How to send a Peppol invoice

Sending a Peppol invoice is not an email with an attachment. The invoice goes as a structured file through a certified access point to your customer's access point. These are the steps.

Start free How it works

How a Peppol invoice travels: from your system through two access points to your customer's bookkeeping.

What do you need?

An access point. The certified provider that connects you to the Peppol network. You do not send it yourself, the access point does that for you. See what a Peppol access point is.
An invoice as a structured file. In Europe that is usually a UBL XML file following Peppol BIS Billing 3.0. A PDF alone is not an e-invoice.
Your customer's Peppol ID. For Belgian businesses it is almost always 0208 plus the company number. See how to find a Peppol ID.

The steps

Choose an access point and register your business. You get a Peppol ID of your own, which you can also receive invoices on.
Create the invoice in your invoicing software and have it turned into a UBL file. Check that the number, date, VAT numbers, amounts and VAT rates are right, because the file is validated automatically.
Look up your customer's Peppol ID, or work it out from their company or VAT number.
Send the invoice through the access point. It looks up where your customer can be reached in the address directory and passes the file on.
Check the status. Your access point shows whether the invoice was delivered. If something is wrong you usually get a message saying why.

What happens on the way?

Your access point first asks the central address directory (SML and SMP) whether your customer's Peppol ID exists and which documents it can receive. If so, the invoice travels securely (over AS4) to your customer's access point, which delivers it into their bookkeeping. You and your customer do not need the same provider.

What if sending fails?

Your customer is not on Peppol or cannot receive this document type. You may then deliver the invoice another way, for example as a PDF by email (your customer has to agree). Also ask for the right Peppol ID.
The Peppol ID is wrong. A typo or the wrong number is the most common cause.
The invoice is rejected by validation, for example because of a missing VAT number or amounts that do not add up. Fix it and send again.

By hand or automatically?

By hand works, through your access point's portal: you upload a file and send it. That is fine for a few invoices a month. With a webshop that has business customers, you want it to happen by itself. PeppolKit creates the invoice with the right VAT for every paid order, checks your customer's VAT number with VIES and sends the invoice over Peppol when your customer can be reached; otherwise a PDF goes by email. See the pricing: the free plan covers 10 invoices a month.

Whether your customer has to get your invoice over Peppol at all is explained in e-invoicing in Belgium.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just email a Peppol invoice?

No. A PDF by email is not a structured e-invoice. For Belgian B2B sales you send a UBL file through a Peppol access point, and you can add a PDF for readability.

Do I need an access point of my own?

You need access to one, directly or through your invoicing software. Many packages, PeppolKit included, arrange that connection with a partner.

Does my customer need the same access point?

No. Peppol is an open network: any certified access point can send to any other.

How long does it take for a Peppol invoice to arrive?

Usually a few minutes, sometimes a few hours. You see the status in your access point or invoicing software.

PeppolKit by platform: Shopify, WooCommerce, PrestaShop, bol.com and Lightspeed (waitlist). See how it works for your webshop.

Leave Peppol to PeppolKit.

Install PeppolKit and your business customers get their invoice over Peppol, without you having to deal with the network.

Choose your platform Start free with 10 invoices a month.

An explanation for orientation, not tax advice.