How to Send a Peppol Invoice as a Small Business

Quick answer: To send a Peppol invoice, sign up with a certified Peppol access point (often built into your accounting software), register your Peppol ID, look up your customer's Peppol ID in the Peppol Directory, create the invoice in Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 format with all required fields, then send it through the access point and confirm it was delivered.

Peppol is a delivery network, not a piece of software. You never connect to it directly: every Peppol invoice travels from your access point to your customer's access point. This guide walks through the practical steps for a small business. For the background on the four-corner model and identifiers, start with our explainer on what Peppol is.

One honest note before you start: our free invoice generator creates PDF invoices. It does not create Peppol XML or connect to an access point. Where a Peppol invoice is required, you need a Peppol-enabled service; a PDF is still useful for clients outside any mandate.

Do you need to send Peppol invoices?

You need Peppol when the law or your customer requires a structured e-invoice delivered over the network. Common triggers:

• A national B2B mandate built on Peppol. Belgium's B2B e-invoicing obligation, live since 1 January 2026, is the clearest example. See our comparison of Belgium and Poland e-invoicing mandates.
• Public sector customers. Many governments, including several in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, accept or require Peppol for supplier invoices.
• Upcoming mandates. The UAE's e-invoicing system is Peppol-based and phases in from 2027; see our UAE e-invoicing 2027 guide. Our e-invoicing mandates 2027 list tracks other countries.
• A large customer's request. Some buyers ask suppliers to invoice via Peppol even where no law requires it.

Not every e-invoicing country uses Peppol. Clearance systems such as Saudi Arabia's ZATCA or Italy's SdI work differently; our post on Peppol vs the clearance model explains the difference.

What you need before you send a Peppol invoice

Item	What it is	Where it comes from
Peppol access point	A certified service provider that sends and receives on the network	Your accounting software or a standalone provider
Your Peppol ID	Scheme code plus identifier, for example 0208:0123456789	Registered by your access point in the SMP
Customer's Peppol ID	Their address on the network	Peppol Directory, or ask the customer
Invoice data in BIS Billing 3.0	A structured XML invoice	Generated by your software or the provider's portal
Buyer reference or PO number	Needed by Peppol rules and by many buyers	Your customer

How to send a Peppol invoice: step by step

Step 1: Choose a Peppol access point

You have three common routes:

• Accounting software with built-in Peppol. Easiest if you already use one. You enable e-invoicing, confirm your company details and the software handles registration and sending.
• A standalone e-invoicing portal. You type or upload invoices on the provider's website. Useful if you send only a few invoices a month and do not use accounting software.
• An API integration. For businesses with their own billing system.

When comparing providers, check that they are a certified Peppol service provider (OpenPeppol publishes the list of members and service providers), whether they support both sending and receiving, which countries' rules they validate against, whether they archive invoices, and current pricing on their official pricing page. Pricing models range from free tiers to per-document fees, so compare at the time you sign up rather than relying on old lists.

Step 2: Register your Peppol ID

A Peppol ID combines an identifier scheme code and your business identifier. Your access point registers it in its Service Metadata Publisher (SMP), which is how other access points find you. Examples of scheme codes:

Scheme code	Identifier
0208	Belgian enterprise (company) number
9925	Belgian VAT number
0088	GLN (Global Location Number)
0192	Norwegian organisation number
0151	Australian Business Number (ABN)
0195	Singapore UEN
0204	German Leitweg-ID (public sector buyers)

The provider will ask for your legal name, registration number, VAT number, address and contact details, and may take a short time to validate them. If you were registered with another provider before, that registration must be removed first, because one ID can only be active at one SMP for a given document type.

Step 3: Find your customer's Peppol ID

Search the public Peppol Directory by company name, country or identifier, or ask your customer's accounts payable team. Many businesses now print their Peppol ID on purchase orders and supplier onboarding forms. Store it in your customer record so every future invoice is addressed correctly. If the customer is not registered, Peppol delivery is not possible; see the FAQ below on what to do next.

Step 4: Create a Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 invoice

Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 is the standard invoice and credit note format on the network. It follows the European semantic model EN 16931, so the invoice is data, not a picture of a page. Your software maps your fields to that model. Key fields include:

• Invoice number, issue date and invoice type code (invoice or credit note)
• Buyer reference or purchase order reference (Peppol rules require at least one)
• Seller and buyer legal names, addresses, VAT numbers and Peppol endpoint IDs
• Line items with quantity, unit code, net price and VAT category and rate
• VAT breakdown per rate, invoice totals and amount due
• Payment means, such as IBAN and payment reference, and payment terms

Our guide to the EN 16931 e-invoice template lists the business terms in more detail. Some countries add their own rules on top of BIS 3.0, so make sure your provider validates for your customer's country.

Step 5: Validate and send

Before sending, your access point validates the XML against the Peppol and EN 16931 rules. Typical validation failures are a missing buyer reference, VAT totals that do not add up to the line totals, an invalid VAT category for the rate used, or a wrong endpoint ID. Fix the source data and resend. Once valid, the access point looks up your customer in the SML and SMP and delivers the invoice to their access point.

Step 6: Confirm delivery and keep records

Your provider shows a delivery status. Some buyers also return an invoice response message (for example accepted, rejected or under query). Keep the XML invoice as your legal record where the structured invoice is the original, alongside any PDF visualisation, for the retention period your country requires. See our guide to how long to keep invoices.

Worked example: a Belgian agency sends its first Peppol invoice

A small Belgian design agency bills a retail client for a EUR 4,000 website project. VAT at 21% is EUR 4,000 x 0.21 = EUR 840, so the amount due is EUR 4,840.

1. The agency turns on Peppol in its accounting software, which registers its ID as 0208 plus its enterprise number.
2. It searches the Peppol Directory for the client and finds its ID under scheme 0208.
3. It creates the invoice with the client's PO number as the order reference, one line of EUR 4,000 at VAT category S (standard) and 21%, a VAT breakdown of EUR 840 and a total of EUR 4,840, and its IBAN as the payment means.
4. The software validates and sends. The status shows delivered within minutes, and the client's software imports the invoice without retyping.

How much does it cost to send a Peppol invoice?

There is no single network fee you pay to Peppol itself; you pay your access point or software provider under its own pricing. Models seen in the market include invoicing included in an accounting subscription, a free allowance of documents per month, per-document charges and enterprise contracts. Receiving is sometimes priced differently from sending. Because prices change frequently, compare current offers on each provider's official pricing page, and factor in whether you also need archiving, multi-country validation or integration with your bank.

How to send a Peppol credit note

A correction is sent as a separate Peppol BIS credit note, not by editing the original. It references the original invoice number, shows the corrected lines and VAT, and travels through the same access points. For example, if the agency in the worked example above had to refund EUR 500 of the fee, the credit note would show EUR 500 net, VAT of EUR 500 x 0.21 = EUR 105 and a total credit of EUR 605. Our credit note guide covers when to issue one.

Common mistakes when sending Peppol invoices

• Emailing a PDF and assuming it counts. Under a Peppol mandate, the structured XML is the invoice. Our comparison of an e-invoice vs a PDF invoice explains why.
• Registering to send but not to receive. In mandate countries, you usually must be able to receive too.
• Using the wrong identifier scheme for the customer, so the invoice cannot be routed.
• Leaving out the buyer reference or PO. It is a common cause of validation errors and payment delays.
• Rounding VAT per line in a way that does not match the VAT breakdown.

Peppol invoice checklist

• Access point chosen and Peppol ID registered for sending and receiving
• Customer's Peppol ID found and saved
• Buyer reference or PO number captured
• VAT categories, rates and totals correct
• Payment means and terms included
• Delivery status checked and XML archived

Important: This is general information, not tax or legal advice. E-invoicing obligations, formats and dates differ by country and change often. Confirm what applies to you with your national tax authority and see OpenPeppol for official network information.

Next step

Check whether your customers or your country require Peppol, then compare Peppol-enabled accounting software and access points. If you are not yet in scope, keep sending clear PDFs from the invoice generator, and read our broader e-invoicing guide so you are ready when a mandate reaches you.