22 Sep 2026
By Steve Young, Managing Director, Stream Managed Services
As a fellow member of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, I wanted to give you a friendly heads up on something that is going to land on the desk of just about every business in the country. It is about invoicing, and it is coming whether we are ready for it or not. The good news is that if you understand it early, it is nothing to lose sleep over.
What is actually happening
Across Europe, the days of sending a PDF or a paper invoice and hoping it gets paid are numbered. The European Union has brought in new rules called VAT in the Digital Age, often shortened to ViDA. The Council of the EU formally adopted it on 11 March 2025 and it came into force on 14 April 2025. The rules are being rolled out in stages between now and 2035.
The rollout is being phased. Some countries will bring the rules in gradually, while others, including Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Poland and Belgium, already have their own e-invoicing rules and are not waiting for Brussels.
Why the EU is doing this
It comes down to money that never gets collected. The European Commission reckons that around 89 billion euros of VAT went uncollected across the EU in 2022, and its most recent report puts the 2023 figure even higher at roughly 128 billion euros. A big chunk of that is fraud and error that slips through the cracks of paper and PDF invoicing. Real time, structured e-invoicing makes those gaps much harder to hide, which is why governments are so keen on it.
This is not just an EU problem. The UK is following suit
Here is the part that matters most for us. HMRC has confirmed the UK is going the same way. Following a consultation that ran in early 2025, the government confirmed at the Autumn Budget 2025 that electronic invoicing will become mandatory for all VAT invoices in the UK from April 2029. That covers both business to business and business to government.
In June 2026 the government confirmed that the UK will use the Peppol network to make this work, and a full roadmap is expected at the November 2026 Budget. April 2029 might feel a long way off, but these changes have a habit of arriving faster than you think, and the businesses that prepare early are the ones that avoid the last minute scramble.
What this means if you only trade in the UK
You might be reading this thinking it only matters if you sell into Europe. It does not. Because HMRC is making e-invoicing mandatory for every VAT-registered business in the UK, this is coming for you too, even if you never send a single invoice abroad.
Here is the encouraging part. The smartest first step is one that pays you back straight away, long before any deadline. By looking at automating and digitising your invoice process now, you cut out manual keying, reduce errors, speed up approvals and get paid faster. You also quietly put the right foundations in place, so that when mandatory e-invoicing arrives, the switch is smooth rather than a scramble.
In other words, modernising the way you handle invoices is not just about ticking a compliance box in 2029. It is a better way to run your finance function today, with the happy side effect of giving you a real head start. And make no mistake, it is coming.
So what on earth is Peppol
Peppol stands for Pan-European Public Procurement Online. Do not let the name put you off. It is not a piece of software you have to buy and learn. It is simply a secure network with an agreed set of standards that lets businesses send and receive invoices to each other, no matter what system either side is using.
The easiest way to picture it is like the mobile phone network. You pick your provider, you get connected, and from then on you can call anyone else who has a phone, even if they are with a completely different provider. Peppol works the same way for invoices. You connect once through a certified provider, and you can then trade with any other business on the network anywhere in the world.
In plain terms it works in four simple steps
No chasing, no re-keying, no wondering whether the invoice arrived in the right shape. It is faster, it cuts out errors, and it usually gets you paid quicker too.
The catch worth knowing about
Here is the bit that trips people up. Every country has its own set of requirements for exactly how an invoice needs to be presented, what information it must carry, and how it should be reported. What works for a customer in Germany is not identical to what a customer in France or Italy expects. Get it wrong and your invoice can be rejected, which means delays and awkward conversations with customers you have worked hard to win.
How Stream can help, from one member to another
This is where we can genuinely take the pressure off. At Stream Managed Services we already have a tried and tested solution for this. We have the technology to integrate directly with the Peppol network, so we can help you both send invoices into it and receive them out of it, and we get businesses connected and compliant without the headache. You do not need to become an expert in every country's rules, or in the detail of the new UK regime. That is our job.
Here is my simple offer to fellow members
Get in touch
Drop me a line, let me know how you invoice today and the countries you trade with, and I will point you in the right direction.
Steve Young
Stream Managed Services
steve.young@streammanagedservices.co.uk
0141 286 3474
