How to Send a Peppol Invoice in Belgium

To send a Peppol invoice, create the invoice in connected software, validate the customer and required structured fields, transmit it through the configured access point and follow its delivery status. Do not email an XML or PDF and assume that this completes an in-scope Belgian B2B obligation.

Confirm the transaction is in scope

Since 1 January 2026, invoices within scope between Belgian enterprises liable to VAT must be structured electronic invoices. Exceptions and cross-border situations exist. Verify the supplier, customer and transaction against the official Belgian B2B FAQ.

Consumer invoices fall outside that B2B obligation, although a business serving only consumers still needs a way to receive structured supplier invoices.

Prepare supplier and customer records

Check legal names, addresses, enterprise and VAT numbers and the electronic-routing details held by your software. Do not ask every customer to invent or email a “Peppol ID”; the official FAQ explains how discovery works in the network.

Correct master data before generating the invoice. Fixing it after rejection adds unnecessary credit notes and support work.

Build the invoice from reviewed data

Complete the same commercial and VAT review you would perform for any invoice: unique number, dates, work description, quantities and prices, tax treatment, totals, payment information and references required by the customer or contract.

Attachments related to the invoice should travel through the supported invoice channel. The official FAQ warns against sending invoice attachments separately by email when they belong to the structured invoice exchange.

Validate before sending

The invoice must comply with the required business profile, not merely be an XML file. Use software that validates the structured document before transmission and shows errors in language an administrator can act on.

Test a normal invoice, a credit note, multiple VAT rates and a customer reference. Resolve warnings before the first production run.

Follow the delivery status

“Created” is not the same as “delivered”. Monitor whether the document was accepted for transmission, reached the receiver or was rejected. Give one person ownership of exceptions and record the correction without overwriting the original document.

If a customer says nothing arrived, compare identifiers and status events before sending another invoice. Duplicate transmission can create a second accounting problem.

Keep the structured original

Retain the structured invoice and a legible view for the full retention period. FPS Finance states that invoices and VAT accounting documents must generally be kept for ten years. Preserve status evidence and corrections with the document.

Use a short sending checklist

• confirm scope and customer identity;
• review invoice content and VAT treatment;
• attach supporting files through the correct channel;
• validate the structured profile;
• send through the configured Peppol connection;
• monitor delivery or rejection;
• archive the structured original, legible view and audit trail.

Start with a controlled test set and keep a manual approval step until the team understands the exceptions. For a broader preparation sequence, see Enfin’s step-by-step Peppol guide.