Electronic invoicing is getting closer, and we in the Czech Republic have a unique chance to hop on a moving train. From 1 January 2027, electronic invoicing will become mandatory in Slovakia. What does that mean for e-shops, what will it bring, and what conditions must be met? And most importantly, what huge positive impact will it have on the state of e-invoicing here in the Czech Republic? Let’s take a look.
A bit about me and my path into e-invoicing
Those of you who know me know that I have been working on accounting digitalization for a long time. I was there at the birth of ABRA Flexi (formerly FlexiBee), a cloud accounting platform with an API. Interestingly, it was in fact the first system to support electronic invoices in the ISDOC format. I work on integrations at Dativery, and in the past I managed to convince Czech banks to do what Fio has been doing for years and not rely only on PSD2, which is unusable for business applications. That is why banks created premium APIs for accounting-system integrations, which is an unusual setup that exists only in the Czech Republic.
ISDOC e-invoicing
The ISDOC format appeared back in 2009, and all major accounting software vendors quickly supported it. Adoption was still limited, though, because users had to choose which format they would use: ISDOC or PDF.
Later, in 2022, the PDF.ISDOC format was created. It is a PDF file with ISDOC attached. It follows the same approach used by the German ZUGFeRD format or the French Factur-X.
For clarity: ISDOC is used today in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
E-invoicing in the Czech Republic
Even after 17 years, ISDOC adoption is still low, and PDF.ISDOC did not change that. The problem is that ISDOC only solves the invoice format. It does not solve delivery, or the follow-up processes such as purchase orders, delivery notes, invoice rejections, and so on.
So in 2025 we decided that we needed to go further and solve e-invoicing end to end, including guaranteed document transport itself.
We agreed with several vendors that if we pushed one standard, they would implement it.
But when we started studying the options in detail, one thing became clear: Slovakia was going to solve it for us.
Innovation through Slovakia: why the Czech Republic will benefit too
The situation in Slovakia is changing radically. From 1 January 2027, companies there will be broadly required to use the European Peppol network for B2B electronic invoicing. And early adopters can already use it now.
The key advantage for us is that most major accounting and ERP systems in the Czech Republic also operate in the Slovak market. To survive there, these systems must support Peppol-based e-invoicing. Major players such as ABRA Software (ABRA Flexi and ABRA Gen), Seyfor (Money S3, iDoklad) and Stormware (Pohoda) are already working on the integration and will support it, although for some vendors it will likely be an extra paid module.
That is a huge opportunity. We have to use this “innovation through Slovakia” in the Czech Republic.
What is Peppol?
Peppol (Pan-European Public Procurement On-Line) is best thought of as guaranteed digital mail. It provides absolute proof of delivery, proof of receipt and acceptance, including an electronic signature that guarantees integrity.
Delivery and receipt are handled by an Access Point. In Slovakia, they introduced a nice term for that role: digitálny poštár. Every business chooses its own digital postman, through which it sends and receives invoices on the network.
For data transport, Peppol uses the standardized machine-readable XML format UBL according to the Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 specification. If you know our Czech ISDOC, note that ISDOC historically evolved from UBL, so the data structure is very similar.
While the new e-invoicing legislation primarily covers invoices and credit notes, the Peppol network can do much more. It can transport all kinds of business documents:
- Invoices and credit notes
- Purchase orders
- Delivery notes
- Catalogs and stock levels
- and much more
My vision: Peppol for everyone at a fraction of the price
I want us to have full-scale e-invoicing in the Czech Republic too. That is why our team became a certified Access Point and we will offer Peppol connectivity at a fraction of the usual price, or ideally completely free for basic use.
Of course, we are opening the system to everyone. For companies that do not have software capable of direct API integration, we will offer alternative ways. E-invoices will be possible via an email gateway, direct web upload, or integrations with Dropbox, Google Drive, or Microsoft OneDrive.
What about VAT law?
Peppol complies with VAT law. And it is simpler than you might think. Under Section 34 of the Czech VAT Act (235/2004 Coll.), authenticity of origin and integrity of electronic tax documents can be ensured not only by process controls, but also by:
- a recognized electronic signature,
- a recognized electronic seal, or
- electronic data interchange (EDI), provided the agreement on such exchange defines procedures that guarantee authenticity of origin and integrity of content.
Peppol is considered an electronic data interchange (EDI) system and therefore fully satisfies these legal requirements for electronic document exchange. The main practical benefit is that when sending an invoice through Peppol, you do not need to add a timestamp or any special electronic signature to each individual document. The encrypted and certified network takes care of that.
Compared with traditional EDI, Peppol connectivity costs roughly one tenth, does the same job, is much more modern, and above all standardized.
ViDA is coming
We should not forget the European level either. The EU has introduced the ViDA package (VAT in the Digital Age). From 1 July 2030, mandatory digital reporting requirements and e-invoicing will apply to all cross-border B2B transactions in the EU. Peppol and its format are one of the main and preferred options for this purpose. If we move to Peppol now, we will already have the future European rules covered ahead of time.
Let’s get e-invoicing moving here
Everything is ready: the technology exists, the law allows it, and the Slovak mandate will soon bring mature software solutions to us. Now it is up to us, the users.
Write to your accounting software vendor today and tell them that you want to use Peppol actively in the Czech Republic too.
Most extraction systems such as wflow or Digitoo will support it soon. We are also talking with individual accounting-software and invoicing-app vendors and trying to persuade them to offer Peppol in the Czech Republic under conditions similar to Slovakia. Their response has been positive, and they plan to do it :-)
Or use our solution right now. Let’s not wait until someone forces it on us; let’s make business easier ourselves, starting now.
