Peppol test versus production: what to check before a live send

Peppol has two separate networks. The test network is where service providers, the companies that run access points, prove their software before they may connect to production; businesses do not exchange invoices on it. OrdoGrid has no Peppol test mode at all: every Peppol send goes to the production network and reaches a real recipient as a real invoice.

“Testing Peppol” therefore means checking everything you can without transmitting, then proving the connection with an invoice you have to issue anyway. This guide covers both, and what to do if a test invoice has already gone out. The full sending procedure is in Send your first Peppol invoice in OrdoGrid; failed sends are in Fix a failed Peppol send or a rejected Peppol invoice. Most on-screen labels quoted here stay in French in every interface language; translations are in brackets.

Two Peppol networks that never exchange documents

Sources: the Belgian Peppol Authority's steps for providers (FPS BOSA) and OpenPeppol, which took over the SML from the European Commission in 2026; access points had to switch to the new zones above by 31 August 2026 (SML insourcing). Lookup in detail: SMP, SML and Peppol Directory: how Peppol finds a recipient.

SML

The Service Metadata Locator: the DNS-based register that tells a sending access point which SMP (Service Metadata Publisher) holds a participant's receiving details; that SMP then gives the delivery address. Production and test each have their own.

In practice, a demonstration on the test network says nothing about your production registration, and a registration existing only in test is invisible to your suppliers and customers. OrdoGrid works only on the production network: the registration it creates when you activate reception, and every document it sends, are real.

Why a test invoice on production is a real invoice

What the law requires.

What we recommend. Never send a document to a real Peppol participant to see what happens. Prove your connection with an invoice for real, completed work, sent to a customer who knows it is coming. Your accountant decides how a test that already went out is booked.

What OrdoGrid does. It has no test or sandbox mode, in the app or in the public API. Every Peppol send is a real transmission, and every saved invoice takes a real number.

Choose the plan for the task. The free forever plan includes unlimited Peppol receiving and one outgoing Peppol invoice per month, without a credit card. Issuing credit notes requires Starter or Business; public API access requires Business. Compare plans before following those parts of this guide.

What OrdoGrid checks before anything leaves

You do not need a validation button or a practice send to check the file. OrdoGrid runs these checks every time you send, and transmits nothing if one fails.

Release 3.0.21 is the Peppol BIS Billing version mandatory since 17 August 2026 (release notes); Belgium adds no national Peppol BIS rules. Peppol BIS requires a buyer reference or an order reference (rule PEPPOL-EN16931-R003); OrdoGrid always fills the buyer reference: your purchase-order number, otherwise the payment communication, otherwise the invoice number.

These checks cannot tell whether the VAT rate and regime, the price, the customer entity and the legal mentions are right. That is what the PDF preview and your accountant are for.

Check before your first live send

Steps 1 to 5 transmit nothing and can be repeated as often as you like.

1. Check your own set-up. In Peppol → Statut, Envoi (Outbox) must read Autorisé (authorised). The mode badge shows Envoi + réception (send and receive) or Envoi seul (send only); in send-only mode another provider must receive for you. See Set up Peppol in OrdoGrid.
2. Look yourself up. On lookup.peppol.org, the tool FPS Finance points to, enter 0208: and your ten-digit enterprise number, without BE, dots or spaces. You should be found, through OrdoGrid or your other provider.
3. Choose the first invoice. Pick a real, completed job for a Belgian VAT-registered customer you can reach by phone; a small amount keeps any correction simple. Tell the customer the invoice will come via Peppol and ask them to confirm it arrived.
4. Look the customer up and build the invoice. Check 0208: plus the customer's enterprise number on lookup.peppol.org. Create the invoice with Nouvelle facture (new invoice) and check it with Aperçu du PDF (PDF preview). Saving fixes the number, so create only an invoice you mean to issue, and do not click Save yet: step 6 saves and sends in one go.
5. Open Envoyer without sending. Envoyer (send) opens Envoyer la facture and checks the customer (Vérification de l'éligibilité...). If Envoi électronique via Peppol (electronic sending via Peppol) is ticked, the customer was found. Not ready? Annuler (cancel) closes the panel without saving or sending anything.
6. Send once. Untick Email unless the customer asked for a copy, then click Sauvegarder & Envoyer (save and send).
7. Watch the Outbox. In Peppol → Outbox, the row moves from En file (queued) to Traité (processed); Vérifier (check) on the row checks at once. Traité means network delivery, not approval or payment. Most invoices arrive within minutes to a couple of hours (FPS Finance); after one working day, contact OrdoGrid support instead of sending again. Erreur means not delivered, or the outcome is unknown: fix the cause, then retry the same invoice once; if OrdoGrid refuses because an earlier outcome must first be reconciled, or Erreur persists, contact OrdoGrid support. A transport failure alone needs no credit note.
8. Prove reception with a real document. Ask a regular supplier to send its next invoice via Peppol and check that it reaches Peppol → Inbox marked NOUVEAU (new), or your other provider's inbox in send-only mode.

What to prove, and how, without a test mode

Sending an Invoice Response is optional in standard Peppol BIS, and responses reach OrdoGrid only in Mode : Envoi + réception.

Worked example: Studio Fabre's first live send

Studio Fabre SRL, a graphic design studio in Mons, was founded in September 2026. Its enterprise number is 1023.456.797 (new numbers start with 1), so its Peppol ID is 0208:1023456797. The manager, Julie Fabre, sets up Peppol in OrdoGrid on Monday 5 October 2026.

The arithmetic: €50.00 × 21% = €10.50, and €50.00 + €10.50 = €60.50. Nothing was spent on practice: no number lost, no credit note, one Peppol send, and every step left evidence Julie can file.

Worked example: a test invoice that already went out

On 1 October 2026, Électricité Hubert SRL in Charleroi sent F-2026-0212, “TEST – ne pas payer”, for €1.00 + €0.21 VAT (21%) = €1.21 to the Peppol ID of its customer Garage Collin SA, just to see whether it worked. The Outbox showed Traité.

1. It is a real invoice. F-2026-0212 sits in Hubert's sequence. OrdoGrid cannot delete it, since it is no longer a draft and a Peppol transmission was prepared; the next invoice will be F-2026-0213.
2. The customer received an invoice. Following FPS Finance guidance on invoices not intended for the recipient, Garage Collin rejects it. Hubert also receives Peppol documents in OrdoGrid (Envoi + réception), so Réponses reçues shows Rejetée (rejected) on the invoice in the Outbox.
3. Cancel it with a credit note. In Factures, Hubert ticks F-2026-0212 and clicks Note de crédit (credit note). NC-2026-0009 repeats the line, €1.00 + €0.21 = €1.21, with “Annulation de la facture de test F-2026-0212” in Notes, and goes out via Peppol. F-2026-0212 then shows Annulée (cancelled). Because the credit note credits Belgian VAT to a customer with a VAT number, OrdoGrid automatically adds the mention about VAT to be repaid to the State, on the PDF and in the Peppol XML, which also carries the Notes (see Correct, cancel or credit an issued invoice).
4. VAT nets to zero. €0.21 charged and €0.21 credited: nothing is due, but both documents stay in the outgoing-invoice book and the accountant needs an explanation.
5. The cost. Two Peppol sends where one real invoice would have done, an email to Garage Collin, and two documents to keep for seven years. The cancellation by credit note requires Starter or Business. On the free forever plan, a practice invoice would use that month's one outgoing invoice; waiting until next month does not unlock credit-note issuance.

Had F-2026-0213, Hubert's next real invoice, been the first Peppol send, there would have been nothing to undo. More: Correct, cancel or credit an issued invoice.

For API integrators: there is no sandbox

The public API requires the Business plan. It works on the same company data and the same production network as the app; the free plan's monthly invoice allowance does not provide API access.

• No test keys. Every key starts with ik_live_ and acts for one company only.
• Read-only calls are safe. GET /api/v1/me confirms which company a key acts for; GET /api/v1/peppol/participants/{vat_number} tells you whether a counterparty is reachable. Neither creates nor sends anything.
• "send": false checks creation, not Peppol. On POST /api/v1/peppol/send it creates the invoice in your books without transmitting it: the invoice takes a number. Business API access and a signed Peppol authorisation are still required (PEPPOL_APPROVAL_REQUIRED), but the recipient lookup and the XML validation run only when the invoice is sent. Documents are never hard-deleted through the API (DELETE moves them to the deleted lifecycle), so the number stays used.
• Test your code against recorded responses. We recommend stubbing the API in your test suite. Handle PEPPOL_APPROVAL_REQUIRED, PEPPOL_LIMIT_REACHED, PEPPOL_CLIENT_NOT_FOUND, PEPPOL_XML_INVALID and PEPPOL_TRANSMISSION_UNCERTAIN, and send an Idempotency-Key on POST calls so a retry does not create a second invoice.
• Go live with one real invoice, as in the procedure above. More: Public API integration.

Edge cases and common mistakes

Evidence to keep

What the law requires. Keep invoices and credit notes, sent and received, for seven years from 1 January of the year after their date (art. 60 VAT Code, as amended by the Law of 18 December 2025), with authenticity, integrity and legibility intact. A test invoice that went out, and its credit note, are no exception.

What OrdoGrid keeps. The exact XML and PDF it transmitted, with their SHA-256 hashes and the validation release used. OrdoGrid is not a legal archive and guarantees no retention period.

What we recommend: a Statut screenshot; dated lookups of your ID and the customer's; the XML and PDF of your first Peppol invoice (Outbox row, download menu) with its Traité date; the customer's confirmation; the ZIP of your first received invoice; for a test that went out, the credit note, any rejection and your email to the customer.

FAQ

Does OrdoGrid have a Peppol test or sandbox mode?

No. Neither the app nor the public API has one: every Peppol send goes to the production network and reaches a real recipient, and every saved invoice takes a real number.

Can I send a test invoice to my customer to check that Peppol works?

Do not. It arrives as a real invoice, stays in your numbering and must be cancelled with a credit note. Send a real invoice for completed work instead, and tell the customer it is coming.

How can I check the Peppol format without sending anything?

You do not need to. OrdoGrid validates every file against the UBL 2.1 schema, EN 16931 and the Peppol BIS Billing 3.0.21 rules when you send, and transmits nothing if a rule fails. Check the content yourself with Aperçu du PDF.

What is the Peppol test network for?

Service providers use it, with test certificates, to pass conformance tests in the Peppol Testbed before they receive production certificates. It has its own address book, so nothing sent there reaches a business on the production network.

I already sent a test invoice on Peppol. What now?

Treat it as issued: keep it in your books, cancel it with a full credit note sent via Peppol, tell the customer and inform your accountant. Do not reuse its number.

How do I prove that I can receive Peppol invoices?

Check your ID on lookup.peppol.org, then ask a regular supplier to send its next real invoice via Peppol and check that it arrives in Peppol → Inbox, or at the provider that receives for you.