Peppol enables buyers and sellers to communicate easily in business transactions. The most common document type is the e-invoice, but Peppol also handles other types of business documents, such as credit invoices, orders, and price lists.
Peppol consists of three parts – a network, a format, and legislation:
1) A network that allows business partners to send and receive business documents entirely electronically over the Internet. The most common are e-invoices, but Peppol can handle various other documents.
2) A format standard for electronic documents, such as e-invoices.
3) EU legislation sets out Member States’ obligations and how Peppol should be governed and administered via the non-profit organization OpenPeppol.
The format standard within the Peppol network is Peppol BIS Billing 3.0. However, other types of electronic formats, such as Svefaktura, Finvoice, and others, can also be distributed.
The documents are sent directly to each party’s ERP system, accounting, invoice management software, or order management system. Companies and organizations can apply to become access points, but this is typically enabled by a third-party Peppol service provider.
The transfer takes place in any of the following XML formats:
- UBL, Universal Business Language
- CII, Cross Industry Invoice
UBL is the most common XML format. Suppliers may choose any of these two formats for their customer invoices, but public entities must be able to handle both.
Need to find your customer’s Peppol ID? Go to our Peppol ID search.
