After much hesitation — as I have always defended Zoho products despite their imperfections — I have decided to post this review on this forum. Indeed, for more than 5 months, the numerous issues related to PEPPOL invoicing seem nowhere near being resolved, even though the system has been mandatory in Belgium since January 1, 2026 for all B2B transactions between VAT-registered businesses. And Belgium is not alone: France will also make electronic invoicing mandatory from September 2026 for all businesses (obligation to receive), and from that same date for large companies and mid-sized enterprises (ETI) for sending, with SMEs and micro-businesses following on September 1, 2027. In short, the current shortcomings of Zoho Books in this area affect — and will increasingly affect — a growing number of users across Europe.
I am clearly not alone in this situation: other users on this forum have reported the same problems (see in particular the posts "Export Invoices to XML file" and "Peppol: Accept Bill (Belgium)").
Here are what I consider the most baffling issues:
1. Automations and Workflows — Shockingly Limited
No workflow trigger is available for any PEPPOL-related event in any module. You are forced to rely on criteria/conditions instead. And even then, "Einvoice" is available ONLY for outgoing invoices — nothing is available for Bills, Credit Notes, or Vendor Credits. It is for example not possible to trigger a workflow when a vendor bill is accepted. Finding this to be the case 5 months after mandatory e-invoicing came into force is frankly baffling.
2. XML/UBL Export
It is not possible to bulk-export XML/UBL files: only one invoice or credit note at a time. Although XML files can be downloaded via the API, I am running into difficulties triggering that download automatically — the goal being to save them to a Workdrive folder for the accountant.
Also worth noting — confirmed by support (ticket ## 2363672 ##) — XML files are only available for bills received and accepted after the end of the first week of March 2026, when this feature went live. Earlier invoices simply cannot be retrieved in XML format. Furthermore, since these files are retrieved from Storecove (Zoho Books' access point - ?), they only become available for download after a certain delay following receipt — though they do persist in the system afterwards. That delay nonetheless complicates any real-time archiving automation.
On a related note, I had to open a separate ticket (## 2507592 ##) just to understand how to correctly populate the "cac:OrderReference/cbc:ID" field in invoices sent via PEPPOL to include the customer's purchase order reference — information that is not clearly documented anywhere.
3. Discrepancies Between Supplier PDF and Data Transcribed in Zoho Books
There are still persistent discrepancies between supplier PDF invoices and the data "transcribed" into Zoho Books. A ticket open since January 28, 2025 (## 2241047 ##) addresses exactly this: amounts displayed in Zoho Books for vendor bills received via PEPPOL are incorrect. This is confirmed by other users on the forum. After more than 5 months, the issue remains unresolved despite repeated follow-ups. Vigilance is therefore essential: you absolutely must cross-check the supplier's PDF (when available) before paying the invoice. Staggering.
4. Vendor Bills Not Received — and Zero Failure Notifications
Several tickets have been raised on this topic (## 2418774 ##, ## 2371698 ##, ## 2363672 ##). The root causes vary: numbering conflicts between vendors, issues at the Storecove access point level, or invoices containing lines with negative quantities/amounts — a format that is perfectly valid under the PEPPOL standard but was not supported by Zoho Books. On this last point, there is good news: support confirmed on May 25, 2026 (ticket ## 2363672 ##) that a fix has been deployed. Going forward, negative-value lines will be imported as description-only items with a negative rate, with no inventory impact — though a manual adjustment will still be needed if a stock correction is required.
What remains deeply problematic is the complete absence of failure notifications: despite repeated promises from support, no alert is sent when a vendor bill fails to be imported into Zoho Books. You simply have no way of knowing a bill is missing — unless you cross-reference with an external source (e.g. a supplier's customer portal). This is utterly unacceptable in a legally mandated compliance context.
5. Vendor Bills Received Without PDF
A specific ticket (## 2429100 ##) was opened regarding bills received via PEPPOL with no PDF attachment. According to support, some senders simply do not include a PDF in the XML transmitted via PEPPOL — making any visual verification of the bill in Zoho Books impossible (see point 3). This is the case with a major software publisher, for instance, which seems rather odd for a company of that size — especially since PDFs were included with the first invoices received.
6. VAT Rounding — A Fundamental Issue Discovered... 3 Months After Launch
Last but not least, and arguably the most concerning from a legal standpoint: Belgian legislation requires that VAT rounding be applied at the transaction level, not on a per-line basis. Yet Zoho Books was not complying with this rule from day one — meaning that numerous invoices sent via PEPPOL since January 1, 2026 may be fiscally incorrect. Zoho has only recently acknowledged the issue and deployed a fix for new invoices. For invoices already issued, support's recommendation is to issue a credit note and reissue each affected invoice (completely insane). This potentially means months of transactions to correct. I also seem to recall seeing a banner at some point prompting users to switch to this calculation method — which raises the question: exactly when was this change introduced, and what happens to invoices issued in the meantime?
In conclusion, I think it is important to express my strong dissatisfaction with the current situation. It is not as if PEPPOL appeared out of nowhere. Zoho has known about this mandatory implementation for a long time.
I am a patient person, but after 5 months of live operation, the existing functionality feels woefully incomplete — to say nothing of the poverty of automation features. Numerous tickets have been open for months with no concrete resolution, requiring repeated follow-ups just to get a response. This level of service is unacceptable for a system that is now legally mandatory in Belgium — and soon in France and other European countries.