B2B e-invoicing in Europe: country-by-country dates to 2030 and what accounting firms should do now

Short answer: B2B e-invoicing is already mandatory in Italy, Romania, Belgium, Croatia and Poland, and is being phased in across France and Greece. Germany requires issuing from 2027 and 2028, Slovakia from 2027, Spain from October 2027 and October 2028, and from 1 July 2030 the EU's ViDA rules bring e-invoicing to cross-border B2B supplies. For accounting firms, the first effect is on the inbox: supplier invoices arrive as structured files, and in a mandated country a PDF is no longer the invoice.

This article is an overview, not tax advice. Dates are as published by the national authorities on 26 October 2026; check our e-invoicing deadlines tracker for changes.

B2B e-invoicing dates by country

Outside the EU, the UK has proposed mandatory e-invoicing from April 2029.

Two changes since many 2024 and 2025 articles were written:

• Greece: the second phase starts on 2 November 2026, with a gradual application period to 31 January 2027, according to the AADE's press release of 30 September 2026. From 1 February 2027, B2B invoices must be issued only through a certified provider or the AADE's own apps.
• Spain: Order HAC/1028/2026 entered into force on 6 October 2026, which started the clock in Royal Decree 238/2026. The Agencia Tributaria gives 6 October 2027 for businesses with turnover above €8m and 6 October 2028 for everyone else. VeriFactu, the separate invoicing-software rule, is a different obligation. See our Spain country guide.

Clearance, Peppol and approved platforms in plain words

The countries above use three broad models. They matter because they decide where an invoice comes from and what counts as "received".

Clearance. The supplier sends the invoice to a government platform, which checks it, gives it an ID and makes it available to the buyer. The buyer collects the invoice from that platform, or receives it through software connected to it. Italy and Poland work like this. In Poland, an invoice that has not gone through KSeF is not a KSeF invoice, whatever the PDF says.

Peppol four-corner. The supplier (corner 1) hands the invoice to its access point provider (corner 2), which delivers it to the buyer's access point (corner 3), which passes it to the buyer (corner 4). No government platform sits in the middle. Belgium uses this since 1 January 2026. When a country adds tax-authority reporting on top, people call it a five-corner model: Belgium has proposed this for 2028.

Approved platforms. France uses private platforms approved by the tax administration. Each business picks a platform, the platforms exchange invoices between themselves and send the required data to the administration. The French ministry reported that by 1 September 2026 more than four million companies had designated a reception address, and announced no penalties for any company in 2026.

Some countries mix these. Croatia uses access points, and both the issuer and the recipient send a fiscalisation message to the Tax Administration. Spain allows a free public solution run by the Agencia Tributaria or private platforms, with private platforms sending a copy to the public solution. Germany has no central platform at all: the invoice must be in a compliant format, and how it travels is up to the parties.

What changes on the receiving side

Most mandates start with receiving, and receiving is where accounting firms feel it first.

• The structured file is the invoice. In Germany, a PDF sent by email has not been an e-invoice since 2025; it is an "other invoice", allowed during the transition years. Croatia's guide is blunter: an eRačun is not a PDF and cannot be sent by email.
• Invoices come from a channel, not only from email. In Poland the invoice sits in KSeF. In Belgium it arrives through Peppol. In France it arrives through the platform the client chose. Someone has to pull it from there into the books.
• The mix stays. A German client in 2027 will receive XRechnung from large suppliers, PDFs from small ones, invoices from foreign suppliers that the German rule does not cover, and receipts. Your process has to handle all of them.
• Status messages appear. Spain's rules require the recipient to report acceptance or rejection and the date of full payment, within four calendar days excluding weekends and national holidays. Approving an invoice becomes a reported event, not just an internal step.
• Storage in the original format. Where the XML is the invoice, keep the XML, not a printout.

For the EU-wide rules from 2030, see ViDA 2030 for accounting firms.

A checklist for accounting firms

1. Map each client to a country and a date. Where they are established, where they are VAT-registered, and their turnover, since several thresholds depend on it (€800,000 in Germany, €8m in Spain, PLN 200m in Poland).
2. Find out how each client receives today. Peppol ID, KSeF access, French platform, or nothing yet. Write it down per client.
3. Check what your accounting software can read. Can it import UBL, XRechnung, ZUGFeRD or KSeF files, and show them in a readable form?
4. Agree one intake route per client. Structured invoices from the channel, everything else to one mailbox. Two routes for the same invoice is how duplicates appear.
5. Keep a process for PDFs and scans. Small suppliers, foreign suppliers and exempt invoices will keep sending them for years.
6. Plan the issuing side separately. Clients in Germany above €800,000 need compliant outgoing invoices from 1 January 2027, Slovak clients from the same date, French SMEs from 1 September 2027.
7. Review the dates every quarter. Greece and Spain both published new dates in the last two months. Our deadlines tracker is updated when authorities publish changes; country detail for Germany and France is on our country pages.

Where Invoreg fits

Invoreg handles the inbox side. It reads supplier invoices in whatever format arrives: XML e-invoices (Peppol UBL, XRechnung, ZUGFeRD/Factur-X), PDFs, scans and phone photos. It reads every line with its VAT rate, suggests the coding from the client's history, flags duplicates and registers the bill in the accounting software once a person approves it. Firms get one queue for all client organisations.

Invoreg is about incoming supplier invoices. Clients still need the channel their country requires, such as a Peppol access point, KSeF access or a French approved platform, and compliant software for the invoices they issue. If you want to see how it handles a mix of XML and PDF supplier invoices, book a demo and bring a few of your own.