function holder. Optionally, the chief access manager can appoint a (local) access manager for the domain "Finance". If there is no chief access manager for your company, or if you don't know him, then you must first contact CSAM to know the person in charge of this responsibility, or initiate the assignment of a chief access manager. These managers will be able to designate billing officers for their enterprise, using the tool My eGov role management).
The following article discusses how to access the Mercurius Portal in a practical and comprehensive way: "How get access to Mercurius portal?"
Electronic invoicing, as any electronic exchange flow, can be very easy or very tricky. Therefore Mercurius exists in two operating modes:
If you still have questions after going through this FAQ list, then please fill in our online assistance request form. Our support staff will handle your request. Please be aware that providing correct, detailed and specific information makes user support much more efficient.