Atexio

Atexio is a firm of certified accountants whose name sums up its offer: Accountancy, Tax and Expertise for Innovative Entrepreneurs. Its registered office is on Koning Leopold I-straat in Kortrijk, and it has a second office in Waregem, in new premises on Holstraat opposite the racecourse. According to the firm, the X in its name stands for the connecting role accountants and financial experts play for their clients.

Atexio grew out of a long professional friendship between the DVL accounting office in Waregem and Geert Dupont's accountancy firm in Kortrijk. The two offices first organised staff training together and shared knowledge on complex files, then joined forces in 2020. The firm is led by four partners, Eline Dupont, Kris Leroy, Thierry Balcaen and Sofie Vandeginste, who together have more than 150 years of experience as accountants, auditors and in senior business roles. It also describes itself as the first office where members of both former professional institutes already worked together, before they merged into the ITAA.

In bookkeeping, the firm works on a tailored basis as far as possible and aims to let clients keep their own books in order, with support where needed. According to the website, this accessible approach is valued by its many SME clients. Atexio calls itself a pioneer in digitisation and looks for simple, secure tools such as the Billit app, which lets clients scan receipts and invoices and send digital invoices. It publishes a calendar of tax deadlines: advance payments, returns and monthly and quarterly VAT instalments.

The tax side covers personal income tax, corporate income tax, VAT and the tax aspects of mergers and acquisitions. The partners keep up with tax news continuously and look for optimisation opportunities with their clients, combining that knowledge with experience in very different sectors. The website publishes practical articles, for example on disputing an invoice received via Peppol, the taxation of VVPRbis dividends and liquidation reserves, or business gifts.

Advice comes at key moments: company formation, mergers and demergers, shareholder disputes, family succession and company liquidations. One of the partners says they were often there for clients' first acquisition, and later when the next generation joined the business. The financial management side is led by a partner who spent more than twenty years as a finance director, and helps companies shape their organisation, procedures and strategy.

As generalists, the partners readily put clients in touch with their network of specialists: company auditors, lawyers, notaries, bankers and brokers. The firm stresses a long-term relationship based on trust and mutual respect, quality over quantity, and a simple internal culture it calls « werkgenegenheid ».