Looking up a Peppol identification number from Salesforce

E-invoicing is no longer a niche topic for the finance department alone. The European obligation is coming and directly affects how your IT landscape, integrations and CRM are set up. A crucial building block in this is the Peppol identification number. That is the digital address at which your customer can receive e-invoices. In this blog you will read what a Peppol ID is, why it is so important and how you can look it up and record it directly from Salesforce, so that you are prepared for the European obligation.

E-invoicing is becoming the norm, not the exception

Electronic invoicing is rapidly developing into the standard for B2B transactions in Europe. Where many organisations still send PDF invoices by email today, legislation is shifting towards fully structured e-invoices via a standardised network. That has a major impact on your processes and systems.

It is not just about how finance sends invoices. It also touches on the way customer and invoice data are recorded in CRM, on the integration with your ERP or accounting system, and on the way you set up checks around VAT, compliance and reporting. Salesforce plays a central role here, because it is often the source where customer data is managed and enriched.

The timeline: Belgium now, France from September 2026, EU-wide in 2030

The introduction of mandatory e-invoicing is being phased in, but the pace is high. Belgium has already taken significant steps and now has a broad obligation for e-invoicing in B2B relationships. France is following suit with an obligation that takes effect from September 2026. If you supply French companies, you will then have to be able to meet the new requirements.

At European level, the ViDA directive (VAT in the Digital Age) is steering towards a situation in which digital invoicing and reporting are the norm around 2030. That may seem far away, but in IT and data terms that is tomorrow. Setting up integrations, cleaning up data, adjusting processes and bringing users along in new ways of working all take time. Anyone who starts preparing now avoids having to make adjustments with workarounds and manual work in the final phase.

What is a Peppol identification number?

Peppol is a network and framework for the secure and standardised exchange of electronic documents, such as invoices and orders. It originally started to support European public procurement, but has since become the de facto standard for e-invoicing across a large part of the B2B market. Instead of every country or every sector using its own format and infrastructure, Peppol provides a shared foundation.

The unique address that gets an invoice to the right recipient

Within the Peppol network, every participant has its own digital identity. That is the Peppol identification number, often abbreviated to Peppol ID. This ID consists of a type code, which indicates what kind of identification is used, and the number itself. Think of a Chamber of Commerce number, a VAT number or a national registration number. Together, those two elements form the unique Peppol address.

That address ensures an invoice arrives at exactly the right organisation, regardless of which system is used on the receiving end. It works in effect like an email address or IBAN. Without a correct address you can want to send a message or payment all you like, but it simply does not arrive.

Why an invoice without the correct number does not arrive

In many organisations there is still a belief that a company name or customer number alone will get you a long way. In the context of Peppol, that is a risk. The network is built on exact identification. The Peppol ID has to match the data as it is registered in the network.

If the correct ID is missing, or is no longer current, an invoice can be rejected or not delivered at all. You see the effect of that directly in your operation. Invoices get stuck, payments are delayed, and employees end up manually figuring out what the correct address should be. In addition, organisations in countries where the obligation already applies run an extra compliance risk if they do not invoice via the network in the right way. In other words: the quality and completeness of your Peppol data is a hard precondition for a smooth invoicing process.

Looking up the number in the Peppol Directory

The Peppol Directory is a public search environment in which you can see which organisations are connected to the network and which identifiers belong to them. On paper that is simple. You open the Directory, type in the name or number of a company and then read off the result.

In practice this often turns out to be less efficient. Employees have to switch manually between systems, retype data and check whether they have actually found the right entity. With a small customer base that is still manageable, but as soon as you have hundreds or thousands of relationships, this becomes unworkable. It is exactly the kind of repetitive work that is prone to typing errors, wrong choices and forgotten updates.

Searching from Salesforce instead of manually in the Directory

A logical next step is to move the lookup of Peppol data to the place where you already work with customer data: Salesforce. Instead of an employee opening the Directory separately, Salesforce can make a direct connection with the Directory and send a search query from the account or contact record.

Using the Peppol Directory’s API, it is possible to send a query from Salesforce, receive the result and make it directly visible in the record. The user stays in the same interface, works with familiar screens and does not have to cut and paste data between different systems. That reduces the chance of errors and saves time on each lookup.

Automating search criteria based on data in your record

The real gain lies in the smart reuse of the data that is already in Salesforce. Many customer records already contain the key basic data that you also use in the Peppol Directory. For example:

• The official company name as stored in the Account Name field
• The Chamber of Commerce number in a custom field on the account
• The VAT number in a field intended for that purpose
• Address information such as street, postcode and town
• Country information from the BillingCountry field or a comparable field

By automatically sending these details along as search criteria for a lookup towards the Directory, you prevent users from having to enter everything again. You also increase the chance of finding the right party in one go, because you are searching on standardised and previously validated information. The search process thereby becomes faster, more consistent and less dependent on interpretation by the individual user.

Enriching records with the Peppol information found

As soon as you have found a match in the Peppol Directory, you do not just want to view that information, but record it permanently. That means the Peppol ID found, and any additional relevant data, are written back to fields on the account record in Salesforce. Think of a specific field for the Peppol ID and a field that indicates whether the customer actively uses the Peppol network.

You can then use that data in your further processes. An integration with your invoicing system can automatically include the Peppol ID as soon as an invoice is created for that customer. Workflows in Salesforce can flag which accounts do not yet have a valid Peppol ID and put them, for example, on a task or campaign list to follow up later. Reports show at a glance how far along you are in making your customer base Peppol-ready. This way, a one-off lookup turns into a structural piece of data quality and process automation.

Being prepared for the obligation

The European obligation around e-invoicing does not come about in a single day, but once the deadline is there you can no longer go back. Organisations that are still busy cleaning up, searching and correcting customer data at that point will immediately fall behind. Preparation therefore begins with insight into your current data quality and the extent to which your systems are ready to deal with Peppol.

That makes e-invoicing more than just a finance theme. It is just as much a CRM, IT and integration question. Salesforce is often the place where customer relationships are managed, where deal flows run and where contracts and financial agreements are linked to accounts. If Peppol data is missing or inconsistent there, that carries through into the entire chain, from order to payment.

What you can already set up now

You can take concrete steps today to be ready for the obligation. A few examples:

• Determining which fields in Salesforce you need for Peppol data and adding them in a structured way
• Building a report or dashboard that shows for how many accounts a Peppol ID is missing
• Setting up an initial integration that lets users do a lookup in the Peppol Directory directly from the account record
• Agreeing processes for new customers, so that when an account is created it is immediately checked whether a Peppol ID is available
• Setting up automatic tasks, flows or notifications for key accounts without a valid Peppol ID, so that these can be specifically looked up and enriched

By organising this now, you shift the work from emergency fixes and firefighting to controlled data enrichment. That saves a lot of time and stress later and reduces the chance that invoices are rejected at the moment the obligation takes effect.

Ready for Peppol

E-invoicing and Peppol are not one-off projects, but part of a broader digitalisation effort in your order-to-cash process. Organisations that use Salesforce as the central source for customer data have a head start. They can make looking up, recording and using Peppol IDs an integral part of their CRM and invoicing processes.

Resolve IT helps companies with this. As a Salesforce Crest Partner, we combine technical integration knowledge with a keen eye for process and business impact. That means we not only realise a connection with the Peppol Directory, but also think along about the data model, the setup of screens for users and the automation of the follow-up steps towards your invoicing system.

Want to get your Salesforce environment ready as a Peppol-proof platform while at the same time reducing manual work and limiting errors? Get in touch with Resolve IT for an exploration of your current situation and the steps needed to move smoothly with the European obligation for e-invoicing.

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