You Already Have the Connection: eInvoicing Is the Add-On

If you trade EDI with Transalis today, you already own the piece most businesses are only now starting to look for: one managed connection that every trading partner can reach.

What does eInvoicing add to your Transalis connection?

Two things: a format and a route.

The format is a structured eInvoice. On the Transalis flow, an invoice is converted into the structured format the rules require. Peppol BIS, EN 16931 and UBL are the names you will see. The route is Peppol, an open network of certified service providers called Access Points, which connect to each other through an addressing and capability lookup process.

Transalis is one of them. Our Peppol accreditation records Transalis as "just one of a handful of UK tech firms that has been certified as an AS4 Peppol Provider". So the invoice leaves through the Access Point you are already connected to, and arrives at your buyer's.

Think of Peppol like a mobile phone network. You connect to one provider and reach anyone on the network. You do not set up a new link for each customer or country.

Why is it an add-on rather than a new project?

Because the connection is the part that takes the work, and yours is already live. Our EDI customers integrate once, and every partner is reachable through that one connection. eInvoicing simply joins it. To us, an invoice is one type of payload on a digital pipeline that already carries your purchase orders and ASNs.

OpenPeppol, the body behind the network, describes the same principle: "Each sender only has to connect to one service provider to reach every receiver". You are already connected to a service provider. That provider is also an Access Point.

The rail keeps paying back. The same connection that carries eInvoices can later carry your orders, forecasts and self-billing to partners who prefer Peppol. We call eInvoicing a trading passport rather than a closed compliance link. Our Peppol trading passport guide sets out that wider case.

Which mandates matter for UK suppliers now?

The UK date is the one people quote. For exporters, it is not the first.

• Belgium: since 1 January 2026, structured eInvoicing has been compulsory for nearly all transactions between Belgian enterprises liable to VAT, according to the Belgian federal eInvoice portal. Invoices travel over Peppol.
• France: every French company, whatever its size, must be able to receive electronic invoices from 1 September 2026, according to the French tax administration. Issuing is phased by size, and invoices pass through an approved platform (a plateforme agréée).
• The UK: the government's consultation response says the UK will introduce mandatory eInvoicing for all VAT invoices from 2029, and a roadmap to implementation is due at Budget 2026. The government has since announced that Peppol will be the core interoperability network for eInvoicing in the UK.

The request can also come from a single customer. We worked with a UK firm whose customer, an EU university, would only accept invoices over Peppol. It is the kind of request an existing connection is built to answer.

For the UK detail, read our UK eInvoicing mandate guide. The law is not in place yet. Use the time to get ahead.

Is a PDF invoice already eInvoicing?

No. A PDF or scanned image is not a structured eInvoice. Explaining Belgium's mandate, the Belgian federal eInvoice portal puts it plainly: "Sending a PDF invoice by e-mail or via a platform will no longer be enough."

A PDF is digital paper. Someone at the other end still has to scan it, scrape it or key it in, and every manual step invites a validation failure. True eInvoicing is structured, machine-readable data sent system to system over a certified network. Our piece on why emailing a PDF is not eInvoicing covers the cost of staying there.

As an EDI customer you are already on the right side of this line with the partners you trade EDI with, invoices included. eInvoicing carries structured invoices to the buyers and tax regimes that require them over Peppol.

Why not buy a separate compliance portal?

Because you would pay twice.

Mandates tend to start an internal argument. Finance wants the deadline handled and reaches for a standalone portal. IT wants to protect the clean connection it already runs. A point solution bought in a hurry fractures that architecture, and then costs money again when it blocks the data flow it sits beside.

Transalis is an authorised Access Point that also runs your EDI, so you do not need one provider for EDI and another for eInvoicing. Compliance runs in the background, on the one connection IT already manages. Nobody has to bolt on a separate portal when a mandate lands.

What should you check before adding eInvoicing?

Start with your own customers.

1. List the customers who have asked for Peppol or structured invoices, at home or abroad.
2. List the countries you invoice into, and mark Belgium and France.
3. Check your master ERP data, the hidden failure point, because dirty data triggers validation rejections.
4. Ask us what changes for your setup. Which invoice data your system sends today shapes the work, so that is the first conversation.
5. Decide who in finance and IT owns it, together.

See how the managed service works on our eInvoicing page.

You already have the connection. Secure your connection for eInvoicing.