Before you begin
Connecting to Peppol involves more than a registration in the network. At least as important is how e-invoices leave your own systems and how incoming e-invoices end up in your accounts. That largely determines how much work connecting will be for you.
Whether Peppol is the right route depends on your recipients and the countries in which you do business; for that, read Types of e-invoicing and Mandatory e-invoicing. You can read what it costs in What does e-invoicing via Peppol cost?
Connecting step by step
- Determine what you want to exchange and with whom: Do you want to send, receive or both? Which documents (invoices, credit notes, orders), with which trading partners and in which countries? Also check whether your organisation is already registered on Peppol, for example because your accounting software did so earlier. You can see this in the Peppol address book.
- Choose your route: There are several routes: from Peppol built into your software package or a web portal to an integration with your ERP. Your route determines which of the following steps you carry out yourself and which are arranged for you. Below you will find what that means for each route.
- Enter into an agreement with a service provider: Peppol requires an agreement between you and your service provider. In it, you authorise the provider to send and receive on your behalf, while you remain responsible for the content of your invoices. If you use a software package with built-in Peppol, this is usually part of the terms of your package.
- Have your organisation’s identity verified: The service provider must establish who you are: your official identification number, name, address and contact details, and that you own the number under which you register. How this is done varies. Sometimes still through a small payment from your business account; forward-looking service providers use more reliable means such as eHerkenning (the Dutch business login scheme) in the Netherlands and comparable means in Belgium, Luxembourg, France and Germany. Peppol is a trust service: reliable identification helps determine how certain you and your trading partners can be about who you are doing business with.
- Have your Peppol ID registered: Your service provider registers you in the address book (SMP) under a Peppol ID. In the Netherlands, this is at least your Chamber of Commerce (KvK) number, OIN (government organisation identification number) or VAT number; public sector bodies use the OIN. In other countries, other numbers apply, such as the KBO/BCE number in Belgium, the SIREN or SIRET number in France, the LU:MAT number in Luxembourg and, for public sector recipients in Germany, the Leitweg-ID. You choose which document types you can receive. Only register what you can actually process: anyone who finds you can send you those documents. If you wish, you can also be visible in the public Peppol Directory.
- Set up the processing: How do e-invoices leave your system, and where do incoming e-invoices end up? Outgoing invoices must comply with Peppol BIS, with mandatory fields such as the buyer reference or the order number. In a software package, this is built in. In an ERP environment, this is the most demanding part: converting invoice data, maintaining customer master data with their Peppol ID, matching incoming invoices to purchase orders, and country-specific requirements.
- Test the entire chain: Send and receive test invoices, check whether mandatory fields are filled in correctly and whether incoming e-invoices end up correctly in your accounts. Use your provider’s test environment for this; in production, only real, active organisations may be registered.
- Go live and inform your trading partners: Let customers and suppliers know under which Peppol ID you can be reached. Ask suppliers to invoice via Peppol and give them your purchase order number or buyer reference, so that their invoices are matched automatically.
- Keep your registration up to date: If your details or document types change, your provider updates the registration. If you switch to another provider, the old provider must transfer or end your registration; in the Netherlands within three working days. Your invoice data remains yours.
What it means in your situation
The steps apply to everyone, but each route takes a different part of the work off your hands. Many organisations also combine routes, for example a software package for sales invoices and a different solution for purchasing.
Peppol is built into your accounting or invoicing software
Your software package takes care of a large part of the steps. The agreement with the service provider is usually part of the terms of your package, and registration and processing are built in. What you do yourself: activate the feature, complete your organisation's identification, choose which documents you want to receive and test a first invoice. Check the Peppol address book beforehand to see whether your organisation is already registered.
A service provider's web portal
You work without your own e-invoicing software: you enter or upload invoices in a service provider's portal, and you also receive e-invoices there. You enter into the agreement yourself, complete the identification and have yourself registered. Processing remains largely manual: you transfer invoices into your accounts yourself. Suitable for a small number of invoices, less so if you want to automate volume.
A separate service linked to your software
Your software package does not support Peppol itself, but it does support a connection or import and export. You choose a service provider, enter into the agreement, complete the identification and have yourself registered. Most of the work lies in the processing: how invoices move back and forth between your software and the service, and whether incoming invoices enter your accounts automatically or you have to transfer them manually.
Your accountant or bookkeeping firm arranges it
Your accountant or bookkeeping firm works with a software package or service that supports Peppol and arranges the connection on your behalf. Your organisation's identification is still required, because you yourself are the end user. Make clear agreements: under which Peppol ID you can be reached, who sees incoming invoices, and what happens to your registration if you later switch accountants.
An EDI service provider or purchase-to-pay platform that also offers Peppol
If you already exchange messages through an EDI service provider or a procurement platform, Peppol can often run through the same party and the same connection. You then reuse the agreement and the existing connection. The work lies in converting your existing messages to Peppol BIS, registering your organisation and testing with trading partners who will invoice via Peppol.
An integration with your ERP, possibly via your own middleware
All steps apply here, often separately for each legal entity and each country. Connecting is one part of an integration project: converting invoice data to the European standard, maintaining customer master data with their Peppol ID, matching incoming invoices to purchase orders, country-specific requirements and extensive testing with trading partners. Plan this as a project, with an internal owner, your IT department or integration partner, and room for testing. You can read how to set this up technically in Integrating Peppol into your software.
Public sector organisation
Public sector bodies must be able to receive and process e-invoices. Many public sector bodies use a central or shared facility; others set up their own receiving route to their financial system. Connecting here is mainly about that route and about addressing: in the Netherlands, public sector bodies register under their OIN. Read E-invoicing for public sector bodies.
What to look for when choosing a provider
Providers differ considerably from one another. Because this choice has a major impact, it pays to compare several providers side by side in the comparison tool on Peppol.now. There you can filter by your software, sector and coverage area.
Connection to your software
Supported document types and countries
Direction of traffic
Pricing model
Support and onboarding
Certification
Switching
For software vendors: connecting your customers
If you are a software vendor, the question is not how you connect yourself, but how you connect your customers. Broadly speaking, you choose between three routes: becoming a service provider yourself, building in the functionality of a specialised service provider via an API, or having your customers work with an external service that you connect to. That choice depends on your number of customers, the countries in which they do business, how much control you want to retain and how quickly you want to get to market.
You can read which architecture suits you, what to look for in an API and how to test before going live in Integrating Peppol into your software. If you are considering becoming a service provider yourself, read Becoming a certified Peppol service provider.
