Short answer: structured e-invoices will replace PDF invoices across the EU, and the key dates are now set at EU level. Under the ViDA package, digital reporting for cross-border B2B transactions becomes mandatory from 1 July 2030, and each Member State can now introduce its own domestic e-invoicing mandate without asking Brussels for permission. Companies that tidy up their invoicing and business systems now will find the change a relief. Those who wait will get yet another rushed project.
What ViDA is
ViDA ("VAT in the Digital Age") is an EU legislative package adopted on 11 March 2025 and in force since 14 April 2025. It consists of a directive and two regulations. For an SME, the essentials are:
- Member States may mandate domestic e-invoicing without EU authorisation. Before ViDA, a country needed a derogation from the EU to do so.
- The e-invoice becomes the default, based on the European standard EN 16931.
- From 1 July 2030, digital reporting is mandatory for cross-border B2B transactions within the EU.
- By 1 January 2035, existing national real-time reporting systems must be aligned with the EU standard.
- Member States may make holding a compliant e-invoice a condition for VAT deduction.
In other words: by 2030 your cross-border invoices must be structured data, and well before that your own country may require it domestically.
What an e-invoice is (and isn't)
A PDF sent by email is not an e-invoice in the ViDA sense. An e-invoice is a structured, machine-readable file (XML) following EN 16931, which the buyer's system can read, check and book without anyone retyping it. It is usually delivered through a network rather than email.
The most widely used network in Europe is Peppol. Its principle is simple: you connect once through an access point, and from there you can reach every other Peppol participant. Its slogan is "connect once, reach all". Several countries use Peppol as the backbone of their national e-invoicing; others run their own platforms.
How different countries are moving
ViDA sets the destination, but the route differs by country. Some Member States already require B2B e-invoicing, others are preparing domestic mandates, and many still have none.
Hungary is a useful example of a country that started early with reporting rather than e-invoicing:
- since 4 January 2021, the data of every invoice issued under Hungarian VAT rules must be reported to the tax authority in real time;
- since November 2019, public bodies must accept EN 16931 e-invoices;
- since July 2025, electricity and gas supplies to business customers must be e-invoiced.
There is no general B2B e-invoicing mandate yet. The tax authority's concept, published for consultation in November 2025, foresees mandatory EN 16931 XML e-invoices for domestic and intra-EU B2B transactions, no email delivery or "hybrid" PDF, buyers reporting received invoices within five days, optional Peppol, and a default receiving endpoint run by the tax authority. A binding go-live date has not been announced. That's typical: the direction is clear, the national date often isn't yet.
If anyone gives you a firm national deadline, ask for the source. Check your own tax authority's announcements and the national legal gazette.
What changes in practice
If you send PDFs by email today, the change works in both directions.
Outgoing invoices. Your invoicing software must produce EN 16931 XML and deliver it to the buyer through a machine channel (a national platform or Peppol) rather than email. Usually the software vendor handles this, but you need to check that their plans will be ready in time.
Incoming invoices. This is the bigger change. Invoices arrive as data, and in some countries buyers will have to report them within days. If someone retypes incoming invoices into your business system today, that process will either be automated or become a new burden with a deadline.
One invoice's journey, today and with e-invoicing
Take a 30-person wholesaler that receives a few hundred supplier invoices a month.
Today the invoice arrives as a PDF in a shared mailbox. Someone downloads it, checks it against the purchase order and the delivery note, then types the lines into the business system or forwards it to the accountant. If a line doesn't match, they sort it out with the supplier by email.
With e-invoicing the invoice arrives as XML in the invoicing or business system. The system matches it automatically with the purchase order and the goods received, flags the lines that don't match and prepares the rest for booking. A person only looks at the exceptions and approves the payment. Any required buyer reporting is sent by the system.
The difference isn't the technology; it's where people spend their time: handling exceptions instead of retyping. But it only works if purchase orders and goods receipts live in the same system the invoice arrives in. If your purchase orders live in a spreadsheet, there is nothing to match the e-invoice against.
Why this is good news for SMEs
A structured invoice can be read, checked and booked by accounting software with little or no human intervention. In many companies, recording incoming invoices is a daily routine task today: somebody opens a PDF and types in the lines. E-invoicing removes that.
It also means that AI-based invoice extraction will gradually lose its role for domestic B2B invoices. AI extraction remains useful for foreign, paper and PDF invoices, receipts and documents that aren't invoices at all, always with human review on low-confidence fields. Vendors' own guidance recommends confidence thresholds close to 100% for financial records, with a human check for critical workflows.
What to watch now
Master data quality matters. Automatic processing only works if your partners' VAT numbers, your products' VAT codes and your item numbers are correct. That is true today, but with e-invoicing an error no longer depends on an accountant's patience; it means a rejected message. A short master data clean-up now takes a few days. In the week of the switch, every rejected invoice means a late payment and a phone call.
Integration of your business system. If invoicing, inventory and accounting run in separate programs and people copy data between them, now is the time to fix that. In a well-integrated system e-invoicing is almost invisible; in a fragmented one it will hurt at every joint.
Your accountant's plans. If you work with an external accountant, ask how they are preparing and in what form they want the data. The worst scenario is the company and the accountant switching over in two different systems on two different schedules.
Peppol or a national platform?
If your country runs a national platform, a company invoicing only domestically will probably find the platform or the invoicing software's built-in connection simplest. If you have many partners in other EU countries, Peppol is likely to be useful, especially for the 2030 cross-border reporting. You don't need to decide today, but ask your invoicing software vendor which channels they will support, and whether the access point is included in the price or charged per document. If they can't answer today, that's information too: look around in time, because in the year of the switch good vendors' capacity runs out fast.
A short glossary
- EN 16931: the European standard for the semantic content of an electronic invoice. It defines which data an invoice contains and how; national formats and Peppol are built on it.
- Structured e-invoice: an invoice issued, sent and received as machine-readable data (typically XML), not as an image or PDF.
- Peppol: an international network and set of specifications for exchanging e-invoices and other business documents. You join through a certified access point.
- Access point: the service provider that connects you to Peppol. Many invoicing and ERP vendors offer it built in.
- Real-time reporting: sending invoice data to the tax authority at or near the time of issue, as Hungary has required for every invoice since 2021. Several other countries run similar systems in different forms.
- Digital reporting requirement (DRR): ViDA's name for the obligation to report transaction data digitally, mandatory for cross-border B2B from July 2030.
What to do now
- Ask your invoicing software vendor how and when they will support EN 16931 XML, machine delivery and receiving incoming e-invoices.
- Map how incoming invoices arrive today and who records them. That's where the biggest change will be.
- Clean up master data: partners, VAT numbers, VAT codes, item numbers.
- Review the integration between invoicing, inventory and accounting. Wherever people copy data, there will be errors and delays.
- Follow your tax authority's announcements and the national legal gazette for the domestic mandate and its date.
- Talk to your accountant about their timeline and the data format they want.
- Don't panic. A well-prepared switch takes a few months; a rushed one takes a few months of stress.
If you'd like someone to review and automate the data flow between your invoicing, business system and accounting, have a look at our process automation and business management (ERP) services.
FAQ
When does e-invoicing become mandatory?
At EU level, digital reporting for cross-border B2B transactions is mandatory from 1 July 2030 under ViDA. Domestic mandates are each Member State's choice, and dates differ by country; some already apply, others are still being prepared.
What is the difference between e-invoicing and real-time reporting?
Real-time reporting means sending invoice data to the tax authority, as Hungary has required for every invoice since 2021. E-invoicing means the invoice itself is structured, machine-readable data (EN 16931 XML) that the buyer receives as data, not as a PDF. ViDA moves towards both.
Do I need to join Peppol?
It depends on your country and partners. Some countries build their national e-invoicing on Peppol, others run their own platforms and keep Peppol optional. With many partners in other EU countries, Peppol is often the practical choice.
Is a PDF sent by email still a valid invoice?
For now, in most countries, yes, unless a domestic mandate already applies to you. Under ViDA, the structured e-invoice becomes the default, and national mandates are expected to phase out PDF invoices in B2B.
Will AI invoice scanning still be useful?
For foreign, paper and PDF invoices, receipts and other documents, yes. For domestic B2B invoices arriving as structured data, extraction is no longer needed: the data is already there.
Sources
- European Commission – Adoption of the VAT in the Digital Age package
- eucrim – New Legislation: VAT in the Digital Age
- European Commission – eInvoicing in Hungary
- OpenPeppol – Peppol Interoperability Framework
- NAV – The implementation of ViDA in Hungary (in Hungarian)
- Microsoft Learn – Document Intelligence: interpret and improve accuracy and confidence scores
