Mandatory E-invoicing via Peppol
Starting 1 January 2026, all transactions between Belgian VAT-registered companies (B2B) must use structured electronic invoicing via the Peppol network. This aligns with European efforts to prevent VAT fraud while simplifying administrative processes for businesses. Electronic invoices are faster to process, more secure, and environmentally friendly compared with traditional paper or PDF invoices.
To comply, companies must be able to send and receive invoices via Peppol. Wello provides all the tools needed to send Peppol-compliant invoices, automatically formatting them correctly and giving direct access to the Peppol network. Until the end of 2025, invoices in PDF, Word, Excel, or paper remain legal for B2B transactions, but from 2026 onwards, only structured electronic invoices are legally valid. PDFs or paper versions can still be sent voluntarily alongside the Peppol invoice.
Mandatory e-invoicing in Belgium is part of the broader EU VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA) Directive, and in time, all EU countries will implement similar requirements.
Getting started with Peppol in Wello
What is Peppol?
Peppol (Pan-European Public Procurement OnLine) is a secure European network that allows companies and organizations (including government institutions) to exchange electronic invoices in a standardized way and structure. This means you send the invoice not as a PDF but as a structured XML file that the customer’s accounting system can process automatically.
What is a Peppol ID?
A Peppol ID is a unique number ( unique identifier string) which is used to identify companies, government institutions and organizations connected to the Peppol network. It identifies the sender and receiver of documents, ensuring documents are routed correctly through the Peppol Access Points.
To send e‑invoices, your company must be registered on the Peppol network and obtain a Peppol ID. Without a Peppol ID, an organization cannot send or receive documents on the network.
Direct registration for a Peppol ID on the Peppol network is not possible. To obtain one, you must register with a certified Peppol Access Point provider using a valid identifier depending on your country. Examples of valid identifiers include: VAT number, company registration number, IBAN, or GLN. In Belgium, this is usually the company number.
How Peppol Works Inside Wello
Wello Solutions now supports Peppol e‑invoicing, enabling organizations to send invoices directly to customers through the Peppol network. Wello is a recognized Peppol Access Point provider, connecting your organization to the Peppol network so you can send e‑invoices seamlessly.
Each organization connects its country‑specific identifier (such as a VAT number or company registration number) to Wello. Once verified, Wello obtains your Peppol ID.
Wello uses that Peppol ID as the organization’s official “address” on the network. Acting as a certified Access Point, Wello manages the secure delivery of invoices and other business documents to the recipient’s Access Point.
Each customer or account must also have their identifier linked to Wello in order to obtain their own Peppol ID.
When your organization sends an invoice, Wello places your Peppol ID as the sender address and the customer’s Peppol ID as the recipient address. This guarantees that the invoice is routed correctly through the Peppol network.
The recipient’s Access Point receives the invoice in the standardized Peppol BIS 3.0 XML format and automatically passes it into the customer’s accounting or ERP system.
Wello generates draft invoices from multiple sources (work orders, contracts, or manual entries). When these invoices are sent to customers, Wello converts them into Peppol BIS 3.0‑compliant XML and transmits them across the Peppol network.
This means you don’t need to worry about technical setup, Wello ensures every invoice is properly formatted, securely delivered, and routed correctly.
Enabling Peppol for your organization.
To enable Peppol for your organization, navigate to your Wello Portal Settings, select Sales and click on the General Settings tab. In the general settings tab, you will find the Peppol configuration section, you will see two options:
Enable Peppol Integration: This activates invoice delivery via Peppol. If a customer does not have a Peppol ID, invoices can still be sent using other methods, typically by email.
Require Peppol for Invoicing: This restricts invoice delivery to Peppol only. Invoices cannot be sent unless the customer has a Peppol ID.
Configuring Your Organization Peppol ID and Invoice Delivery Method
Once Peppol Integration is enabled for your organization, you must configure your invoice delivery method and Peppol ID in the system. This setup allows Wello to automatically connect your company to the Peppol network and send invoices through it.
To configure this:
Go to your Wello portal settings.
Select Get Started.
Click on the Organization tab.
In the grid, select your organization and click the pen icon to edit.
Under the Financial Information section, you will find the fields for Your Peppol ID and the Invoice delivery method.
Your Peppol ID
This is the identifier Wello uses to send invoices on your behalf through the Peppol network.
You do not need to be registered in Peppol to send documents, as long as a valid identifier is available for your chosen schema (for example: VAT, registration number, GLN code).
Select the Peppol schema you want to use (e.g., VAT, OrgNo, GLN). In Belgium, the VAT scheme is used.
Once you select a scheme, the system will Automatically copy the identifier from the matching account field (e.g., VAT, OrgNo, GLN), or you can enter the identifier manually. For example if you select the VAT scheme in your PEPPOL Id field and VAT number field is filled in under financial information, this VAT will be automatically put in the Peppol ID field.
Click Verify under the Peppol ID field. If successful, your Peppol ID will be shown and you will see a green label: PEPPOL ID IS LINKED TO ACCOUNT. If not found, you will see a red label: PEPPOL ID NOT FOUND.
Invoice Delivery Method
The Invoice Delivery Method determines how you wants invoices to be delivered to customers. This setting is important because it controls whether invoices are sent through Peppol, email, or a combination of both.
There are three options:
Email only: All invoices are delivered by email.
Peppol and Email: Invoices are delivered through Peppol, and a copy is also sent by email (dual delivery).
Peppol preferred: The system tries to deliver via Peppol first. If the customer has no valid Peppol ID or delivery fails, the invoice automatically falls back to email.
Select your invoice delivery method, when done click the save button to finalize your changes.
PEPPOL ID Handling for Customer Invoicing
Once Peppol has been activated or enable for a domain or organization, each customer account in the organization can be configured to received invoices via peppol.
Your customers must also be registered on the Peppol network to receive e-invoices, if your customers are not ready by January 1, 2026, you, as the sender, may deliver your invoice in a different way. You can include a clause on the invoice urging the recipient to comply. Your customer runs the risk of being penalized.
Each customer account can be linked to a valid PEPPOL ID under the financial information of the account in the system. This ID can either be: Manually setup by a back-office user based on information received directly from the customer or this is done automatically by Wello through the background resolution process (read more about the background resolution process below in this article).
To setup Peppol for an account
Navigate to CRM in the left navigation panel and select Accounts. This will open the account page.
Use any of the filter on the account page to search for accounts.
Select an account in the grid, then click the three-dot menu icon on it and select Edit account.
Scroll down to the Financial Information section where you will find the Peppol ID field.
In the Peppol Id field select a Peppol scheme (e.g., VAT, OrgNo, GLN). Once you select a scheme, the system will Automatically copy the identifier from the matching account field and launch a verification, or you can enter the identifier manually if the information is not available on the account, then click Verify under the field. (For BE companies, select the VAT. )
Once an identifier is provided, the system will launch a verification. Once it is valid and verified it will display the Peppol ID and a green badge success status is shown below the Peppol field. (Peppol ID is linked to account). If the Peppol ID is invalid, it will show a red badge error message (Peppol ID not found).
When you send an invoice to these customers, the system will use your organization’s selected Invoice Delivery Method to automatically send e-invoices via Peppol and/or email.
Once an account is linked to a Peppol ID, the Peppol badge will also appear in the Accounts search grid. The badge only appears when a Peppol scheme is selected and a valid ID is provided.
You can also select other schemes, like GLN, the Company number, DUNS, or even the IBAN. However, for Belgian companies, the VAT number is used. For other countries you need to check the applicable identifier for that country.
Background Resolution Process
When PEPPOL support is enabled on a tenant domain or your organization, some or most accounts will not yet have PEPPOL IDs assigned. Manually filling these IDs is tedious and error-prone. To simplify this, Wello provides a background process that automatically attempts to resolve missing PEPPOL IDs for accounts.
The system uses the information already stored on the account, such as the country and the default national identifier (for example, VAT number or GLN) to verify and obtain the Peppol ID.
The Peppol ID background resolution task or process is triggered in three ways:
On enablement: When PEPPOL is first enabled for an organization.
On access: When a user visits an organization and no background resolution task has run in the past week.
On demand: When a user views an invoice for an account without a PEPPOL ID, a toast notification will be display to trigger the background resolution task (if none has run in the past week).
For each account without a Peppol ID: The system will Attempt resolution using the default schema for the country. If any of the required identifier (e.g., VAT, OrgNo, GLN), is filled on the customer account, the system will automatically select one, verify it and obtain the Peppol ID. If verification fails, it will repeat the process with other valid schemas for the country. All Successfully verified IDs are saved against the account.
How Wello Handles Peppol ID During Account Creation and Update
On account creation, If the domain has Peppol enabled, the system will automatically attempt Peppol ID discovery for the account, using the default schema of the country selected and when any of the required identifier (e.g., VAT, OrgNo, GLN) is filled for the customer.
On account update, If no verified Peppol ID exists and identifiers like VAT, GLN, or Registration Number are updated, the system will trigger automatic discovery again.
Peppol Invoice Delivery & Status
Once Peppol is enabled for your organization and customer Peppol IDs are configured, all draft invoices created in Wello, whether from work orders, contracts, or manual invoices can be sent electronically via the Peppol network.
When you send invoices to customers, the delivery will follow the Invoice Delivery Method selected for your organization (Email only, Peppol only through Peppol Preferred, or Peppol and Email).
It is recommended to use the invoice delivery method Email + Peppol until all customers gets used to Peppol e-invoicing. After that, you can switch to Peppol only. This way, customers with a valid Peppol ID will receive the e-invoice, and those not yet identified will receive the PDF by email.
Peppol Delivery Status
After an invoice is sent to the customer, Wello will generates a final invoice number and delivery icons will appear alongside the invoice number to indicate the method and status used:
Email icon: delivered by email
Peppol icon with check: successfully delivered via Peppol
Peppol icon with cross: Peppol delivery failed
Peppol Delivery status (successful, rejected, pending) will also be logged and displayed under the invoice status button.
This delivery status is only a technical message about the transmission of your document. It informs you whether your document has been successfully delivered to the Peppol Access Point of your recipient. It does not confirm whether the customer has opened or processed the invoice. To find that out, the Peppol network provides another type of message, namely status messages or IMR messages. An IMR or Invoice Message Response allows recipients of electronic invoices to provide detailed feedback on the received invoice.
Please note that WELLO does not provide IMR messages.
Peppol Delivery Status in Invoice Search
Peppol delivery status is also visible in the Invoice Search page. Each invoice displayed in the Grid will show its Peppol delivery status: successful, rejected, or pending. This allows you to quickly see whether invoices were delivered successfully or rejected without opening each invoice.
Below the search filters on the Invoice Search page, you will also find a checkbox labeled: “Only Peppol Delivery Failed”. When checked, this option filters the results to display only invoices where Peppol delivery failed, allowing you to easily identify and follow up on rejected e-invoices.
Using a GLN (Global Location Number) to Send and Receive E‑Invoices via Peppol
To send and receive e‑invoices over the Peppol network, every company needs a valid identifier. In Belgium, the VAT number is the standard identifier, but Peppol also supports other schemes, including the GLN (Global Location Number).
What is a GLN ?
A GLN is a standardized number of 8, 12, 13, or 14 digits that uniquely identifies the physical location of a company or a specific part of that company (such as a department or warehouse).
It is commonly used in the transportation sector because the GLN number can pinpoint a particular department within a larger organization. An advantage of using a GLN number over a custom code to specify a department is that it is a unique code established according to certain rules. This reduces confusion between different types and formats of internal codes used by companies.
You can look up the information associated with a GLN number in the GS1 GLN database (the organization that assigns and maintains these numbers).
Using GLN (Global Location Number) in Wello
In Belgium, most companies register on Peppol with their VAT number. However, foreign businesses or organizations without a VAT number often register using their GLN instead. Because it is unique and standardized, the GLN serves as a secure identifier within Peppol.
With Wello, you can send and receive e-invoices via Peppol using a GLN number. This is useful when sending an invoice to a specific department of a company or when a company is registered with Peppol only through its GLN number.
You can use a GLN number as the identifier to register on Peppol in Wello either for your organization (as the sender on the Peppol network) or for your customers (as the recipient).
In your Wello organization Peppol configuration, simply select the GLN scheme in the Peppol ID field and enter your GLN number. In the customer’s financial information, select the GLN scheme in the Peppol ID field, Once you select a scheme, the system will Automatically copy the identifier from the GLN code field and launch a verification, or you can enter the GLN number manually if the information is not available on the account, then click Verify.
Please note that even if you use GLN numbers as the identifier for your customer to receive e-invoices via Peppol, you must fill in the 'VAT number' field for VAT-liable companies(accounts) in countries where VAT-number is mandatory on your invoice.
