Choosing
e-invoicing software

With the network chosen and the start date set, the question for most small businesses is practical: which software will I use? The market is already moving. The government's consultation response notes that several e-invoicing products are available in the UK, including from Making Tax Digital providers focused on small businesses, and it wants a diverse, competitive market with affordable options. This guide helps you choose well without needing to understand the technical standards underneath. It does not recommend particular products; it gives you the questions that sort good ones from bad.

The kinds of product

For most small businesses, one product that covers invoicing, Making Tax Digital and e-invoicing is the simplest. Every extra product is another subscription, another login and another place for data to go out of step. The guide on e-invoicing and MTD explains why the two fit together.

Must-have features

The access point is the part that connects you to Peppol. Your software may be one, or may work with one behind the scenes; the guide on Peppol access points explains the options.

Nice-to-have features

• Automatic matching of incoming invoices to purchase orders and payments.
• Payment links on invoices, for faster payment.
• Automatic reminders for overdue invoices.
• Bank feeds, so payments reconcile themselves.
• A PDF copy attached to each e-invoice, for people who like to read one.
• Accountant access, so your adviser can see your records directly.

None of these is essential for the mandate, but together they are where most of the day-to-day time saving comes from. Automatic reminders and payment links in particular help with late payment, which the government's response cites as one of the main reasons for the mandate. For the rules on chasing, see how to chase an unpaid invoice.

Working out the real cost

Pricing for e-invoicing varies: included in a subscription, charged per document, sold in bundles, or a monthly fee for a volume. To compare fairly, estimate a year:

Set that against the time saved. The government's response cites a potential cut in invoicing costs of 60% to 80%, and some respondents reported manual costs of £30 to £50 per invoice, much of it spent keying in received bills.

Questions to ask a provider

1. Are you an accredited Peppol access point, or which accredited provider do you work with?
2. Do you both send and receive e-invoices, including credit notes?
3. Will you support the UK standards once published, and by when?
4. Do you support Making Tax Digital for VAT and for Income Tax?
5. How long do you keep my invoices, and how do I export them?
6. What happens to my registration on the network if I leave?
7. What does a year cost at my volume, including received invoices?
8. How do you tell me when an invoice is rejected, and how do I fix it?

A simple way to compare

Score each option from 0 to 2 on the criteria that matter to you, then add them up. A worked example for a VAT-registered consultant comparing three products:

The scores are illustrative, not ratings of real products. The point is to weigh what you need, not the longest feature list.

Red flags

• "Fully compliant with the UK mandate." The UK standards have not been published, so nobody can yet show compliance with them. A commitment to meet them is the honest claim.
• Sending only. You will receive e-invoices too.
• PDF by email presented as e-invoicing. A PDF is not an e-invoice under the UK plans.
• A closed network. Some portals only reach their own users. Peppol reaches every business on the network.
• No way out. No export, long contracts or exit fees.

Security and data protection

Your invoices contain your customers' details, your bank details and your prices, so treat security as a core feature, not an extra. Consultation respondents raised cyber security and data protection repeatedly, and the government has said it will consider appropriate security standards for e-invoice transmission. When you compare software, check that it offers two-factor sign-in, lets you control who in your business can see and send invoices, keeps an audit trail of changes, and explains how it handles personal data under UK data protection law. E-invoicing itself should reduce one kind of risk: invoices exchanged through secure systems are much harder to fake than emailed PDFs, and good software can flag an invoice that asks you to pay a new bank account.

Moving from your current software

If you decide to switch, plan the move rather than doing it mid-quarter:

1. Pick a clean start date, ideally the start of a VAT period, so returns are not split across two systems.
2. Export everything from the old system: customers, suppliers, products, open invoices and past invoices you must keep.
3. Import and check customer and supplier details, particularly legal names and VAT numbers.
4. Continue your invoice numbering so the sequence stays unique and unbroken.
5. Reconnect Making Tax Digital in the new software before your next return or update is due.
6. Keep read access to the old system, or a full export, for as long as you must keep the records.

What good support looks like

When an e-invoice is rejected, you need a clear answer quickly: what failed, and how to fix it. Before choosing, look at the provider's help pages on e-invoicing, check whether support is included in your plan, and ask how it will communicate changes as the UK standards are published. A provider that explains the roadmap to its users in plain English is a good sign.

When to choose

You do not need to decide today. A sensible order is: ask your current provider about its plans now; if it does not keep your invoices as data or cannot meet Making Tax Digital, switch now for that reason alone; otherwise, confirm its plans after the Budget 2026 roadmap, and make your final choice once the UK standards are published, leaving months to test before April 2029. If a customer such as an NHS body already requires Peppol invoices, you will need a solution sooner.

If you are not VAT registered

The mandate as announced covers VAT invoices, and the government has said many of the smallest businesses that are not required to register for VAT and choose not to will not be obliged to adopt e-invoicing. You may still want software that could do it later, especially if your turnover is growing. The VAT registration checker shows how close you are to the £90,000 threshold, and the MTD requirement checker shows when Making Tax Digital applies, which for many sole traders comes first.

Next steps

Work through the preparation checklist, which puts software choice in context, and read what an access point is and what e-invoicing means if the terms are new. Whatever you choose, keep a clean invoice numbering sequence; the invoice number generator sets one up in seconds.