Peppol for Official Use -
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How Does It Work

A short, practical overview of how Peppol works for Official Use clients, step by step.

What is Peppol? A secure European network for sending invoices digitally between organisations. Every diplomatic mission in Belgium automatically has an active Peppol identifier number through its registration with the Belgian Chamber of Commerce (BCC).

Look up your mission's organisational (BCC) number on the Belgian Chamber of Commerce: Look up

Step 1 — Your missionis already activate. Your mission is already active on the Peppol network through our certified AccessPoint. Nothing further is needed from your side to be ready.

‍Step 2 — To start using Peppol with a supplier. Share your organisational (BCC) number with the supplier and ask them to send your invoice via Peppol as well. That is the only action required fromyour side.

‍Step 3 — You keep receiving invoices as usual. Your supplier still delivers the invoice to you the same way you have always agreed (by email, by post, on paper). Nothing changes in your relationship with the supplier.

Step 4 — A digital copy also flows to us, automatically. In parallel, a digital copy of the invoice is delivered straight to Diplomatic Card through Peppol. No more forwarding by email or uploading to the portal.

‍Step 5 — Daily overview by email. Everymorning, you receive an email listing all Peppol invoices received the daybefore. The invoices can be downloaded directly from that email. By default, this overview goes to the contact person of your Official Use account, but you can also choose another email address, or set several recipients (e.g. administration and finance).

‍Step 6 — Dedicated section in your online account. Your Diplomatic Card online account will include a separate overview of all Peppol-received invoices, each with a clear status.

‍Step 7 — How invoices are processed for VAT recovery.
(i) Qualifying invoices are automatically processed and submitted to the FOD Finance at the end of the month. No upload, no email, nothing manual on your side.
(ii) Non-qualifying invoices are clearly flagged with a status indicating they cannot be claimed for VAT refund, clear transparency. (iii) Invoices that require a C-151 can be pre-filled by our system. You only need to download, print, sign and post the form for approval directly to the FOD Finance. Contact us to activate this service.

‍Two settings, your choice. By default, qualifying invoices are submitted automatically to FOD Finance for VAT-returns at month-end. If you prefer an extra layer of control, we can switch your account to require your explicit approval before any invoice is sent to the FOD Financiën, just let us know.

‍Credit notes and exceptions. The Peppol channel changes nothing in your direct relationship with the supplier. To request a credit note, simply contact the supplier as you do today. To pull a specific Peppol invoice out of the VAT-refund flow, you can set its status in your dashboard to "review" at any time.

Our Peppol service can be configured per department, so that: Each department receives its own daily overview email of the invoices that concern it. Each department can have its own designated contact (or several contacts). Approvals stay within the department, exactly as they do today. A consolidated overview at mission level remains available where needed. In other words: whatever organisational set-up your mission has today, we can mirror it inside our Peppol service. Just let us know how invoices are handled within the mission and we will configure the access accordingly.

The image above is a rendering how your peppol inbox could look like for your organisation.