Solving the multi-entity eInvoicing problem: inside Payhawk's AP strategy

Ten European entities, ten different eInvoicing mandates

Europe has no single eInvoicing mandate. A group with entities in ten European countries can face a different mandate in almost every one, each with its own rules, format and deadline. Belgium runs on Peppol. Poland has KSeF. France mandates structured invoicing through government-accredited private platforms, which add French-specific rules on top. Germany adds no separate network, but it does require its own formats, XRechnung or ZUGFeRD. Italy has had SDI since 2019.

Most AP tools cover one or two of those properly, which leaves finance teams running a separate intake route per country into one ledger, and adding another every time a mandate switches on.

Pavel Hadzhiev, Principal Product Manager for Accounts Payable and Procurement at Payhawk, sees that outcome as the thing worth designing against:

Multinational companies which operate in 10 or 15 countries across Europe shouldn't be forced to use five different systems for AP because there are different eInvoicing mandates. That's what we want to solve.

One AP workflow for every entity

In Payhawk, those routes collapse into one. Every entity registers inside the same account under its own identifier, and the invoices start flowing into Payhawk. A structured eInvoice from a national network and a PDF emailed by a supplier follow the same path once they’re in.

Setting up and running eInvoicing in Payhawk takes five steps:

1. Register each entity. Under Settings > Integrations > eInvoicing. Each entity connects to the route its country uses: KSeF for Poland, an accredited platform (Plateforme Agréée) for France, SDI for Italy, Finvoice for Finland, and Peppol for Belgium and all other supported countries.
2. Receive. Suppliers send structured eInvoices over their country's network. They flow from the supplier’s access point into Payhawk, routed to the right entity automatically.
3. Validate and approve. Payhawk validates that the XML structure is correct and readable, extracts the data, and runs it through the customer’s existing approval workflows.
4. Post to the ERP. Reviewed eInvoices sync to the ERP like any other bill.
5. Pay and reconcile. Payment runs go out from Payhawk, and bill payments reconcile against the posted eInvoice automatically.

Supported formats cover Peppol BIS 3.0, XRechnung, ZUGFeRD, Factur-X, KSeF XML, UBL 2.1 and CII.

None of this is priced separately. eInvoicing is included in every plan at no extra cost, and any customer can switch the integration on. Hadzhiev frames that as a product judgment rather than a pricing one:

We're not selling eInvoicing as an additional module. We don't consider an AP platform which doesn't accommodate the eInvoicing regulations a meaningful solution for customers, so we don't want to give customers the option to take it out.

Ready before the deadline, country by country

A workflow that holds across today’s mandates still has to survive the next one. When a mandate lands in a country Payhawk covers, customers already have the connection in place. Belgium was the first national integration Payhawk built, followed by KSeF in Poland, PPF in France, SDI in Italy and Finvoice in Finland. Alexander Delev, Senior Software Engineer at Payhawk, shares:

Because the API is similar for all of the registrations and the invoice receiving, we reuse large parts of the infrastructure and just add the country-specific details.

That readiness comes from a decision taken before Belgium went live. Building the connections in-house was the first option on the table, and it lasted days as an idea. Hadzhiev explains why:

If you have to go through all of the certifications and legislation of each individual country in Europe, that needs to be your core business.

Payhawk partnered with Invopop instead, for one entry point into every European network rather than one integration per country. Invopop runs as an embedded API inside Payhawk, so entities register for networks from the Payhawk portal and invoices arrive automatically.

Tens of thousands of eInvoices have gone through Payhawk and Invopop so far, with more than 300 customers connected. More networks are in progress, and coverage expands as new mandates are confirmed. Finance teams don't have to watch every tax authority announcement or rush a new tool in before a deadline.

Mandate calendar: what's due and what to do now

Which of those deadlines matters depends on where the entities sit. If a group has an entity in any of these countries, the receiving obligation is either live or inside the next eighteen months.

Source: Payhawk eInvoicing FAQ. Dates move. Check each country's tax authority before planning around them.

Setup checklist: avoid the common go-live blockers

Hitting the deadline is rarely what goes wrong. Three issues cause most of the delay, so work through them per entity before the date.

1. Have proof of ownership ready. Peppol registration needs proof the entity is yours, such as a VAT ID or a SIREN number.
2. Check for an existing Peppol ID. If an entity is already registered with another provider, ask them to deregister it, or register an additional ID using an IBAN or GLN.
3. Treat France separately. French entities receive through an accredited platform (Plateforme Agréée) listed in the PPF directory, not a direct Peppol registration.

Before switching on, send a sample XML invoice to the Payhawk mailbox to check coding and approvals. Share each entity’s Peppol ID or VAT ID with suppliers, and ask them to send each invoice once, on one channel, so the same bill doesn’t arrive twice. Payhawk's help center has the full sequence for Peppol, PPF, KSeF, SDI and Finvoice setup.

Seven questions to ask any AP provider

A compliant connection gets eInvoices in. Whether AP gets faster depends on what happens after they arrive. These seven questions cover both.

Getting eInvoices in, in every country

1. Is eInvoicing included, or priced as an add-on? An add-on tells you what happens to the price when the next country arrives.
2. Which national networks are live today, not on the roadmap? A Peppol connection is not European coverage.
3. What happens when a country you don’t yet cover introduces a mandate? You want a provider that tracks announcements and builds ahead of the date, not one that waits for customers to ask.
4. For a multi-entity group, can each entity register on its local eInvoicing network separately? Every entity needs its own identifier. If one account can’t hold all of them, the group is back to separate systems per country.

Knowing what each invoice is for

5. Does an invoice arrive with context, or does someone have to chase it? A structured eInvoice says who sent it and how much it’s for. It doesn’t say who ordered it or which budget it belongs to. In Payhawk, incoming invoices are matched automatically to their purchase order where one exists, and assigned to the person who raised it. The right owner confirms the bill, instead of AP chasing context across ten entities.
6. What happens to invoices for purchases already paid by card? Many supplier invoices, from software subscriptions to travel, cover spend already made on a company card. If nothing matches them, they land in the AP queue and can get paid twice. Payhawk matches them to the card transaction automatically, so they’re filed as the supporting document rather than queued for payment.
7. Do eInvoices run through the same approvals, payment and ERP export as every other bill? Compliance that creates a parallel process has moved the work rather than removed it.

Put your current AP provider through those questions, then see how Payhawk handles eInvoicing across every entity. Or skip the questionnaire and watch it run on your own entities. Book a demo and bring the country you're least sure about.