Outside Peppol
Invoices and till receipts from outside Peppol
Invoices from foreign suppliers, till receipts and expense claims arrive in one queue. AI reads them and prepares a draft in your package. Your team does the booking.
for SMEs and organisations with accounting software
Peppol delivers your invoices as data. We help with the rest.
Since 1 January 2026, Belgian VAT-registered businesses send each other invoices through Peppol, as structured data. Nobody has to read those anymore, AI included. We help with what Peppol doesn’t solve: invoices and till receipts from outside Peppol, assigning them to projects or grants, and approval across your systems.
No obligation · 30 minutes · online, with someone who builds, tests and fine-tunes it
Ethic is the AI studio of Zenjoy, a digital product studio from Leuven. Since 2011, Zenjoy has built integrations with SAP, Odoo, Salesforce and Airtable, among others.
At a glance
- Works with
- Exact Online, Odoo, Octopus, Billit, Yuki and Teamleader, through their APIs
- First
- What Peppol and your package’s invoice recognition already do for you
- Data
- Your accounts stay in your package. For each use, an AI fact sheet with model, provider and country.
Honest advice
Peppol, your accounting package or your own workflow?
Many invoices no longer need AI, and for even more your package is enough. We’ll tell you honestly which of the three fits, even if it’s the cheapest one.
| Peppol | Your accounting package | Your own workflow through an integration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good for | Invoices between Belgian VAT-registered businesses. They arrive as data: supplier, amounts and VAT are already in the right fields. | Recognising PDF invoices and till receipts, suggesting a booking and matching payments. Exact Online, Odoo, Octopus and Billit do this themselves today. | Assigning to projects or grant files, documents from several channels and an approval that runs across your systems. |
| Watch out | Not everything comes through Peppol: foreign suppliers, till receipts and expense claims stay PDF or paper. Organisations that aren’t VAT-registered, or only carry out exempt activities, fall outside the obligation. | A Peppol invoice still has to land on the right account and the right project. You set up rules for that, and they don’t cover every exception. | More building up front. And not every package gives access to everything you need through its API. We check that first. |
| What we do | Checking that you receive Peppol properly. Usually your package or your accountant handles that. | Helping to set up recognition and rules. If that’s enough, we don’t build AI. | Building with an AI fact sheet, testing in a pilot with your real documents and maintaining after launch. |
What you can do with it
Four tasks Peppol doesn’t solve
Assigning
Every invoice with the right project
A Peppol invoice still has to go to the right project, budget or grant file. AI suggests it based on the purchase order and earlier bookings, and shows what it’s based on.
Approval
Approval without emailing around
Whoever needs to sign gets the invoice with the suggestion attached, in Teams or by email. After approval, the booking is ready in your package.
Reporting
Figures with an explanation for your board
The figures come straight from your accounts. AI writes a first explanation, with the source for every number. You finish the report.
How it works
From Peppol or PDF to an approved booking
This is how an integration for incoming invoices works. It may prepare a draft on its own. Final booking and payment go through a colleague.
- 1
Arriving
Through Peppol, a dedicated mailbox or a shared folder. Peppol invoices are already data and skip the next step.
- 2
Reading
For PDFs and till receipts, AI reads the data and shows how certain it is for each field.
- 3
Suggestion in your package
The integration looks up the supplier, project and cost centre and prepares a draft booking. Nothing has been booked yet.
- 4
A colleague approves
Is the AI unsure, or is it a new bank account number or an amount above your threshold? Then the suggestion gets a flag and a second colleague looks too.
- 5
Everything logged
For each invoice, the logs show what came in, what the AI suggested, what someone changed and who approved it.
In the pilot
In the pilot, we measure two things: how much time an invoice costs your team, and how often someone has to adjust a suggestion. Based on that, you decide: roll out, adjust or stop.
AI fact sheet
On one page: what the integration may do and who stops it
Every integration comes with an AI fact sheet. Your accountant, your IT lead and your DPO read it before we go live. This is what it looks like.
Example
Invoices outside Peppol to Exact Online
-
What it does
Reads PDF invoices and till receipts from the invoices@ mailbox and prepares a draft booking in Exact Online, with a suggested project and cost centre. Peppol invoices only get that suggestion. Books and pays nothing itself.
-
What data
Only the documents in invoices@ and the lists of suppliers, projects and cost centres in Exact Online. No access to bank accounts, payments or other mailboxes.
-
Model and location
A language model that runs in the EU. Exact Online stays where it runs today. The provider’s contract rules out using your data to train models.
-
Who checks
On its own: reading and preparing a draft. Through the accountant: every booking before it becomes final. Above an agreed amount or for a new bank account number, a second colleague signs too.
-
What we keep
For each document: what came in, what the AI suggested, what someone changed and who approved it. We keep that for 90 days.
-
Owner and stopping
The finance lead at your organisation. The integration works with its own user in Exact Online. Revoke that access and it stops immediately.
Control
Permissions first, then AI
Some doors swing both ways, others only one. AI can do things on its own if they can be undone and stay inside your organisation. Anything that goes outside or decides about a person goes to a colleague first. We agree what AI can do on its own, when someone has to approve and when the workflow stops.
Its own user
The integration gets its own user or API key in your accounting package and only sees what it needs. Payments and bank accounts stay out of reach.
Suggest, don’t book
The integration may read, assign and prepare a draft on its own. Your team does the booking, approval and payment.
Tested on what goes wrong
Duplicate invoices, a new bank account number, an unreadable till receipt. We test with real examples before we go live.
Europe where possible
Your accounts stay where they are today. The AI model runs in the EU by default, and we put provider and country in the AI fact sheet.
Who builds it
A new brand, built on fifteen years of craftsmanship
Ethic is Zenjoy’s AI studio, based in Leuven. The same team builds and maintains your workflow, and everything is in your name.
15 years
building and maintaining software
400+
organisations
4 years
using AI daily in our own work
Built to keep working
An integration that grows with your software as it changes
01
Keeping up with your software
We track releases and Peppol rules, and adapt your accounting integration before problems arise.
02
Switch models, keep the workflow
We can switch to a better or more efficient model without rebuilding the workflow. We test it again.
03
Everything in your name
Code, prompts, documentation and access.
04
Agreed maintenance
Monthly maintenance covers updates, monitoring and small changes. New workflows are planned separately.
After a first conversation, you get a proposal with a clear scope and a fixed price.
Frequently asked questions
What you often ask us about accounting and Peppol
Is your question not listed? Just ask us.
Data processing agreement and security overview available on request.
As of October 2026
Since 1 January 2026, e-invoicing through Peppol is mandatory between Belgian VAT-registered businesses. The government plans e-reporting from 2028; that isn’t law yet.
We’re a non-profit without a VAT number. Does Peppol apply to us?
If you aren’t VAT-registered, the obligation doesn’t apply. The same goes if you only carry out exempt activities, like many organisations in care and education. If you also have taxable activities, you probably do fall under it. Check with your accountant. Organisations outside the obligation still receive PDFs, and that’s where AI does help.
Can’t our accounting package do this itself?
Often, yes. Exact Online, Odoo, Octopus and Billit recognise PDF invoices and suggest a booking themselves. Peppol invoices already arrive there as data. Turn that on first and see how far it gets you. Your own workflow only pays off when documents arrive through different channels, need to be linked to projects or grants, or pass through more than one system.
What if the AI misreads an amount or bank account number?
That’s why the integration only makes suggestions. A colleague approves every booking. If the AI is unsure about a field, you see it straight away. A new bank account number or an amount above your threshold gets an extra check. In the pilot, we count how often someone has to correct something.
Do you work with our accountant?
Yes. Your accountant or accounting firm stays responsible for your accounts and your returns. We build the step before that: collecting, reading and preparing documents. What the integration may do, we agree together, and it’s in the AI fact sheet.
Where is our data, and where does the AI run?
Your accounts stay in your package, where they run today. The integration only sends the fields from the AI fact sheet to the AI model. Which model that is, with which provider and in which country, is in the AI fact sheet. If you use your package’s own AI, your vendor’s terms apply. We review them together with your DPO.
What does the AI Act mean for us?
An integration that reads and prepares invoices doesn’t decide about people and usually isn’t a high-risk application. Which role lies with whom, we put in the AI fact sheet. The AI Act does ask you to work on your staff’s AI knowledge. That’s what our AI literacy training is for. This is not legal advice.
Related
Workflow
Documents and invoicesSector
Non-profitsIntegration
Odoo
Which invoices don’t reach you through Peppol yet?
In a first conversation, we look at your accounting package and at the documents your team still retypes today. You get honest advice: Peppol, your package or your own workflow.
No obligation · 30 minutes · online, with someone who builds, tests and fine-tunes it