Peppol, short for Pan-European Public Procurement Online, is a network for exchanging electronic business documents between companies and government bodies. An invoice sent over Peppol arrives as structured data in the recipient’s software instead of as an attachment in a mailbox. In this article you can read how the network is put together, what you need to join, where it is already mandatory and what Peppol does not solve.
Contents
What is Peppol?
Peppol is a set of agreements and a network, not a piece of software you buy. It defines what a document must look like, how it is addressed and how it is delivered, so that two organisations that have never spoken to each other can exchange an invoice without arranging anything bilaterally. It started in 2008 as a European project to standardise electronic invoicing and is now governed by the non-profit OpenPeppol, with participants well beyond Europe.
How the network works
The model has four corners. You and your customer are the two outer corners; each of you connects through an access point, and those two access points exchange the document. It works like e-mail in that respect: you do not need the same provider as the party you are invoicing, you only need to be reachable on the network. Being reachable means having a Peppol ID, usually based on your company registration or VAT number, listed in the directory so other parties can find you.
The document itself follows a standard, in Europe usually a UBL file conforming to EN 16931. That is why a Peppol invoice can be read straight away: the format is agreed in advance rather than negotiated per supplier.
What you need to join
- A provider with an access point. You do not set one up yourself; a certified provider connects you.
- A Peppol ID. Your address on the network, registered once. One organisation can be registered with one provider at a time, so if you are already listed elsewhere you deregister there first.
- Software that can read or produce the format. For receiving, that is your pre-accounting or accounting software; for sending, your invoicing package.
Where it is mandatory
Across the European Union, public bodies must be able to receive electronic invoices, which is why invoicing a government customer generally means invoicing electronically. Business-to-business obligations are being introduced country by country: in Belgium e-invoicing between companies has been mandatory since 1 January 2026, and the European ViDA rules extend the obligation further from 2030. Check what applies where your company is registered, because the timetable differs and it is moving.
What Peppol does not solve
Peppol delivers the invoice and guarantees the format. It does not decide which general ledger account, VAT code or cost centre the lines belong to, and that is the step that actually produces an entry in your books. Companies that switch to e-invoicing expecting the bookkeeping to disappear are usually surprised here: the retyping goes, the coding stays.
Two practical limits as well. Your supplier has to be on the network for you to receive their invoice that way, so for years to come you will be handling e-invoices and PDFs side by side. And an invoice arriving as clean data is not the same as an invoice being correct: whether the goods arrived and the price was agreed remains a human check.
Peppol and TriFact365
TriFact365 connects you to the network for the invoices you receive. You get your own Peppol ID, incoming e-invoices arrive directly in the same queue as your PDFs and scans, and the lines are coded into a booking proposal for your accounting package. After your check the journal entry goes across with the document attached, and an approval route can sit in between. Issuing invoices yourself stays with your accounting or invoicing software. Read more about receiving e-invoices over the network, about approval routes for invoices, or about creating an e-invoice.
Frequently asked questions
A network and a set of agreements for exchanging electronic business documents between companies and government bodies. It defines the format, the addressing and the delivery, so two organisations can exchange an invoice without arranging anything between themselves first.
Your address on the network, usually based on your company registration or VAT number and listed in the Peppol directory. Other parties send e-invoices to that ID. An organisation can be registered with one provider at a time.
No. An access point is the gateway to the network, and a certified provider operates it for you. What you need is a provider and a Peppol ID, not infrastructure of your own.
For invoices to public bodies, electronic invoicing applies across the European Union. Business-to-business obligations are introduced per country: Belgium since 1 January 2026, with the European ViDA rules extending it from 2030. Check the timetable for your country.
It removes the retyping, not the coding. The file tells you the amounts; which general ledger account, VAT code and cost centre they belong to is a separate step that determines the entry in your books.
