Finance Flow Conference 2026: einvoicing, finance in sport and the European Business Wallet

Einvoicing is changing faster than most organisations can keep up with. National mandates are piling up, European regulation is closing in, and operations still have to run. On 19 May 2026, the Finance Flow Conference by Heliview brings together the people dealing with exactly that at Stadion Galgenwaard in Utrecht. As Knowledge Partner, Peppol.now previews three sessions: on cross-border einvoicing, on finance and procurement in sport, and on the European Business Wallet that is coming whether organisations are ready or not.

Bridgestone’s einvoicing journey: collaborating across borders

Anyone responsible for einvoicing in an internationally operating organisation will recognise the problem immediately: every country has its own rules, its own networks and its own timeline. What works in the Netherlands via Peppol is handled differently in France, and differently again in Belgium. The question is not whether you will have to deal with this, but how you keep control of it.

Tomas Rosales, Head E2E Finance Optimization at Bridgestone EMEA, gives an honest account of how Bridgestone approached this challenge. He goes into concrete detail on the collaboration between tax, IT and finance: three disciplines with their own priorities, forced to work in the same lane during an international einvoicing implementation. How do you organise that, and what goes wrong when you do not?

Rosales covers how Bridgestone handled the Belgian Peppol mandate, ViDA, and national requirements that differ from country to country. He also addresses customer self-billing, a model in which the buyer invoices on behalf of the supplier. It occurs more often in international supply chains than expected, with direct fiscal and operational implications.

This is not a presentation about how everything went smoothly. Rosales is candid about the complexity and the lessons Bridgestone had to learn along the way. That is precisely what makes this session useful for anyone facing similar choices.

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Behind the scenes at FC Utrecht: finance and procurement in sport

Every finance professional knows the situation: an organisation with a strong culture of its own, where operational logic long dominated over financial and administrative structure. Commercial thinking, informal arrangements, a procurement model that grew out of relationships. And then the assignment to professionalise it, without breaking the culture.

Edo Keuning, General Director of FC Utrecht and former CFO/COO of the club, takes you through exactly that situation. For years, FC Utrecht ran a procurement model driven by commercial deals, barter arrangements and revenue thinking. Understandable in an environment where sponsorship relationships and sporting results go hand in hand. But it clashes with what a professional financial and administrative organisation requires.

Keuning shows how the club is now restructuring that model: which decisions were made, what resistance they met, and how you gain control of procurement accountability and financial management in an organisation with a strong identity of its own. He combines his background as Regional Director Retail Banking at ABN AMRO with over five years of direct experience in professional sport.

The parallels with other sectors are immediately recognisable. Anyone working in an environment with hybrid procurement models, strong operational cultures or limited finance maturity will find their own situation reflected in the dilemmas of FC Utrecht.

The European Business Wallet is coming: what your organisation needs to know now

How much time does it take your organisation to onboard a new supplier? How often do you enter the same company data again for a tender, a permit or a compliance check? The European Business Wallet, or EBW, is the European answer to that question. And the timeline is more concrete than most organisations realise.

The EBW is a digital business wallet that allows companies across the EU to centrally manage and share their company data. Processes that currently require a great deal of paperwork and repeated data entry are simplified: from onboarding customers and suppliers to AML procedures, tenders, permit applications and einvoicing. Every company active in the EU will eventually be affected.

Negotiations at EU level are underway now. The expectation is a regulation adopted before the end of 2026, with the first EBW deployments already possible in 2027. Jelle ten Hoor, Policy Officer at the Ministry of Economic Affairs, explains in his masterclass where the Netherlands currently stands, what the EBW means in practice for your organisation, and where the greatest time savings can be made.

For anyone working on einvoicing, the EBW is particularly relevant: the wallet is designed so that einvoicing can be an integral part of it. The choices you make now about your einvoicing infrastructure will directly affect how smoothly you connect when the time comes. That makes this session not just informative, but strategically important.

Register for the Finance Flow Conference

The Finance Flow Conference takes place on 19 May 2026 at Stadion Galgenwaard, Utrecht. A full day for finance and procurement professionals who want to understand where things are heading and what that means for their organisation today.

Register at heliview.com/finance-flow-conference. Use relation code EHB7T28KSL when registering via Peppol.now.

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