What is Peppol?
Peppol (Pan-European Public Procurement On-Line) is a global network for exchanging electronic business documents including invoices, orders, and despatch advices. It operates through certified Access Points and uses a four-corner model for secure, standardized document exchange. Over 40 countries have adopted Peppol for public procurement and e-invoicing.
How does the Peppol four-corner model work?
Peppol uses a four-corner model where direct integration between every sender and receiver is not required. Documents flow through certified Access Points:
- Corner 1 (Sender): The business sending the document
- Corner 2 (Sender's Access Point): Certified Peppol AP validates and transmits the document
- Corner 3 (Receiver's Access Point): Certified Peppol AP receives and validates the document
- Corner 4 (Receiver): The business receiving the document
What document formats does Peppol use?
Peppol mandates UBL 2.1 as its primary document format for invoices and related documents. Peppol BIS (Business Interoperability Specifications) define the exact implementation rules on top of UBL. PINT extends this for international jurisdictions.
- Peppol BIS Billing 3.0: Standard European invoice and credit note. Based on UBL 2.1 and EN 16931.
- Peppol PINT: International extension of BIS Billing for non-European jurisdictions (JP, SG, AU, NZ, MY).
- Peppol Order: Purchase order based on UBL 2.1 Order.
- Peppol Despatch Advice: Shipping notification based on UBL 2.1 DespatchAdvice.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is Peppol mandatory?
- Peppol is mandatory for public sector procurement in many European countries. In private sector B2B, Peppol adoption is voluntary in most jurisdictions except where specific mandates apply (e.g., Singapore's InvoiceNow program for government suppliers).
- What is a Peppol Access Point?
- A Peppol Access Point (AP) is a certified service provider that connects businesses to the Peppol network. Access Points transmit documents on behalf of senders and receive documents on behalf of receivers. Businesses must contract with a certified AP to exchange documents via Peppol.
- What is the Peppol SMP?
- The Service Metadata Publisher (SMP) is a directory that records which documents each Peppol participant can receive and via which Access Point. Senders query the SMP before transmitting to look up the receiver's AP and supported document types.
- Does Peppol support Factur-X?
- No. Peppol uses UBL 2.1 as its invoice format. Factur-X uses CII (Cross Industry Invoice) as its XML component. Factur-X documents cannot be transmitted natively via Peppol without format conversion to UBL.