PEPPOL (Pan-European Public Procurement On-Line) is a standard defined by the EU. PEPPOL is based on open standards, such as the OASIS ebXML and AS4 protocols, and is designed to be compatible with other e-procurement systems. It aims to provide a common, interoperable framework for businesses to exchange electronic documents with each other and with public authorities.
Nowadays, PEPPOL is an extremely secure, international network that allow the exchange of these business documents between any partner that is registered within the PEPPOL network. Most of the entities are European Public Sector companies that use PEPPOL to receive invoices following legal requirements defined by several EU countries (Netherlands, Belgium, Germany…). However, with time, many other Public and Private companies are adopting this standard for the exchange of electronic Business Documents.
PEPPOL standard is based in a 4-corner communication model. That means that invoices are not directly exchanged between companies but through their respective PEPPOL Access Points. For example, Company A needs to send an invoice to Company B. In this case, A sends the invoice to its Access Point which is in charge to transport it securely to the recipient’s (B) Access Point. In the last step, the recipient access point, forwards the invoice to the receiver, Company B.

Of course, all this process is done following PEPPOL standards and service specifications. That covers the communication process as well as ensuring that the business document complies with the PEPPOL standard. Currently, together with PEPPOL coexist other eInvoice standards as Svefactura (Sweden) or Nemhandel (Netherlands) but, in the future, is expected that these standards are phased out as all EU public authorities should be able to receive PEPPOL invoices since April 2020.
If you want to integrate your SAP system with the PEPPOL network, do not hesitate to contact us because we do have lot of experience in the field.
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