What is Peppol? A guide for online stores

Peppol is the network businesses use to send each other e-invoices. In Belgium it has been the standard for invoices between businesses since 2026. What does that mean for your Shopify store?

Peppol in short

Peppol is an international network and a set of agreements for exchanging invoices and other business documents. It is run by the OpenPeppol association. A Peppol invoice is not a PDF but a structured file that your customer's accounting software can read automatically. No retyping, no scanning.

Think of it like email: you pick a provider, and through that provider you can reach everyone else on the network. In Peppol, that provider is called an access point.

How does an access point work?

Peppol uses four parties, the so-called four-corner model:

1. You, the seller, create the invoice.
2. Your access point checks and sends it.
3. Your customer's access point receives it.
4. Your customer gets the invoice in their accounting software.

Access points are certified by OpenPeppol. Using a central address register, your access point looks up where your customer wants to receive invoices. So you don't need your customer's email address or portal, only their Peppol ID.

What is a Peppol ID?

Every business on Peppol has an address, the Peppol ID. It consists of a code for the type of number, followed by the number itself. The most common ones:

A Belgian business can usually be found on Peppol by its enterprise number. That is why a store that invoices over Peppol asks business customers for their VAT or enterprise number. To learn how to find and check an ID, read how to find a Peppol ID.

Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 and UBL

The file sent over Peppol follows the Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 standard. Technically it is a UBL (XML) file that meets the European standard EN 16931, plus extra Peppol rules. Those rules set, for example, which fields are mandatory, how VAT amounts must add up and how a VAT exemption is indicated.

If an invoice breaks those rules, the access point may reject it. So it pays to check every invoice before it is sent.

What does a Shopify store need to do?

Shopify itself does not create Peppol invoices. If you sell to businesses, and especially to Belgian businesses, you need a solution that:

• creates a correct invoice for every paid order, with the right VAT (including reverse charge and OSS);
• turns it into a valid Peppol BIS 3.0 file;
• sends that file to your business customer through an access point;
• creates a credit note when you issue a refund, and sends that too.

Nothing changes for consumers: they simply get an invoice by email. Want to know whether you have to invoice over Peppol in Belgium? Read mandatory e-invoicing in Belgium.

How PeppolKit handles it

PeppolKit is a Shopify app that does this for you. For every paid order, it:

• checks a business customer's VAT number live with VIES and picks the right VAT treatment;
• creates a PDF and a Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 file, with gapless numbering;
• validates every invoice against the official EN 16931 and Peppol BIS 3.0 rules;
• sends the invoice through our partner's certified access point to business customers on Peppol, and by email to everyone;
• creates a credit note automatically when you refund an order.

Sending over Peppol is included in every plan, including the free plan, with no per-invoice fee. To activate it, we run a one-time identity check of your business. See pricing.

An explanation for orientation, not tax advice.