eTrade · Peppol access point
Peppol documents, collected on the same ledger
eTrade is the Peppol access point on ePayment. Send and receive invoices, orders, catalogues, despatch advice and punch-out through one gateway — then collect on BACS, cards or open banking. An active Enterprise SLA is required.
UK VAT e-invoices from April 2029 sit on the same access point as orders and catalogues.
The mandate
April 2029 is the date. Peppol is the network.
At Budget 2025 the government confirmed mandatory e-invoicing for all VAT invoices from 2029. On 23 June 2026 it named Peppol as the core interoperability network. A detailed roadmap follows at Budget 2026.
| Rule | What it means |
|---|---|
| When | From April 2029. Phasing (large businesses first) may be set in the Budget 2026 roadmap. |
| Who | VAT-registered businesses issuing VAT invoices for B2B and B2G supplies. Non-VAT-registered businesses are out. B2C is out. |
| What counts | A structured, machine-readable invoice. PDF, Word and a scanned image are not e-invoices. |
| Network | Peppol, four-corner: you connect through an Access Point, the buyer connects through theirs. No central HMRC portal at launch. |
| Format | EN 16931 semantic model; Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 (UBL) is the working profile. A UK Peppol specification is in development. |
| Reporting | No real-time e-reporting to HMRC in the 2029 launch. Making Tax Digital remains the VAT return path. |
| Already live | Public bodies must accept EN 16931 e-invoices under the Procurement Act 2023. NHS suppliers already exchange over Peppol. |
| Records | VAT invoices still have to be kept for six years. |
Policy from the Budget 2025 consultation response and HMRC Tax Update 23 June 2026. Technical detail and enforcement sit in the Budget 2026 roadmap. Orders and catalogues are live on Peppol now; the 2029 rule is for VAT invoices.
Documents
Not only invoices — the full Peppol pack
eTrade exchanges the business messages ecommerce and finance teams actually send. One access point, the same validation and routing, then collection on ePayment when an amount is due.
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Invoices and credit notes
BIS Billing, credit notes, self-billing and invoice response. EN 16931 data, not a PDF. Status back as delivered, accepted or rejected.
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Orders
BIS Order Only for a simple send. BIS Ordering when the seller must accept, reject or change. BIS Advanced Ordering for the full change and cancellation path.
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Catalogues
Publish product and price catalogues with or without a buyer response — descriptions, packaging, tax class and framework prices the order can reference.
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Despatch, punch-out, responses
Despatch advice when goods leave. Punch-out so a buyer shops your catalogue from their procurement system. Message-level responses for the audit trail.
| Peppol profile | What it does |
|---|---|
| BIS Billing / credit note | Structured invoice and credit. Self-billing variants for the buyer-issued case. |
| BIS Invoice Response | Buyer accepts, rejects or queries the invoice without a phone call. |
| BIS Order Only | Send an order. No supplier response message required. |
| BIS Ordering | Order plus supplier accept, reject or change. |
| BIS Advanced Ordering | Changes and cancellations on a live order. |
| BIS Catalogue | Product and price file, with or without a catalogue response. |
| BIS Despatch Advice | Shipment notice tied to the order. |
| BIS Punch Out | Buyer opens your storefront from their e-procurement system and returns a basket as an order. |
| BIS Order Agreement | Framework or accumulated purchases against an agreed catalogue. |
| Message Level Response | Technical acknowledgement: received, schema-failed, duplicate. |
Access point
One gateway. API, SFTP or an agent.
A Peppol Access Point is how you join the network. eTrade registers the Peppol ID, validates the document, finds the counterpart and delivers it. You keep your ERP, storefront or MCP agent.
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Peppol ID
Register one or many participant IDs (UK VAT 9932, company number 0190). Buyers find you on the network without a bilateral link.
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Validate before send
Schema, Schematron, Peppol BIS and EN 16931 checks before the document leaves. Failures quarantine instead of vanishing on the wire.
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Discover and route
SMP/SML lookup of the buyer’s access point. Four-corner delivery over AS4. You do not care which provider they use.
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Error and duplicates
Message-level responses, duplicate detection and a review queue so a bad invoice does not retry forever.
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API or file drop
REST for live ecommerce. SFTP for batch from an ERP. JSON or UBL XML. The same profiles either way.
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MCP for agents
Raise an order, issue an invoice or read delivery status from ChatGPT, Claude or your own agent. Payment-side tools sit on the MCP server.
Order to cash
Catalogue, order, despatch, invoice, collect
eTrade automates the document chain. ePayment settles the amount. Finance is not re-keying a Peppol order into a bureau file.
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Publish the catalogue
Prices, tax class and stock the buyer can punch out against, or order from in their own system.
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Receive the order
Order Only, Ordering or Advanced Ordering. Accept, change or cancel as the profile allows. The order number is the spine.
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Despatch and invoice
Despatch advice when goods leave. The invoice references the order. Totals and VAT already validated.
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Collect on ePayment
Direct Debit, BACS Credit, open banking or card — the means stated on the invoice, on the same ledger.
Beyond Peppol
EDI and B2C on the same exchange
Not every counterpart is on Peppol. eTrade can send the same business document on EDI or a B2C channel and still write it back to the ePayment record.
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Peppol
The four-corner network. Default for UK B2G now and for VAT invoices from April 2029.
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EDI
Trading partners who already run electronic data interchange. Same invoices and orders, existing connections.
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B2C
Small buyers and consumers who will not join Peppol. The document and the collection still land on one ledger.
What it is
A Peppol document is data, not a file you email
Access Point suppliers all do the same core job: turn the business document into structured UBL, validate it, and move it over Peppol. eTrade does that for invoices, orders and catalogues. ePayment then collects.
| Need | PDF / email invoice | Structured e-invoice |
|---|---|---|
| Form | A picture of an invoice | UBL / Peppol BIS fields the buyer’s system can post |
| Delivery | Inbox, portal, post | Peppol Access Point to Access Point |
| Checks | Someone re-keys it | Totals, VAT, identifiers validated before it leaves |
| Status | Did they open the email? | Sent, delivered, accepted, rejected, paid |
| Payment | Separate chase | Payment means on the invoice, collection on the same ledger |
Invoice core
The functions every UK e-invoicing stack still needs
April 2029 is about the invoice. eTrade already runs the rest of the Peppol pack on the same access point, then ePayment collects.
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Issue
Create EN 16931 invoices and credit notes as Peppol BIS Billing 3.0. Seller, buyer, lines, VAT rates, tax point and totals as data, not a layout.
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Send and receive
Four-corner Peppol: your Access Point talks to the buyer’s. NHS and public-sector buyers already sit on that network.
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Validate
Schema, VAT arithmetic, Peppol IDs (UK VAT 9932, company number 0190) and mandatory fields before the document is transmitted.
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Status
Message-level response and invoice response: delivered, accepted, rejected. The chase is a status, not a phone call.
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Payment means
Bank details, Direct Debit, open banking or card on the invoice. The document states how it will be settled.
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Archive
Keep the structured invoice for six years, with an audit trail of issue, delivery and collection.
Why ePayment
The invoice is only half the job. Then you have to get paid.
Most Peppol tools stop at delivery. ePayment is a UK collections bureau. The order, the invoice, the mandate and the settlement write to one ledger — ready for April 2029 rather than bolted on in 2028.
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Invoice to cash
Issue INV-2041, then collect it as BACS Direct Debit, BACS Credit, open banking or card. The invoice number is the payment reference.
Omni-payments → -
Direct Debit on the invoice
Recurring supplies put the mandate on the document. AUDDIS, ADDACS and ARUDD already run on the bureau. The 2029 invoice does not invent a new collection method.
BACS payments → -
Open banking for the one-off
Where the buyer should pay now, the invoice can carry an account-to-account request. Immediate confirmation, no card scheme fee.
Open banking → -
Bank details checked first
Sort code, account and Confirmation of Payee sit on the buyer record before a credit or a Direct Debit leaves. Bad account data does not wait for a BACS return.
Account validation → -
One reconciliation
Accepted, paid, failed and credited against the same invoice. Finance is not matching a Peppol CSV to a bureau CSV to a card statement.
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API and agents
Issue, collect and read status from your ERP, or from an MCP agent that already runs BACS. The 2029 document is another tool call, not a new portal.
MCP server →
Workflow
From a structured invoice to a settled collection
The invoice path UK Peppol suppliers already use, with the bureau on the end of it. Orders and catalogues follow the same access point.
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Build the invoice as data
Buyer, lines, VAT and payment means in EN 16931. Credit notes use the same profile. A PDF can still be rendered for humans; it is not the legal e-invoice.
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Validate and send on Peppol
The Access Point checks the document and delivers it to the buyer’s Access Point. Public-sector buyers already accept this form.
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Collect on the stated means
Direct Debit on the next BACS cycle, open banking in session, or card if that is what the invoice asked for. Fails retry on the omni path.
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Mark paid and keep the record
Status back to the buyer, settlement on the ledger, invoice retained for six years.
Pricing
From 20p to 10p per invoice
Rate falls with monthly volume. One hundred invoices at 20p, ten thousand at 10p. Collection on BACS, cards or open banking is priced on those schemes. Access requires an active Enterprise SLA (£149 + VAT / month or £1,490 + VAT / year). All + VAT.
- Price per invoice
- 15.0p
- Invoices
- 1,000
- Monthly total
- £150.00
Volume examples
No setup fee. Prices exclusive of VAT at 20%. The slider interpolates between 20p at 100 invoices and 10p at 10,000. Enterprise SLA is required and billed separately.
Talk to salesQuestions
What businesses ask before they start
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Is a PDF an e-invoice?
No. The mandate is for a structured electronic invoice that a system can process automatically. A PDF attached to an email does not meet EN 16931.
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Do I need a government portal?
Not in the 2029 design. Peppol is decentralised. You pick an Access Point; the buyer picks theirs. HMRC does not clear the invoice in real time at launch.
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We already invoice the NHS. Are we done?
You are already on Peppol for that buyer. April 2029 extends structured e-invoices to your other VAT-registered customers, not only the public sector.
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Does this replace Making Tax Digital?
No. MTD is how you keep digital VAT records and file the return. E-invoicing is how the invoice itself moves between businesses.
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When should we start?
Identifiers, buyer master data and payment means are the slow part. Issue a subset of invoices on Peppol now — especially B2G — and collect them on the stack you will still be using in 2029.
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Can we send orders and catalogues, or only invoices?
The full Peppol pack: billing, orders, catalogues, despatch advice, punch-out and responses. Invoices are what the 2029 mandate names; the access point is not limited to them.
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Is this eTrade or ePayment?
eTrade is Etellect’s transaction module — the Peppol access point and document exchange. ePayment is the bureau that collects. They share one account and one ledger. See eTrade.
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Can we talk through our mix?
Yes. Tell us how you invoice and order today, which buyers are on Peppol or EDI, and whether collections are Direct Debit, open banking or card.
Contact form →
Join Peppol for the whole pack, not only the 2029 invoice.
We will map invoices, orders and catalogues onto the access point, and onto the collection method you already run — BACS, cards or open banking.
Contact sales