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Peppol status of third parties

Find out whether a customer or supplier can be reached on the Peppol network, through which access point and for which documents.

Updated on 10/05/2026 Edit this page

Before sending an electronic invoice to a customer, or to find out whether a supplier can send you one, you need to check that they are present on the Peppol network. NovaFisko queries the network directory for each third party that has a VAT number and keeps the result on its record.

What NovaFisko checks

For a third party, the check answers three questions:

Question Result recorded
Is the third party registered on Peppol? Registered or not registered.
Through which access point? The provider that receives its documents.
Which documents does it accept? The list of document types (invoice, credit note...).

The Peppol identifier of the third party is derived from its VAT number and its country. For a Belgian company, it is its enterprise number preceded by the scheme 0208, for example 0208:0477472701.

The check queries the technical directory of the network directly: first the central registry, which gives the access point of the participant, then that access point, which publishes the accepted documents. If this direct lookup is unavailable, the directory of NovaFisko's Peppol provider is used as a fallback.

Reading the status in the list

The Peppol column of the Third parties tab shows the last known status of each third party:

Display Meaning
Active Peppol icon The third party is registered on the network.
Greyed-out icon The third party is not registered, according to the last check.
"Peppol not checked" No check has taken place yet, or the third party has no usable VAT number.

Checking all the third parties of the company file

  1. Open the Third parties tab.
  2. Click Check Peppol.
  3. NovaFisko checks the third parties that have a VAT number, starting with those whose check is the oldest, in batches of 100.
  4. The message "… third part(ies) checked, … registered on Peppol, … error(s)." sums up the result.

For a company file with more than 100 third parties, run the action again: the next batch is processed. The action is limited to a few requests per minute.

Note

An automatic check runs every night on all company files: it checks the third parties never checked and those whose status is more than 7 days old. So you only need to run the check yourself for a newly created third party.

Viewing the Peppol details of a third party

  1. Open the customer or supplier record.
  2. Click Peppol details.
  3. The window shows the Peppol identifier, the status, the access point, the accepted documents and the date of the last check.

If the third party has never been checked, viewing triggers an immediate check. Otherwise, the recorded status is shown; a status more than 7 days old is flagged as stale and can be refreshed.

Warning

A third party without a VAT number, or whose number does not allow a Peppol identifier to be built, cannot be checked: it is counted as "ignored". First fill in the VAT number and the country on its record.

When the check fails

A check can fail for a temporary technical reason: directory unreachable, timeout. In that case:

  • the third party is counted in the "error(s)" of the summary;
  • its last known status is kept as it is, with its date;
  • the next check, manual or nightly, tries again.

A technical failure therefore never turns a "registered" third party into a "not registered" one.

Supported countries

The identifier is built according to the rules of each country.

Country Identifier used
Belgium Enterprise number (scheme 0208).
France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Germany National identifier or VAT number, according to the country's rules.
Other EU countries VAT number, when the country's scheme is known.

For third parties in a country without a known scheme, the check is not possible.

What this status is for

  • Knowing how to invoice. A registered customer can receive your invoices through Peppol; the others continue to receive them as PDF.
  • Anticipating the e-invoicing obligation. In Belgium, structured electronic invoicing between VAT-registered businesses has been mandatory since 1 January 2026. A Belgian VAT-registered customer that is "not registered" deserves a reminder.
  • Making records reliable. A third party that cannot be found on the network when it should be there may have a wrong VAT number.

The company record retrieved by the CompanySearch detection also shows "Registered on Peppol" or "Not registered on Peppol" when the information is known.

Tip

To check a partner that is not yet a third party of the company file, use Check a participant in the Peppol tab: the search is done by identifier or by VAT number, without creating anything.

Third-party status and registration of the company file

Do not confuse two notions:

Notion Where to manage it
The Peppol status of a third party (this page) Third parties tab: it shows whether your customer or supplier can be reached.
The registration of the company file on Peppol Peppol tab: it allows your client, the owner of the company file, to send and receive. See Peppol registration.

See also