By Sarah Hassan on Jan 13, 2026

ACS Accountants, a Belgian accountancy and bookkeeping firm, has digitised and modernised its operations by embracing qualified electronic signatures (QES) with Penneo and itsme®.

Following our partnership, which started 3 years ago, documents at ACS Accountants move faster, clients sign digitally with confidence, and office assistants have full oversight through intuitive dashboards. In the following sections, we share how QES transformed fragmented routines into a smooth, standardised, and secure signing process that works seamlessly for every branch, assistant, and client.

“With QES, the average completion time for annual reports is 8 days, with each case file typically requiring around 11 signatures. This equals on average less than 24 hours per signer.” – Wouter Scholiers, Digital Strategist at ACS Accountants

Challenge: Inefficient workflows and limited oversight in signing

Before adopting qualified electronic signature (QES), managing document workflows was a constant challenge for ACS Accountants. Signature requests were sent through email, and office assistants used Excel sheets to track which client had received documents, who had signed, and who was still pending. Sending reminders to sign was entirely manual, which caused delays and long turnaround times.

Even though digital signing was available, most clients relied on printing, signing, scanning, and sending documents back by email, post, or even in person. This fragmented process created confusion, inefficiency, and frustration for both clients and staff.

Beyond these challenges, documents sent by email as PDFs were printed and signed manually, making it impossible to verify who actually signed. “Sometimes a secretary would sign on behalf of the owner,” notes Bart Vercammen, Key Account Manager at Penneo. “Even with digital signature tools, once a signature image is uploaded, anyone in the company can place it on any document, which means there’s no real certainty that the correct person actually signed.”

Continue reading: Why choose QES.

Solution: Adopting QES through Penneo and itsme®

To digitalise their signing process, ACS Accountants chose to rely on qualified electronic signatures (QES) as their chief method for signing. They did this by partnering with digital document platform Penneo, which offers QES by itsme®.

“We chose Penneo for its intuitive interface, smooth functionality, comprehensive features, and competitive pricing,” explains Wouter. “Additionally, client familiarity with digital identity platform itsme® across Belgium made adoption seamless, while providing full certainty and security.”

To ensure a structured and smooth rollout of Penneo, each office designated an IT key user to join a pilot phase. They tested the platform and provided feedback, which ACS Accountants shared with Penneo to implement improvements before the company-wide launch. Once updates were in place, all employees received training, and a “How to use Penneo” guide was added to the internal Wiki.

“Because it’s integrated into AdminPulse and Silverfin, setting up Penneo is straightforward and doesn’t feel like a new tool; it simply fits into existing workflows for accountants,” adds Bart. “You press a button, and everything runs automatically through the API.”

“After the rollout, we emailed all our clients to let them know we were using Penneo. This ensured that any email from the Penneo domain was clearly legitimate, not spam or phishing,” explains Wouter. “Today, we hardly receive any support calls about QES,” he adds, highlighting the success of the rollout and the platform’s ease of use.

Read further: The Penneo guide to QES with itsme®

Impact: “60% of documents are fully signed within 24 hours”

The impact of using QES from Penneo and itsme® was immediately seen by ACS Accountants. “Clients started signing much faster, and new clients arriving from firms that didn’t use QES often commented on how smoother and faster the process feels,” says Wouter.

Clients simply open itsme®, confirm, and the document is signed in one streamlined flow, which is a huge time-saver. Additionally, Penneo automates follow-ups, which means that accountants no longer need to chase clients to ask them repeatedly to sign.

“With the Penneo dashboard, office assistants at ACS have a clear overview of every file and can send reminders effortlessly. Integrations with Silverfin and AdminPulse have further streamlined their workflows, reducing manual effort and improving efficiency,” adds Bart.

Standardisation has also been a key benefit. Before adopting QES, each office handled documents differently. Now, all office assistants follow the same workflow. “When someone has a problem, we know exactly how to help because the process is identical everywhere,” explains Wouter.

The results speak for themselves: About 60% of documents that ACS sends through Penneo are fully signed within 24 hours. The average completion time for annual reports is 8 days, with each case file typically requiring around 11 signatures. This means that it takes less than 24 hours per signer on average.

Beyond speed, QES also ensures legal certainty. With QES from itsme®, the signer must identify themselves, and that identity is directly linked to the signature. Every signature is therefore qualified, carrying the same legal value as a handwritten signature.

“You can be 100% sure that the intended person is signing, not their secretary or colleague,” assures Bart.

Does this sound like the kind of solution your business needs? Book a demo today to see how easy secure signing can be.

Accountancy Manacc, a family run accounting firm, has long been committed to delivering holistic accounting services to its clients for the past two generations. However, the complexities of ever-evolving regulations, the tough market for hiring new accountants, and the need to embrace digitalisation presented significant challenges. To address these, Manacc turned to Penneo, to transform their paper based accounting processes to a smooth digital integration.

“In an onboarding process there are quite some documents that need to be signed. By making sure that this process runs smoothly you immediately make a good impression and start that collaboration on a good basis. Penneo’s ease of use certainly helps to make an immediate fresh start with a new file.“ – Jan Peeters, Director of Accountancy Manacc and certified tax accountant

Navigating regulatory complexities, labour shortages, and digitalisation

Accountancy Manacc faced numerous challenges, including navigating complex and ever-changing regulations, dealing with a tight labour market, and keeping up with rapid digitalisation.

“The complex regulations certainly pose a challenge for us. Those regulations are constantly changing,” said Jan Peeters stressing that maintaining quality amidst these changes was a major concern. “In themselves, changes are not so much of a problem, but the quality of those regulations often leaves a lot to be desired and it leads to a lot of legal uncertainty”, he added. 

“In addition, we are also confronted with a very tight labour market, so finding enough skilled staff is a major challenge. That’s mainly because of the quality, which, well, must remain at the same level. And thirdly, digitalisation. Things are constantly changing”, Jan Peeters added.

The need for a streamlined document management process, especially during onboarding, was crucial to making a positive first impression and starting client relationships on the right foot.

Manacc’s move from paper to embracing digitalisation

Manacc was able to streamline the signing process, reducing the need for physical meetings and extra phone calls, reminding customers to sign and enabling faster turnaround times. “The ease of use of Penneo, that helps in letting things flow smoothly, with those documents being returned quickly, that is a much more pleasant way of working than having to call a customer ten times”, Jan Peeters reflects. 

“The office, founded by my father in 1989, originally kept everything on paper. These cabinets are reminders from that era. We used to have much more, but now they mostly hold a collection of colors and aren’t used much. It’s amusing to see such artefacts now, as our office is almost fully digital.”

“We used to do a lot more on paper and this has now moved to the digital world. This also requires some critical attention because you can digitise for the sake of digitisation and we try to avoid that. So it should always be an added value, both for clients and for us”, said Jan Peeters.

Software integrations as a key to success

One of the reasons Mannac turned to Penneo was its ability to integrate with their existing Document Management System for their accounting services – M-Files. This integration was pivotal in transforming their work processes to meet clients’ expectations of an easy and efficient digital experience. 

SoftAdvice, a certified delivery partner providing integration with M-Files and Penneo, has enabled Manacc to quickly adopt the transformation with M-Files for their accounting services. “The collaboration with Manacc is an interesting collaboration for SoftAdvice, because Jan has a very deep technical background, but also understands an accounting firm very well. So the combination of both ensures that we have a very good and interesting partner.” – shared Patrick Vervloesem, Managing Partner at SoftAdvice.

The implementation of Penneo brought tangible benefits to Manacc. “Now concretely, the integration of M-Files x Penneo during an onboarding process, will easily save us two to three hours per file. During the annual accounts cycle, this will easily save us one hour per file and this is every year”, said Jan Peeters. These time savings, when multiplied across numerous files, resulted in hundreds of hours saved for Manacc’s accountants.

Beyond the quantitative improvements, the quality of service experienced by clients improved significantly, with digital processes being perceived as much easier compared to traditional paper-based methods. “The pleasantness of the process and its smooth running are just as important. And customers also experience that”, Jan Peeters added.

About Accountancy Manacc

Accountancy Manacc, led by siblings Jan and Inge Peeters, has a rich history rooted in a family of accountants. Founded by their father in 1989, Manacc has grown into a reputable firm known for its commitment to quality and innovation. With Jan focusing on the technical aspects and Inge handling personnel policies, the duo has successfully navigated the evolving landscape of the accounting industry. Their collaboration and shared vision continue to drive Manacc forward, ensuring they remain at the forefront of digital transformation and regulatory compliance.

Read more about how Penneo Sign can digitalise and integrate with your business

Why Titeca Pro Accountants & Experts chose Penneo to kickstart their digitalisation journey: making work processes more efficient, staying compliant, establishing trust with clients, and freeing up time for more value-adding tasks.

We can continue to assist our customers on a day-to-day basis and follow up on all the new legislation and implement it correctly… This way we actually free up more time for ourselves that we can spend on the customer, Marc De Moor, Partner Pro Accountants department.

Challenge

Titeca, a full-service accountancy and consultancy firm, faced significant challenges in managing their document signing processes. Marc De Moor, a partner at Titeca, highlighted the primary issue: The challenge today in our flow of documents to be signed mainly lies in the speed at which everything has to be signed. The sheer volume of documents and the need for timely follow-ups made the process burdensome and inefficient. Additionally, Titeca needed a solution to handle the complexities of ever-changing regulations and embrace digitalisation in their sector and company.

Going paperless works in a comprehensive environment where everyone can consult all documents. The knowledge that is in their heads, that is simply available somewhere, shared Jurka Vanthournout, the CEO at Titeca.

Solution

To address these challenges, Titeca implemented Penneo. Katrien Naert, Titeca’s IT manager, explained the decision: We started Penneo to make our process more digital… The integration of this tool into our usual processes was super important to me. Penneo offered robust security features and seamless integration capabilities with the tools they were already using, allowing Titeca to incorporate it into their existing workflows. The collaboration with Penneo’s API team enabled Titeca to automate several tasks, streamlining their document management processes.

We ultimately chose Penneo over other suppliers because the flexible collaboration and consultation with them went very smoothly, Katrien Naert, IT Manager.

Results

The implementation of Penneo resulted in significant improvements for Titeca. The digital signing process not only reduced the turnaround time for document approvals but also enhanced the overall efficiency of their operations. With Penneo, Titeca’s clients could easily sign documents digitally, which Marc noted as being particularly well-received. Marc shared, We can follow up on who signed what, when, and, above all, who did not sign. Now, Titeca’s customers can sign with their eID, such as itsme®, wherever they are, ensuring a quick, efficient, and secure signing process. Additionally, they can follow the document status and send documents out in the correct order of signing to the correct individuals, while saving time and paper.

We can continue to assist our customers on a day-to-day basis and follow up on all the new legislation and implement it correctly… This way we actually free up more time for ourselves that we can spend on the customer, Marc De Moor, Partner.

About Titeca

Titeca Pro Accountants & Experts is a dynamic accountancy and consultancy firm with around 350 employees. Under the leadership of Jurka, the CEO, Titeca continues to prioritise transparency, open communication, and staying up-to-date with industry regulations. CEO, Jurka Vanthournout, emphasised the firm’s commitment to digitalisation: Our entire organisation helps us monitor this… digitalisation helps us in our daily operations. Titeca strives to be a strategic partner for its clients, providing peace of mind and optimal solutions to support their business growth.

Finezz Accountants offers its clients the possibility to have a 100% digital flow with the help of Penneo and other software partners.

The last step in our digitalization process was being able to say that we offer a 100% digital flow. That’s what Penneo made possible. The easier we can make it for our clients to receive, sign, and return documents, the smoother our day-to-day becomes. — Julie van der Mast, Accountant and Director at Finezz Accountants

Challenge

In recent years, Finezz Accountants has focused on digitalizing the company to streamline processes and make it easier for accountants and entrepreneurs to handle documents.

Manually signing and managing documents was challenging and time-consuming. Needing to print, sign, scan, and share the documents in-person or over email often lead to delays, confusion, and a weaker customer experience overall.

Solution

We now use Penneo for onboarding new customers. With Penneo and Anlisa, we can prepare engagement letters and have them signed easily, which makes customer onboarding smoother. — Julie van der Mast, Accountant and Director at Finezz Accountants

Penneo’s open API allows for a wide range of software integrations. Plus, the workflow automation feature makes digital signing faster by ensuring that the recipients will receive and sign the documents in the correct order.

I also really enjoy the email notifications feature. As soon as a customer signs with Penneo, the system notifies us. Because of this, we have significantly increased the ratio of signed documents. — Leen Naeyaert, Partner & trainee certified public accountant at Finezz Accountants

Results

Adopting Penneo has been a crucial step in Finezz Accountants’ digitalization process. The solution has brought them numerous advantages, such as time savings, energy efficiency, better document management, and improved customer response times.

The company estimates that they are saving at least 2000 sheets of paper per year by managing their document signing processes digitally.

About Finezz Accountants

Finezz Accountants is an accounting firm located in Aalter, Belgium. They are a trusted partner for many businesses across different sectors.

Led by Julie Van der Mast, Finezz Accountants has evolved into a forward-thinking company that offers fully digital document flows. The team and Julie’s passion for understanding the challenges faced by entrepreneurs have shaped Finezz Accountants into a valuable resource for businesses seeking financial expertise and guidance.

Before choosing Penneo, we researched a few competitors out there. We chose Penneo based on their international presence and API link with Silverfin. We are saving time, paper, reduced our personnel costs so we worry less about follow up. All this, due to automating the processes. – Dieter Coppens, Founder and Managing Partner at BOOKKEEPERS

Challenge

Before, we had problems getting documents signed back from our clients. We sent out reminders manually. It took a lot of time and money, and wasn’t efficient. – Dieter Coppens, Founder and Managing Partner at BOOKKEEPERS

Before BOOKKEEPERS started using Penneo, 50-60% of documents didn’t get signed due to several challenges. The process was time-consuming, inefficient, and often required multiple reminders. Clients had to print out the documents, manually sign them, scan them, and send them back. The manual back-and-forth not only consumed a lot of time but also led to delays and unnecessary paperwork for the client and the staff at BOOKKEEPERS.

Solution

BOOKKEEPERS researched the market for a digital solution and chose Penneo based on its international presence and the integration with Silverfin.

The API with Silverfin made the implementation quick, and in a short time, BOOKKEEPERS experienced a successful start with signing annual reports. This made filing a lot smoother.

Results

With Penneo Sign and the integration with Silverfin, BOOKKEEPERS has improved the document signing process significantly. Within a few minutes, both internal and external documents are signed and returned. The implementation resulted in time savings, efficient follow-ups, and automation of document workflows.

Customers have also expressed enthusiasm for the software, as it eliminated the need for printing, signing, rescanning, and sending documents back.

Penneo has streamlined the document signing process, increased efficiency, reduced costs, and improved the company’s workflow.

About BOOKKEEPERS

BOOKKEEPERS is an accounting firm based in Aalst, Belgium, with a second office in Ghent. The company serves a diverse range of clients, from the creative industry to construction companies.

Bookkeepers provide a high level of services within accounting to their clients in Belgium, and one way they do that is by automating daily work in order to have more time to advise their clients.

We save at least half an hour per document compared to the original process of printing, sending, and following up. – Mike Collier, Director at Fiskcouncil

Challenge

Fiskcouncil offers comprehensive services that assist businesses in three main areas: accounting, taxation, and consultancy.

The company is currently going through a transformative digitalization process. The goal is to minimize manual labor, save time, optimize signing processes and eliminate usage of paper.

Prior to adopting Penneo, Fiskcouncil had already initiated their transformative journey. At that time their signing process was heavily reliant on manual labor, demanding significant manpower and hours of work.

Solution

Fiskcouncil chose Penneo after exploring various options on the market. Penneo proved to be an intuitive tool that perfectly met their expectations.

Before we had to chase after the client, making sure they signed everything. Now, we can simply say, look, we initiate the process, we have set the settings correctly, we pressed start, and the work is in the hands of the client. – Mike Collier, Director at Fiskcouncil

Fiskcouncil’s implementation of Penneo went smoothly. They were in need of some more features to optimize the process completely, and for that, they were in close collaboration with the developers at Penneo. The developers’ consultation proved to be helpful and Fiskcouncil’s concerns were addressed and they felt heard. Now Fiskcouncil has reached a point where operations are running seamlessly.

Results

After implementing Penneo, Fiskcouncil is able to focus more on what they do best – providing advice to their customers and the company is experiencing less stress related to the follow-up process and receives a lot of good feedback from the signers.

In the past, there was never enough time to offer additional advice due to the limited number of hours in a day. However, with the digital tools now available to us, we are optimizing every marginal gain, creating space within those limited hours to finally embrace our advisory role. – Mike Collier, Director at Fiskcouncil

Thanks to digital tools Fiskcouncil is able to handle double the amount of customers with the same amount of employees.

The feedback we receive from customers is very positive. They think the way that it is set up is very professional. Customers actually just say the look is very intuitive, it’s very handy. – Mike Collier, Director at Fiskcouncil

About Fiskcouncil

Fiskcouncil offers a broad range of accounting, taxation and advisory services. The company is based in Belgium and has three offices in Wetteren, Lievegem and Zingem.

Fiskcouncil serves a diverse clientele ranging from small local businesses to large corporations among its 460 customers. The company profiles range from sole proprietorship to management, catering, freelance and construction.

We actually try to be the accountant for everyone. – Mike Collier, Director at Fiskcouncil

“In the last 10 years, our business has evolved so much that we have to adapt. Everything is becoming more and more complicated, there are a lot of administrative tasks and so we are forced to equip ourselves with certain programs in order to facilitate our tasks.” — Rafael Rodriguez, Partner at TFRS Accountancy

Challenges

TFRS is an accounting firm that was confronted, like many in the industry, with the accumulation of paper documents and increasingly complex regulations.

The challenge that TFRS wanted to solve was to become 100% paperless and therefore digitalize its activities to reduce manual work and provide an even higher level of advice to their clients.

The other challenge for TFRS was to find a partner that would save them time, comply with industry regulations and that they could rely on to adapt to their needs.

“The tax system has become more complex, the programs we need today, we didn’t need them 10 years ago. Today, without the programs, it would not be feasible, so we really need good partners for our business.” — Rafael Rodriguez, Partner at TFRS Accountancy

Solution

TFRS values its customer relationships and after several researches, Penneo Sign is the solution they decided to test with 5 of their customers. The feedback was immediately very positive and TFRS decided to implement Penneo.

“I’ve contacted five clients who I’ve sent documents to sign via Penneo and they’ve all told me it’s very easy to use, saves them time and that’s what we’re looking for: to save time, money, and most importantly to have clients who are happy.” — Rafael Rodriguez, Partner at TFRS Accountancy

Results

Penneo Sign was quickly adopted by all the firm’s employees as well as their clients, and today TFRS can pride itself on being 100% digital!

Thanks to signature flows, TFRS can collect signatures from different parties in a precise order and keep a complete overview of the entire process.

“That’s something I had asked Penneo, before sending a document to a client: is it possible to first sign it all internally before sending it to the client? This was possible with Penneo. This is good because the client receives an engagement letter signed by each partner. If you send a document and the client signs it first and doesn’t have the partners’ signatures, it looks unprofessional. I find that very helpful and it wasn’t possible with the other programs.” — Rafael Rodriguez, Partner at TFRS Accountancy

TFRS has nearly 480 companies and had to regularly remind them to sign a document on time to avoid sanctions.

With Penneo Sign, they can meet deadlines thanks to automatic reminders. They can decide when and how often they remind their customers to sign.

“Penneo allows us to send automatic emails and we can define when this reminder will be sent. Every 7 days, every 15 days, or every month, so we don’t have to send reminders manually or send several reminders. As we have 480 clients and we have to check all the companies, this saves us a lot of time. We save more or less 50 to 100 hours per year, just with the automatic reminders.” — Rafael Rodriguez, Partner at TFRS Accountancy

By reducing manual tasks and automating signature collection processes, TFRS has more time in its hands to grow its business and elevate its customer relationships.

“Our business is evolving very fast and it’s true that if we save time, we can spend it on something else. Acquiring new clients or helping existing clients manage their administrative tasks better, giving advice, so yes, it is essential to modernize our work to best support our clients.” — Rafael Rodriguez, Partner at TFRS Accountancy

About TFRS Accountancy

TFRS Accountancy assists its clients in all accounting and tax tasks, but also in setting up an accounting system adapted to the digital world.

The company serves around 480 companies and 200 self-employed people, and works with all types of companies, but is more specialized in Belgian SMEs.

“Before we used Penneo, our colleagues had a lot of work to do to check up on our customers to return the signed documents.” – Stijn de Prins, Partner at Fineko

Challenges

It has always been paramount for Fineko to remain a competitive company and digitalization was becoming a priority. Some processes like signature tracking were becoming problematic and needed to be improved.

Fineko, like many accountancy firms, struggled with the number of manual tasks they had to do throughout the day.

Solution

After some research, Fineko decided to implement Penneo Sign.

The user-friendly interface for both users and clients was a key component in the decision process. The ability to set simple and advanced signing flows and to set up automatic reminders is optimizing internal processes.

Fineko wanted to allow its customers and business partners to sign digitally with itsme® from any place and any device.

“In Belgium, almost everyone actually has itsme® installed on their mobile phone.” – Stijn de Prins, Partner at Fineko

Results

The adoption of Penneo Sign has been beneficial for Fineko as its employees are now able to focus on their customers in part because of the time they have been able to save through automatic reminders.

“By using Penneo, our colleagues have a lot more time on their hands. They actually spend less time checking who has signed and who has not, also due to the fact that these documents actually arrive automatically, that certain internal processes and tasks are then checked off automatically, which means that our colleagues actually have more time to give targeted advice to their customers.” – Stijn de Prins, Partner at Fineko

Manual processes are now less time-consuming thanks to Penneo, and Fineko can see a speed of execution, especially when it comes to annual reporting.

“The annual accounts are now being completed at a great pace, while last year we were still at a fairly low ebb. We are now actually at 75% of last year’s volume so towards the end of the period we will probably easily reach 150% to 200% actually.” – Stijn de Prins, Partner at Fineko

At Penneo we take our customers’ feedback very seriously and we regularly ask them to help us to improve the quality of our solutions in order to remain their best digital partner.

“It is always nice to have a good sparring partner, so Penneo is very open to that as well, so all suggestions and remarks about the current product are always accepted with thanks and there is always positive feedback, and where possible some adjustments are made as well. So that is actually the strength of Penneo, to be big, or bigger, but still small in terms of approach.” – Stijn de Prins, Partner at Fineko

About Fineko

Fineko is an organization that has been running for more than 25 years. They have 3 offices in Genk, Hasselt, and Leuven, and employ around a hundred people. The company offers a broad range of services, from accounting and bookkeeping to tax and legal advisory, as well as corporate finance.

Fineko’s structure is organized to maintain personal contact with its customers.

“Thanks to our high-quality accountants, we have actually been able to develop a nice range of services for our clients. This enables us to relieve the client at every stage in his life.” – Stijn de Prins, Partner at Fineko