E-Invoicing Mandates 2026–2027, Country by Country: What Still Arrives as a PDF or a Photo

Mandatory e-invoicing is no longer a single-country project. Belgium made structured Peppol invoices compulsory between businesses in January 2026, Poland switched on KSeF in February and April 2026, France required every company to receive e-invoices from 1 September 2026, Germany's issuing obligation tightens in 2027 and 2028, and the UAE goes live on 1 January 2027. At EU level, the ViDA package lets member states impose domestic e-invoicing without asking Brussels first, and brings digital reporting for intra-EU transactions from 1 July 2030.

Every one of these mandates has the same shape: it structures domestic B2B invoices between businesses established in that country. Everything else — foreign suppliers, consumer receipts, small suppliers still in transition, delivery notes, quotes, purchase orders — keeps arriving as a PDF or a phone photo. This guide puts the dates side by side and then maps what is left.

Mandates at a glance

Dates move: several of the ones above were extended at least once. Check the linked guides, which cite their sources, and confirm with your tax adviser — this article is not tax advice.

What every mandate leaves out

Across all these countries the same categories fall outside, or outside for a while:

1. 1Foreign suppliers. A domestic mandate cannot oblige a supplier established elsewhere. Their invoices arrive in whatever format they choose — usually PDF.
2. 2Consumer-side documents. Fuel, restaurant, hotel, taxi and parking receipts are B2C sales for the seller. Where they are reported at all (France, Saudi Arabia), it is to the tax authority — your employee still hands in a paper receipt or a photo.
3. 3Suppliers in a later phase. France's SMEs until September 2027, Germany's small issuers until 2028, the UAE's smaller businesses until July 2027, Poland's smallest issuers until the end of 2026.
4. 4Permanent exceptions. Germany's invoices up to €250 and travel tickets, Kleinunternehmer, Belgium's VAT-exempt supplies, and similar carve-outs elsewhere.
5. 5Documents that are not invoices. Delivery notes, quotes and purchase orders were never in scope anywhere — and matching an invoice against them is still daily work.
6. 6History. Every invoice issued before the switch stays in its original format for audits, refunds and catch-up bookkeeping.

How to size the manual work that is left

Take the last 100 inbound documents your team processed and mark each one that falls into the six categories above. For a company with only large domestic suppliers, it may be a small share. For an accounting firm with SME clients, a group with suppliers in several countries, a logistics or construction business living on delivery notes, or anyone reimbursing staff expenses, it is often the majority — and categories 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 do not end with any mandate.

Where WhappScan fits — and where it does not

WhappScan is not an e-invoicing provider: it is not a Peppol access point, a French approved platform, a UAE ASP, a ZATCA-compliant solution or connected to KSeF. For in-scope e-invoices, the structured data already exists — use it.

WhappScan handles the documents those systems do not cover. It reads invoices, receipts, delivery notes, quotes and purchase orders that arrive as a PDF or a photo and returns their fields — supplier, VAT number, date, VAT, total, and each line where the document has them — ready for Excel or your ERP. Staff, drivers and clients can send the photo by WhatsApp, with nothing to install.

Try it on your own documents: the invoice to Excel tool, the receipt to Excel tool and the delivery note tool are free, need no signup and handle up to three documents a day.

Running a hotel or rental as well? See guest registration in Europe by country.

Sources

• Marosa — E-invoicing B2B and B2G in Europe: overview and dates
• VATupdate — Austria e-invoicing and e-reporting country booklet
• Comarch — E-invoicing in Switzerland
• Country sources are listed at the end of each linked guide.