HMRC, E-invoicing, 2029 — and another reason not to build your business around spreadsheets

There’s a new word doing the rounds in finance departments:

Peppol.

It sounds like a distant relative of Pokémon, but it’s actually rather important.

HMRC has confirmed that Peppol will form the foundation of the UK’s move towards mandatory e-invoicing, with implementation expected from 2029.

So what does that mean for businesses?

Not necessarily that you need to panic and buy another piece of software.

It’s actually a good opportunity to ask a more useful question:

How good is your invoicing process today?

For many businesses, it still looks something like this:

Invoice arrives by email.

Someone opens the PDF.

Someone types the details into accounting software.

Someone checks it.

Someone approves it.

Someone files it.

Someone then updates a spreadsheet.

Sound familiar?

Peppol is part of the move towards invoices being structured data that systems can understand, rather than documents that people have to manually process.

And that’s where things get interesting for Odoo users.

Odoo already supports electronic invoicing and Peppol in markets where the framework is established. More importantly, Odoo is designed to connect sales, purchasing, stock, projects, CRM, accounting and invoicing in one system.

So perhaps the real question isn't:

“Are we ready for Peppol?”

It’s:

“Why are we still doing this manually?”

If you're using Odoo, now is a good time to look at your processes.

Are supplier invoices automated?

Are approvals streamlined?

Are sales and accounting connected?

Are people still maintaining spreadsheets because the system genuinely needs them — or simply because that’s how things have always been done?

You don’t need to wait until 2029 to find out.

E-invoicing is coming, but the bigger opportunity is improving how your business works today.

The Calibrate view

Don’t wait for compliance deadlines to fix processes that are already costing you time and money.

If you're using Odoo, let’s look at what you’ve already got.

And if you’re not, perhaps Peppol is another reason to have a conversation.

Calibrate helps businesses get more from Odoo by combining technology with practical business experience.

Because the goal isn’t simply to install software.

It’s to make the business work better...

Let’s start the conversation.

Discover Our Odoo Services Today

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