Since January 2026, Belgian VAT-registered companies have been legally required to exchange electronic invoices via the Peppol network. While this regulation is often seen as a compliance exercise, our experience shows that Peppol represents far more than a legal requirement—it is a powerful opportunity to optimize financial and operational processes.
Moving Beyond Compliance: Rethinking AR, AP and GL Processes
The implementation of Peppol naturally encourages organizations to reassess and streamline their existing processes:
- Outbound
invoicing & Accounts Receivable (AR)
Structured and standardized invoice delivery improves invoice accuracy, enhances traceability, optimizes customers’ treatments, reduces disputes, and shortens payment cycles. - Inbound
invoicing & Accounts Payable (AP)
Receiving structured electronic invoices enables higher levels of automation, reduces manual processing, optimizes routing and approval workflows, strengthens internal controls through better matching and improve payment flows. - General
Ledger (GL)
High-quality, standardized data allows faster and more reliable accounting entries, supporting quicker financial closes and more accurate financial reporting.
Data as a Key Performance Enabler
Peppol is not just a transmission channel—it forces companies to address and improve their data quality by enforcing strict data standards and structured formats.
Organizations are pushed to clean and standardize supplier and customer data, reduce duplicates and inconsistencies, and improve their data governance (ownership, rules, controls).
As a result, organizations benefit from:
· Improved data consistency and reliability,
- Seamless integration with ERP and reporting tools,
- More meaningful analytics (cash flow, supplier performance, customer behavior, VAT),
- Increased audit readiness and regulatory transparency.
A Catalyst for Digital Transformation
For many organizations, Peppol acts as a trigger for broader digital transformation:
- IT architecture simplification or optimization
- end-to-end process automation
- full paperless e-invoicing program
- reduced operational costs
- improved collaboration with customers and suppliers
Conclusion
Peppol may be a legal obligation in Belgium, but when approached strategically, it becomes a lever for process optimization, data quality improvement, and sustainable performance. Companies that leverage Peppol as an opportunity will be best positioned to capture the full value of this change.
Thanks to its hands-on Peppol experience and the complementary expertise & experience of its ecosystem, ngage can support your organization to go beyond compliance to fully unlock Peppol as a driver of process optimization and business value, considering your context, challenges and needs. Let’s talk how can Peppol be an opportunity for your processes, systems and related data quality!