Electronic invoicing (UBL and Peppol)

Financica supports structured electronic invoicing through the UBL (Universal Business Language) standard and the Peppol network. This allows you to exchange invoices with other businesses electronically, without PDFs or manual data entry.

Electronic invoicing is included on the self-serve plans at no extra charge. Core and Scale both include free unlimited e-invoices.

What is UBL?

UBL is an XML-based standard for business documents, including invoices. Unlike a PDF, a UBL invoice is machine-readable — all the data (line items, amounts, VAT, parties) is structured in a way that software can process directly.

Benefits of UBL invoices:

• No OCR needed — Data is extracted with 100% accuracy.
• Faster processing — Invoices can be imported and categorized in seconds.
• Fewer errors — No manual transcription means fewer mistakes.

What is Peppol?

Peppol is a European network for exchanging electronic business documents. Think of it as an email network, but specifically for invoices and other business documents. When both parties are registered on Peppol, invoices can be transmitted directly between their systems.

Registering on Peppol

To send and receive invoices over Peppol, your company needs to be registered on the network. You can do this from Settings > Company in the Peppol e-invoicing section.

Prerequisites

Before registering, make sure you have entered your company number or VAT number in the Company details section of the same page. Financica uses these to generate your Peppol identifiers (e.g. 0208:0766280697 for a Belgian company number, 9925:BE0766280697 for a Belgian VAT number).

Checking your status

If you are not sure whether your company is already registered on Peppol (for example, through a previous accounting tool), click Check status. Financica will look up your identifiers on the Peppol network and tell you:

• Not registered -- Your identifiers are available. You can register directly.
• Registered at another provider -- Your identifiers are already registered with a different Peppol access point. See "Migrating from another provider" below.
• Registered -- Your identifiers are registered through Financica. You are ready to send and receive.

You can refresh this check at any time using the refresh button in the top-right corner of the Peppol section.

Registering

Click Register on Peppol to register your identifiers. Financica registers both your company number and VAT number identifiers on the network. Once registered, your identifiers are shown in the Peppol section and you can start sending and receiving electronic invoices.

Migrating from another provider

If your identifiers are already registered at another Peppol access point, you have two options:

1. Deregister at your current provider first, then come back and register here.
2. Use a migration key -- If your previous provider supports Peppol migration keys, click "I have a migration key from my previous provider", enter the token, and register. This transfers the registration directly without downtime. Note that not all providers support migration keys.

Deregistering

If you are registered through Financica and want to deregister (for example, to move to a different provider), click Deregister from Peppol in the Peppol section. You will be asked to confirm before the deregistration takes effect. You can re-register at any time.

Credit notes

Financica supports Peppol credit notes in both directions:

• Receiving -- Incoming Peppol credit notes are imported and processed automatically, just like invoices.
• Sending -- When you issue a credit note against a revenue invoice, you can register and transmit it over the Peppol network. The credit note appears in the EDI audit log with its own delivery status.

Message Level Response (MLR)

When you send an invoice or credit note over Peppol, the recipient's system may return a Message Level Response confirming whether the document was accepted or rejected. Financica tracks MLR status on the invoice detail page alongside the delivery confirmation, giving you end-to-end visibility into the document exchange.

Receiving Peppol invoices by email

By default, Financica forwards each incoming Peppol invoice to your billing email address with any PDF attachments and the UBL XML file included. The invoice is still imported and processed in Financica as usual -- the email is a copy for your team's convenience.

To configure this:

1. Set a Billing email in Settings > Company (under Company details). This is the address that receives forwarded invoices.
2. The Receive Peppol invoices by email checkbox in the Peppol section controls whether forwarding is active. It is enabled by default.

If you do not want email copies of incoming Peppol invoices, uncheck the option.

Receiving UBL invoices

When you upload an XML file to a transaction or through the expenses section, Financica automatically detects if it is a UBL invoice:

1. The XML file is parsed for UBL content.
2. If recognized, an invoice record is created automatically with all extracted data.
3. The original file is stored as a document attachment.
4. You receive a notification confirming the import.

If the UBL document matches an existing invoice (based on invoice number and supplier), Financica will link to the existing record rather than creating a duplicate.

Sending electronic invoices

When sending a revenue invoice, you have two delivery options:

• Peppol -- If your customer is registered on the Peppol network, you can send the invoice directly over Peppol. The invoice detail page shows EDI audit logs and delivery confirmations so you know when the recipient's system acknowledged receipt.
• Email -- You can also send the invoice to your customer's email address with the PDF attached. To use this, the customer record needs an email address. The option appears as a checkbox when sending the invoice.

Compliance

Electronic invoicing is becoming mandatory in many EU countries. Financica's UBL support helps you stay compliant with these requirements as they roll out.

In Belgium, electronic invoicing (via Peppol) is mandatory for B2G (business-to-government) transactions and is increasingly adopted for B2B transactions.