The invoice is structured now. The work around it is not.

What happened

According to the Belgian Federal Public Service Finance, every business established in Belgium with an active VAT number must use structured electronic invoices for invoices to other Belgian VAT-registered businesses since 1 January 2026. These invoices travel directly from the software of one company to the software of the other, over the decentralised Peppol network. A PDF sent by email or through a portal no longer counts as compliant for these transactions.

The rule has limits. Outgoing invoices to consumers are outside the obligation, although a business that only sells to consumers must still be able to receive structured invoices from its suppliers. Businesses not established in Belgium are not covered. If a recipient cannot technically receive an e-invoice, the supplier may issue it on paper or as a PDF. The general tolerance period, during which no fines were imposed, covered the first three months of 2026; the administration then kept a targeted tolerance for self-billing until 30 June 2026.

A structured invoice is one document in a longer chain

The new format removes a familiar task: retyping supplier name, amounts and VAT from a PDF. That is real progress. But an invoice is only checked once it agrees with what was ordered and what was delivered. A purchase order lives in the ERP, a delivery note arrives with the goods or in a mailbox, a partial delivery is noted in the warehouse, and a price change may sit in an email thread with the buyer. The structured invoice does not bring those records with it.

What remains is the work around the invoice. Someone has to see that quantities differ from the goods receipt, that a credit note belongs to an earlier invoice, or that a project code is missing. Invoices from suppliers outside the obligation, order confirmations, certificates and contracts still arrive as PDF or paper. These are examples of the questions finance teams typically describe, not findings about any particular company.

• Matching. Invoice, order and goods receipt have to agree on quantity, price and reference before approval.
• Exceptions. Partial deliveries, price differences and credit notes need a reason, an owner and a decision.
• Other documents. Delivery notes, foreign invoices and order confirmations still need reading and filing.

What changes when the process is connected

The useful step is to treat the structured invoice as reliable input and connect it to the records it must agree with. When invoice lines, order lines and receipts sit in one data layer, agreed rules can flag what does not match and explain why: three units invoiced, two received; a unit price above the order. A person then handles the exception with the relevant documents side by side, rather than gathering them from three systems.

Documents that are still unstructured can be prepared in the same flow. Meridian AI can read a PDF delivery note or order confirmation, extract the key fields and link each value to the place it was found. Missing or deviating data is marked before anything is processed. Document analysis is an existing Meridian AI capability; the connection to your accounting or ERP package and the check rules are set up per project. Meridian does not replace your accounting software or your Peppol access point, and it does not book anything on its own.

Start with one stream of documents

A sensible first project takes one supplier category or one site, the documents that come with it and the rules finance already applies. Measure how many invoices are matched without manual work today, how long an exception stays open and how often a document has to be looked up. Then compare the same figures with a connected process over a few weeks. Scale up only if the result holds, and keep a person on every exception.

The format is standard now. Every exception still needs an owner.