Peppol and mandatory e-invoicing for your B&B: what changed in 2026?

You may have noticed it on a supplier's invoice, or your accountant may have raised it: since 1 January 2026, structured electronic invoicing via the Peppol network is mandatory for B2B invoices between Belgian VAT-registered businesses. To many B&B operators this sounds like someone else's problem — "but I mostly invoice private guests, don't I?" — yet the rule touches your administration in more places than you'd expect. In this article we calmly explain what changes, what is and isn't in scope, and how to make sure you're ready without any extra work.

What is Peppol, exactly?

Peppol (Pan-European Public Procurement OnLine) is an international network over which businesses send structured invoices directly from accounting system to accounting system. The key word is structured: not a PDF you email and the recipient retypes by hand, but a machine-readable file (the Peppol BIS format) that the other party's bookkeeping reads in automatically.

In practice: you click "send", and the invoice lands — via both parties' Peppol access points — correctly in the customer's system straight away. No retyping, no lost attachments, fewer errors.

What exactly changed in 2026?

The core of the Belgian obligation:

• For B2B transactions between two Belgian VAT-registered businesses, the invoice must be a structured e-invoice via Peppol.
• A PDF by email or a paper invoice no longer counts as a valid invoice for those transactions.
• Every VAT-registered business must at least be able to receive Peppol invoices, even if you rarely send them.

What is not in scope?

• Invoices to private guests (B2C) — and at a B&B that's the vast majority of your turnover. Those can stay a plain PDF or paper.
• Invoices to or from foreign parties fall (for now) outside the Belgian obligation.

Why this concerns a B&B anyway

At first glance you think: my guests are private individuals, so this doesn't affect me. But take a good look at your invoicing flow:

• Business bookings. Does a consultant, a contractor or a corporate guest ever ask for an invoice in their company's name? That's a B2B invoice — and from now on it must go via Peppol.
• Events and groups. A company hiring your entire B&B for a team day or a seminar gets a B2B invoice.
• Incoming invoices. Your suppliers — energy, cleaning, linen rental, your accountant themselves — will send you Peppol invoices. You need to be able to receive and process them.
• VAT deduction. An invoice in the wrong format can jeopardise your right to deduct VAT. That's not a detail.

In other words: even the most classic B&B that "only invoices private individuals" has a B2B flow on the purchasing side and occasionally on the sales side. Being Peppol-ready is therefore not a luxury.

How to get your B&B ready — in three steps

1. Make sure you can receive and send via Peppol

You need a Peppol access point. In practice your accounting package or your accountant arranges this for you — most modern accounting platforms (Yuki, Billit, Octopus and others) are Peppol-certified and register your business on the network. You don't have to set up any technical infrastructure yourself.

2. Make sure your invoices are structured from the start

A valid Peppol invoice is more than a nicely laid-out PDF. The data — amounts, VAT rates, your company number, the customer's — must sit in the right fields. That's easiest when your invoices are created digitally and structured from the outset rather than by hand afterwards. Anyone still invoicing in a word processor or a loose spreadsheet hits a wall here.

3. Separate B2C and B2B in your invoicing

The trick is that your administration itself knows: is this invoice going to a private individual (PDF/email is fine) or to a business (Peppol mandatory)? A good system makes that distinction automatically based on whether the guest's company number is filled in, so you don't have to think about it for every booking.

Where BedFlow PMS takes the work off your hands

This is where your bookings and your invoicing meet. In BedFlow PMS every invoice is created automatically and structured from the booking itself: the right VAT rates (since March 2026 12% on accommodation), the amounts, the guest's or company's details — all in the right fields, not as plain text on a PDF.

Does a guest want an invoice in their company's name? You fill in the company number, and the invoice is immediately suitable for the structured B2B flow. BedFlow PMS connects directly to your accounting package — Yuki, Billit, Octopus and others — which handles the actual Peppol delivery. So you don't have to manage a Peppol access point yourself: you simply invoice the way you're used to, and the structured version flows automatically into your bookkeeping.

For the private guests — the lion's share of your turnover — everything stays simple: a tidy PDF invoice in the right language, sent automatically after their stay.

In closing

Peppol sounds more technical than it has to be for you in practice. The obligation touches every Belgian VAT-registered business, and so your B&B too — especially on the incoming-invoice side and your occasional business guest. But you don't need to become an IT expert: it comes down to your invoices being created structured from the start and your accounting package doing the rest.

Want your invoicing to be automatically correct — right VAT, right format, straight to your bookkeeping — without having to think about Peppol for every booking? Check the pricing or try BedFlow PMS free for 30 days — no credit card required.

This article is general information, not tax advice. Always check your specific situation with your accountant or bookkeeper.