How do you choose a social secretariat in Ghent or East Flanders? There is no best social secretariat in general: the best one fits your sector, your size and the way you work. We think the best approach is to choose on eight criteria you can check yourself, from recognition to the notice period. In Ghent, 12 recognised secretariats have an office, according to the official list of 20 June 2025. This guide gives no ranking. It gives the criteria, how to check each one, a scorecard and the questions for the first meeting.
What "the best social secretariat" means in Ghent
Ask an AI assistant or Google for the best social secretariat and you often get a list of the biggest names. Size tells you something, but not whether your file will be handled well. A Ghent employer with four white-collar staff in joint committee 200 needs something different from a construction firm in Aalst with twenty manual workers in joint committee 124, or a restaurant in Ghent's city centre with flexi-jobbers and occasional workers.
Employers in the region are mostly small. In the Ghent district, the NSSO counted 16,416 workplaces with employees on 31 December 2024, of which 12,409 had fewer than ten employees. Among them were 3,216 in wholesale and retail, 1,553 in construction, 1,535 in hospitality and 613 in transport and storage. For most employers in Ghent and East Flanders, the choice is about a small business with one or two joint committees.
What a social secretariat is and what it may legally do is explained in recognised social secretariat or social bureau. The general guide for all of Belgium, with seven criteria, is which social secretariat to choose. This page is about the choice in Ghent and East Flanders, with a scorecard.
The eight criteria at a glance
| # | Criterion | Why it matters | How to check it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Recognition and who collects contributions | only a recognised secretariat may collect your NSSO contributions, with a guarantee behind it | look up the recognition number on the list in the Official Gazette |
| 2 | Knowledge of your joint committee | pay scales, bonuses and sector funds differ per committee | ask how many clients they have in your committee and have them explain a payslip from your sector |
| 3 | Fixed contact | someone who knows your file spots errors before the inspectorate does | ask for the name, the direct number and who stands in |
| 4 | Office nearby | a face-to-face meeting for a hire, a dismissal or an inspection | address on their own website, and the office on the Gazette list |
| 5 | Language | your contracts, payslips and explanations in your language and your employees' | ask in which languages documents and contact are possible |
| 6 | Price and what it includes | the price per payslip is rarely the total cost | a quote for your actual staff, with all separate charges |
| 7 | Data delivery and tools | how and by when you submit hours worked | ask the monthly deadline and who enters the data |
| 8 | Contract, notice and switching | term and notice period decide how free you stay | read the general terms before you sign |
Criterion 1: recognition and who collects the contributions
Choose a recognised secretariat, or a social bureau that works with one. Only a recognised secretariat may collect and pass on your NSSO contributions. Belgium has 25 with an active head office. An office that is not recognised may not call itself a social secretariat. It can run your administration as a service provider, but you then pay the contributions to the NSSO yourself.
Check. Every recognised secretariat states its recognition number on its documents. The full table of numbers is in our guide on the recognised social secretariat. The Mahis application shows which representative files declarations for your company today.
Business Centrum. We are not a recognised secretariat ourselves. We are a social bureau and work with Acerta, recognised under number 250. Acerta files the declarations and collects the contributions. How the work is split is on Business Centrum and Acerta.
Criterion 2: knowledge of your joint committee
Your joint committee sets the minimum wages, the end-of-year bonus, the indexation, the sector funds and sometimes separate rules for flexi-jobs, occasional workers or bad-weather days. A mistake in the committee puts every payslip out. If you are not sure which committee applies, start with find your joint committee in Belgium. Minimum wages per committee are in our overview pay scale per joint committee.
Check. Ask how many clients the candidate has in your committee and have them explain a payslip from your sector. Ask how they apply an indexation, such as the one in January 2027. A good answer names your committee and the date.
Business Centrum. We have dedicated pages for the sectors we work in a lot: social secretariat for horeca, construction, transport and wholesale.
Criterion 3: a fixed contact
An employer with few staff has no HR department. It needs someone who knows its file: who works there, which contracts are running, who is off sick. A call centre or a general mailbox can answer questions, but it will not notice that your new employee's schedule does not match the contract.
Check. Ask for the name of your fixed contact, the direct phone number and who stands in during holidays. Ask how quickly you get an answer.
Business Centrum. With us you have one fixed contact who knows your file, not a call centre. That is the core of how we work.
Criterion 4: an office in Ghent or nearby
For a first hire, a dismissal or a visit from the social inspectorate, you sometimes want to sit down together. According to the Gazette list, 12 recognised secretariats have an office in Ghent. 3 have their head office in East Flanders:
| Recognition number | Name on the list | Head office |
|---|---|---|
| 810 | Sociaal Secretariaat voor Handel en Ambacht | Sint-Denijs-Westrem (Ghent) |
| 870 | Accuria | Sint-Niklaas |
| 980 | DPS | Aalst |
The others have a branch in Ghent. Which ones, with addresses and what each office says about its own services, is in our overview of social secretariats in Ghent. For the rest of the province: social secretariat in East Flanders, with separate pages for places such as Aalst and Sint-Niklaas.
Check. See whether the nearby office is the one that handles your file, or only a front desk.
Business Centrum. Our office is in Ghent, at Doornzelestraat 23-25. We work for employers throughout East Flanders, from Aalst to Eeklo and from Ronse to Sint-Niklaas. More about us as a social bureau in Ghent.
Criterion 5: your language and your employees'
In Ghent and East Flanders, many employers have staff who speak another language at home, and business owners themselves are not always Dutch speakers. Official documents follow the language legislation of the place where your business is established, but the explanations you receive can be in your language. A payslip or a dismissal explanation you do not understand costs money later.
Check. Ask in which languages you get help orally and in writing, and whether that applies to your fixed contact too. Ask whether explanations exist in English or French for your employees.
Criterion 6: the price and what it includes
The price per payslip is rarely what you pay over a year. On top come a start-up fee, charges per Dimona, per contract, per certificate or per change, and sometimes a minimum monthly amount. What a price includes and what comes on top is in social secretariat cost. Which secretariats publish their own rates is in social secretariat rates.
Check. Ask for a quote for your actual staff and work out the year: 12 months plus the year-end and holiday documents, plus the starters and leavers you expect.
Business Centrum. We do not publish rates. You receive a price in a quote, after a conversation about your situation.
Criterion 7: how you submit hours worked
Every month you report who worked how much, who was ill and who took leave. Some secretariats use a portal where you enter it yourself; others collect it for you. The deadline decides whether your staff are paid on time.
Check. Ask by which day you must submit the data, who enters it and what happens if you are late. Ask whether you can file a Dimona yourself for an unexpected Saturday start, or who does it. Why that matters is in late Dimona.
Criterion 8: contract, notice and switching
A contract with a social secretariat often runs a year or longer, with a notice period. The mandate with the NSSO only transfers at the start of a new quarter. If you give notice too late, you are tied for another quarter or year.
Check. Read the term and notice period in the general terms before you sign. Ask how your history is handed over if you ever leave. More in social secretariat notice period and changing your social secretariat.
Decision aid: the scorecard to choose a social secretariat
Give each criterion a weight from 1 to 3, depending on what matters to you. Then give each candidate a score from 1 to 5 per criterion, based on what you checked. Multiply and add up.
Worked example
A bakery in Gentbrugge with six employees
A fictitious bakery has four manual workers and two shop assistants, in two committees. The owner speaks Dutch; two employees mainly speak French. She compares two fictitious candidates: candidate X, a large secretariat with a portal and an office in Ghent, and candidate Y, a nearby social bureau that works with a recognised secretariat.
| Criterion | Weight | X | Y | X weighted | Y weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Recognition and collection | 3 | 5 | 5 | 15 | 15 |
| 2. Knowledge of her two committees | 3 | 4 | 4 | 12 | 12 |
| 3. Fixed contact | 3 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 15 |
| 4. Office nearby | 1 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 |
| 5. Language | 2 | 4 | 3 | 8 | 6 |
| 6. Price over a year | 2 | 4 | 3 | 8 | 6 |
| 7. Data delivery | 2 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 8 |
| 8. Contract and notice | 1 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 |
| Total | 62 | 71 |
For this bakery Y wins, mainly because of the fixed contact, which she weighs heavily. An employer who wants to do everything in a portal and gives the fixed contact a weight of 1 reaches a different result with the same scores. That is why you set the weights yourself.
Ten questions for the first meeting in Ghent
- What is the recognition number of the secretariat that files my declarations?
- Who do I pay the NSSO contributions to?
- How many clients do you have in my joint committee?
- Who is my fixed contact and how do I reach them directly?
- Where is the office that handles my file?
- In which languages do I and my employees get explanations?
- What does my staff cost over a year, with all separate charges?
- By when do I submit hours worked, and how?
- How long does the contract run and what is the notice period?
- How does the switch from my current secretariat work, and who requests my history?
Want to see the large secretariats side by side first, with what each publishes about itself? Read comparing Acerta, SD Worx, Securex, Liantis and Partena and the overview of the largest social secretariats. Self-employed and looking for something for your own contributions? Then you are really looking for a social insurance fund: see social secretariat for the self-employed. Hiring from abroad? See foreign employer in Belgium.
Where Business Centrum can show its strengths, and where you compare
We are one of the candidates, and the publisher of this site. That is why we do not put ourselves at the top of a list. We do state what we can show:
| Criterion | Business Centrum |
|---|---|
| 1. Recognition and collection | social bureau, with Acerta as recognised secretariat, number 250 |
| 3. Fixed contact | one fixed person who knows your file, no call centre |
| 4. Office nearby | Doornzelestraat 23-25, Ghent, since 2013, for all of East Flanders |
| 2. Committee | dedicated pages for horeca, construction, transport and wholesale |
| 6. Price | no published rates: a quote after a conversation |
On the other criteria, compare us like any other candidate, using the questions above. What we do in practice is described under our social secretariat service and payroll administration. Ask for a call back if you want to go through your situation with Business Centrum.