Marco van Drogenbroek on Peppol: Why Waiting Will Cost You More Than Getting Started
Peppol is becoming mandatory. And yet, most organizations aren't ready for it yet.
Belgium switched to mandatory Peppol invoicing on January 1. Companies that do business with Belgian partners are already receiving Peppol messages, whether they’re ready for them or not. The Netherlands will follow, sometime between 2028 and 2030. That sounds far off—until you realize just how full every organization’s schedule already is. Anyone who isn’t thinking about Peppol now will soon find themselves with their backs against the wall.
E-invoicing has been around longer than you think, but it was never fully developed.
In fact, organizations have been using “e-invoicing” for more than ten years. A PDF attached to an email—that already counted. But what happened next was anything but digital. Marco van Drogenbroek, Business Consultant at OneXillium, explains it clearly in our podcast: “Someone created something digitally, converted it to a PDF, sent it, and on the other end, it’s parsed again with an OCR tool. That’s actually a world turned upside down.” Peppol puts an end to that. It centers on a standardized message format—a UBL message—in which the data is immediately available without the need for OCR or manual interpretation.
Peppol = access. But access alone doesn't solve anything.
Creating a Peppol ID is quick. It can be done in five minutes through a specialized partner like OneXillium. But that doesn’t solve anything. The real question is: can your ERP system generate a Peppol message? And if one comes in, how do you process it? A UBL message doesn’t include a general ledger account, a cost center, or a journal entry. You have to add that information yourself. Marco is clear on this: “You have a Peppol ID, but that doesn’t really get you anywhere. Then you have to check whether your ERP system is set up for it.” Anyone who thinks Peppol is just a matter of pressing a button and you’re done is in for a surprise.
The invoice is just one part of the process. Everyone forgets about the rest.
An invoice rarely stands alone. It comes with a packing slip, email correspondence, agreements with suppliers, and approvals. You want to see all that information together when you process an invoice. That won’t work if you view Peppol as a standalone system. Marco puts it aptly in the interview: “You always want to maintain that 360-degree view. You want to have all your communication related to the invoice, because there’s always a question about it.” Anyone who truly wants to take control of their invoicing process needs a broader solution, where all relevant information comes together in one place and can be linked to the corresponding file.
Peppol varies by country. The chaos isn't over yet.
The idea behind Peppol was great: a single European digital highway for message exchange. The reality is more complicated. Belgium and the Netherlands use the same format, but Germany has its own version. Each country has its own implementation dates, its own registration authorities, and its own rules. Anyone operating internationally must be registered in multiple countries, unless they arrange this through a single central partner. This not only saves time but also avoids the fragmentation that would otherwise arise from having to manage and monitor multiple separate access points.
Record-keeping requirements, authenticity, and verification: those things won't change.
What many organizations forget: the transition to Peppol does not eliminate existing obligations. You still have to retain your invoices for seven years. The authenticity of a document remains a serious issue. After all, what constitutes the original proof: the UBL, the embedded PDF, or a combination of both? Marco is clear: “An accountant isn’t going to sit there looking at an XML file. They want to see a readable document alongside the message.” Organizations that think Peppol solves their archiving and compliance issues are mistaken. It simply adds another stream of data. The responsibility for verification, storage, and accessibility remains unchanged.
Get started now. Not because it's already required, but because waiting costs more.
The organizations currently struggling the most with Peppol are those that got a late start. In Belgium, the first quarter of 2025 was a period of catching up for companies that had underestimated the deadline. Duplicate messages, errors in message content, systems that weren’t compatible—all of that costs time, money, and causes stress. Marco therefore offers business owners and CFOs some concrete advice: check now to see if your suppliers or customers already expect Peppol messages, talk to your ERP vendor, and figure out how you’ll process incoming messages. Because the technical integration with Peppol is straightforward. The surrounding processes, however, require preparation. And as Marco puts it himself: “If you wait until 2028 or 2030, I think you’ll already be too late.”