Acerta and Business Centrum are not competitors. Acerta is the social secretariat, with recognition number 250. Business Centrum is a social bureau in Ghent and a recognised partner of Acerta. The difference is who does the work: directly with Acerta you do a lot yourself in the client portal, through Business Centrum we do it for you.
Acerta or Business Centrum: the same secretariat, two ways
You can join Acerta in two ways.
Directly. You join Acerta and work with Acerta's tools and office. Acerta describes itself as an HR services group with more than 2,000 employees in 26 offices in Flanders, Brussels and Wallonia. By its own account it runs more than 665,000 pay calculations a month, for more than 70,000 companies.
Through Business Centrum. You join Acerta through us. We are a social bureau in Ghent, at Doornzelestraat 23-25, since 2013. You have one fixed contact with us who knows your business, your sector and your people. You send us the hours, we do the rest. Acerta files the Dimona and the DmfA and collects the contributions.
In both cases Acerta's payroll engine runs behind your pay, under the supervision of the NSSO. What changes is who does the work on your side every month, and whom you turn to with a question.
What Acerta does for you in both cases
Acerta is on the official list of recognised social secretariats of 20 June 2025, one of the 25 with an active head office. That recognition gives Acerta tasks a social bureau may not carry out itself:
- filing the Dimona at every start and end of employment and the DmfA every quarter, as your agent with the NSSO;
- collecting the NSSO contributions and the withholding tax and paying them over to the authorities;
- drawing up the social documents, such as the payslip, the tax form and the holiday certificate.
The NSSO inspectorate monitors the quality of every recognised secretariat with a barometer covering 6 control domains. That control applies to your file, whether you are with Acerta directly or through Business Centrum.
Business Centrum does the work before and after. We collect your hours and changes, prepare them correctly and on time, take your sector into account and answer your questions and those of your employees. That gives you the security of a recognised secretariat and the closeness of an office that knows your business.
What you do yourself at Acerta, and what Business Centrum takes over
The left column describes how Acerta itself presents the work of a direct client, on its page new client at Acerta (in Dutch), consulted on 8 October 2026. The right column is how we work.
| Task | Directly with Acerta: what you do yourself | Through Business Centrum: what we take over |
|---|---|---|
| Logging in | you work in MyAcerta, with your eID or a code | you do not need to log in anywhere for your payroll |
| Passing on the hours | you complete the calendar in Acerta Connect with codes for holiday, sickness or public holidays, or let employees enter their own through Employee Self Service | you send hours, overtime and absences by email or form, we process them |
| Leave and absences | you approve leave days and enter absences | we process them based on what you send |
| New employee | you add them with a wizard and draw up the contract with the templates | we set up the file and the contract for you |
| Dimona | you request the declaration through the client portal | we handle the Dimona |
| Simulations | you run test calculations in Acerta Connect yourself | you ask us, we work it out for you |
| Your questions | your fixed regional payroll advisor at Acerta | your fixed contact with us in Ghent |
| Returns and contributions | Acerta | Acerta |
| Price | quotation from Acerta | quotation from Business Centrum |
The right column describes Business Centrum, which publishes this site.
Acerta's portal is powerful: custom reports, simulations, a knowledge base and an app for your employees. If you have an HR employee, you get a lot out of it. If you do not, you have to do all that work yourself, next to running your business. That is where the difference lies.
When do you choose Acerta directly?
Going directly to Acerta is a good choice if:
- you have your own HR or payroll employee who likes working in Acerta Connect;
- you have many employees and want to build your own reports;
- you already take the hours from a planning or time registration system that links to Acerta;
- you prefer to work with the payroll advisor of the Acerta office in your region.
Acerta's group also has a social insurance fund for the self-employed and a business one-stop shop. Handy if you want everything with one group.
When do you choose Acerta through Business Centrum?
Going through Business Centrum fits if you want to get rid of the work, not just the software:
- You have no HR department. The payroll now lands with you or your partner, in the evening or at the weekend.
- You want one person who knows your file. You call or email the person who follows up your file directly, without explaining your situation again.
- Something changes every month. Students, flexi-jobs, shifts, overtime or a new employee: we take care of it.
- You want someone nearby. We are in Ghent, for employers across East Flanders. You can drop in with a contract or a letter from the NSSO.
- You want certainty for your sector. We adjust hours and pay to your joint committee, and Acerta files the returns.
In short: you send the hours, we do the rest. You check and sign, and you keep your time for your customers.
Acerta in Ghent: directly or through a local partner
If you search for Acerta Ghent, you find two addresses.
- Acerta Gent has, according to acerta.be, an office at Kortrijksesteenweg 1131 in Sint-Denijs-Westrem, where you can visit by appointment. There you are a direct Acerta client.
- Business Centrum is at Doornzelestraat 23-25 in Ghent. There you are an Acerta client through a social bureau, with one fixed contact with us.
All recognised secretariats with an office in Ghent, with their address and services, are listed on choosing a social secretariat in Ghent.
Becoming an Acerta client through Business Centrum: how it works
- Free introductory meeting. We look at your staff: how many employees, which contract types and which joint committee. No commitment.
- We arrange the switch. If you are with another secretariat today, we contact that secretariat and organise the transfer of all files. You sign a single mandate.
- Onboarding. We get to know your business: your sector, your team and the way you work.
- Every month done. We process your payroll, Dimona, leave and contracts. You send us the hours, we do the rest.
A switch always takes effect at the start of a quarter. A new mandate can still be registered for that quarter up to 1 month after the quarter starts. Your previous secretariat usually still files the DmfA for its last quarter, within 1 month after that quarter. How best to plan is explained in changing social secretariat.
Acerta or Business Centrum: questions employers ask
Do I get less through a partner? No. Your payroll runs on the same Acerta payroll engine, with the same returns and the same NSSO supervision. On top of that you get one fixed contact in Ghent who does the work for you.
Who is responsible if something goes wrong? As the social secretariat, Acerta is your agent with the NSSO. As an employer you remain responsible, as with any secretariat, for the accuracy of your data. That is why we check what you send every month before it goes to Acerta.
Can I keep using Acerta's tools? We discuss that in the introductory meeting, so you know what you still see yourself and what we do for you.
Want to see first how Acerta compares with SD Worx, Securex, Liantis and Partena? Read Acerta, SD Worx, Securex, Liantis or Partena: the differences. What a social bureau is exactly is explained in our guide social bureau. With another secretariat today? Read an alternative to SD Worx, Securex, Liantis or Partena.
Unsure whether to go to Acerta directly or through a social bureau? Business Centrum sets both ways against your situation and tells you honestly which one takes the least of your time.