# Peppol in the UK: Access Points, Peppol IDs and the NHS > How UK businesses join Peppol: access points, which Peppol ID to use (VAT 9932 or GLN 0088), checking if a customer is on Peppol, and the NHS head start. Peppol is a network for exchanging structured invoices and orders between businesses through certified access points. UK businesses join by signing up with an access point provider, which registers a Peppol ID, usually scheme 9932 plus the VAT number. The UK will use Peppol for its April 2029 e-invoicing mandate. Until June 2026 Peppol in the UK meant one thing: selling to the NHS. Now it is the network every VAT-registered business will use to invoice other businesses from April 2029. The [UK e-invoicing mandate guide](/guides/e-invoicing/uk-e-invoicing-mandate-2029) covers the dates and the rules. This page covers the mechanics. ## What Peppol actually is Peppol is three things working together: - **A set of document formats.** The invoice format is Peppol BIS Billing 3.0, which is the European standard EN 16931 expressed in UBL XML. There are also formats for credit notes, purchase orders, order responses and despatch advices. - **A delivery network.** Certified access points send documents to each other over a secure protocol called AS4. - **A directory.** Every participant is listed by a Peppol ID, together with the document types it accepts and the access point that receives for it. It is governed by [OpenPeppol](https://peppol.org/), a non-profit association, and used across the EU, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Japan and Malaysia. That reach is why the government picked it: a UK supplier connected to Peppol can already invoice a Belgian or Australian customer the same way. ## Access points An access point is a certified provider that sends and receives Peppol documents on your behalf. You need one. Your customer needs one. They don't need to be the same. | Route | Who it suits | | --- | --- | | Built into your accounting software | Small and mid-sized businesses on Xero, Sage, QuickBooks, Business Central and similar | | Standalone access point with an API | Businesses on ERPs without native Peppol, or with high volumes | | Becoming an access point yourself | Software vendors only. Certification, testing and ongoing compliance cost far more than a subscription | Check your existing software before you buy anything. Our [ERP Peppol support guide](/guides/e-invoicing/does-your-erp-support-peppol) lists which systems ship native Peppol and which need a third-party access point. ### Questions to ask an access point provider 1. **Are you a certified Peppol access point, or reselling one?** Resellers are fine, but you want to know who you are actually depending on. OpenPeppol publishes the list of certified providers. 2. **Do you send and receive?** Some only send. You need both by 2029. 3. **What is your plan for PINT UK?** The UK specification is still being written. A provider should be able to tell you how it will ship it. 4. **How do validation errors reach us?** An invoice rejected at corner 2 is an invoice you haven't been paid for. You want the error in your finance system, not in a provider portal nobody checks. 5. **Which identifiers can you register?** At minimum UK VAT (9932). GLN (0088) too if you sell to the NHS or large retailers. 6. **Do you carry orders as well as invoices?** Only matters if your customers send Peppol purchase orders, which today means mainly the NHS. 7. **How is it priced?** Per document, per month, or bundled into your accounting software. Model it on your real invoice volume. ## Peppol IDs for UK businesses A Peppol ID is a scheme code plus an identifier. On the wire it carries a prefix, for example `iso6523-actorid-upis::9932:GB123456789`, but you will usually see just `9932:GB123456789`. | Scheme code | Identifier | When UK businesses use it | | --- | --- | --- | | **9932** | UK VAT number | The default for most UK businesses | | **0088** | GS1 Global Location Number (GLN) | NHS suppliers, and retail and grocery supply chains already using GS1 | | **0060** | Dun and Bradstreet DUNS number | Some multinationals | The codes come from the official [Peppol participant identifier scheme list](https://docs.peppol.eu/edelivery/codelists/). What matters in practice is that your customers can find you. If your largest customers already route on GLN, publish under GLN too. One business can hold more than one Peppol ID. ## Registering on Peppol There is no Peppol sign-up form for businesses. The process is: 1. Choose an access point, often through your finance software. 2. The provider verifies who you are. 3. It registers your Peppol ID in a Service Metadata Publisher (SMP), the record that tells other access points where to deliver your documents. 4. It optionally lists you in the public Peppol Directory so others can find you by name. From that point, anyone on Peppol can send you an invoice using your ID. ## How to check if a customer is on Peppol Search the [Peppol Directory](https://directory.peppol.eu/) by name, VAT number or GLN. A listing shows the Peppol ID and which document types the company can receive. If it lists Peppol BIS Billing 3.0, you can send it invoices today. A company can be reachable without being listed in the directory, so a missing result is not proof. Ask the customer for its Peppol ID. ## Why NHS suppliers are ahead NHS England's eProcurement strategy has required suppliers to trade over Peppol for years, using GS1 GLNs to identify trusts, delivery locations and suppliers. It covers purchase orders, despatch advices and invoices, not just invoices. That makes NHS suppliers the only large UK group with both sides of the transaction already structured. Everyone else will arrive in 2029 with structured invoices and, in most cases, purchase orders that are still emailed PDFs. Our [Peppol ordering guide](/guides/e-invoicing/peppol-order-documents) explains why ordering has stayed behind outside the NHS. ## What Peppol will not fix Peppol guarantees an invoice is delivered and valid. It doesn't guarantee the invoice is right. If the PO number, quantity or price on the invoice doesn't match the buyer's order, the buyer's matching rejects it, however compliant the XML is. For most UK suppliers those numbers start life in a customer's PDF purchase order that someone re-keys into the ERP. OrderSync automates that step: it reads emailed and PDF purchase orders and creates the order in your ERP, so the invoice you later send over Peppol is built from the right data. ## Sources - [OpenPeppol](https://peppol.org/), network governance and specifications - [Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 specification](https://docs.peppol.eu/poacc/billing/3.0/), OpenPeppol - [Peppol participant identifier schemes](https://docs.peppol.eu/edelivery/codelists/), OpenPeppol code lists - [UK Government announces Peppol as core interoperability network](https://peppol.org/uk-einvoicing-mandate-expected-in-2029-2/), OpenPeppol ## Related reading - [UK e-invoicing mandate 2029](/guides/e-invoicing/uk-e-invoicing-mandate-2029) - [Peppol is not e-invoicing](/guides/e-invoicing/peppol-vs-e-invoicing-mandates) - [Does your ERP support Peppol?](/guides/e-invoicing/does-your-erp-support-peppol) - [European e-invoicing mandate timeline](/e-invoicing) - [EDI Inspector](/edi-inspector), free in-browser reader for EDI and invoice files ## Common questions ### What is Peppol? Peppol is an international network for exchanging structured business documents such as invoices, credit notes and purchase orders. Businesses connect through certified access points, which deliver documents to each other using shared formats and a public directory of participants. The name originally stood for Pan-European Public Procurement On-Line. It is governed by OpenPeppol, a non-profit association. ### How do I register for Peppol in the UK? You don't register with Peppol directly. You sign up with a certified Peppol access point provider, often through your accounting or ERP software, and the provider registers your Peppol ID on the network and publishes which documents you can receive. Most UK businesses will use their VAT number as their Peppol ID. ### What is my Peppol ID? A Peppol ID is a scheme code followed by an identifier. For a UK business it is usually the UK VAT number scheme, 9932, followed by your VAT number, for example 9932:GB123456789. NHS suppliers and many retail suppliers use a GS1 Global Location Number under scheme 0088 instead. ### How do I check if a company is on Peppol? Search the public Peppol Directory at directory.peppol.eu by company name or identifier. If the company is listed, the entry shows its Peppol ID and the document types it can receive, such as Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 invoices. A company can be reachable but not listed, so if you don't find it, ask for its Peppol ID. ### Is Peppol mandatory in the UK? Not yet for most businesses. NHS England already requires its suppliers to use Peppol. For everyone else, the government confirmed in June 2026 that Peppol will be the network for mandatory e-invoicing of B2B and B2G VAT invoices from April 2029. ### How much does a Peppol access point cost? It varies widely. Some accounting packages include Peppol sending and receiving in their subscription. Standalone access points typically charge a monthly fee plus a per-document rate. Large buyers with high volumes usually negotiate volume pricing. Becoming a certified access point yourself is rarely worth it unless you are a software vendor.