What Do I Need To Be Able To Work With A Peppol Access Point?

With a number of providers in the market, organisations have a lot of options when it comes to being able to work with a Peppol Access Point. The standardised nature of the Peppol framework makes it relatively straightforward for organisations to be able to get connected through these access points – but a common question is what does an organisation need to be able to work with a Peppol Access point? We take a deep dive in.

sending a peppol e-invoice

To be able to send a Peppol e-invoice you will need a way to be able to extract data from your accounts receivable platform in a Business Interoperability Specifications (or BIS) format and into the Access Point. In some accounts receivable platforms they may have this ability in the platform. If it can’t, your Access Point provider will be able to integrate with your platform, extract and translate the data into a BIS format.

What invoice information is required to send a Peppol invoice?

Peppol e-invoicing has mandatory requirements to ensure that security, compliance and robustness of the network is maintained. Fortunately the large majority of the data required for an invoice is in line with what needs to be on your invoices now. In order to send a Peppol invoice you will need to be able to provide:

• Invoice number
• Invoice date
• Invoice due date
• Document type (e.g. invoice, credit note etc)
• Invoice currency
• Customer reference or purchase order reference
• Customer email address
• Sales order reference
• Contract reference
• Your business details
• Your business tax ID (e.g. ABN)
• Your email
• Payment reference
• Bank account details
• Payment terms
• Invoice line item details including tax
• Invoice total details including tax

Your Access Point provider may be able to augment your existing data to ensure you meet the requirements to send an invoice – this should be part of your conversations with them.

receiving a peppol e-invoice

To be able to receive a Peppol e-invoice you will need a way to be able to receive data, which will be in a BIS format, from your Access Point into your Accounts Payable platform. Again, some accounts payable platforms may have the ability to connect and translate a Peppol BIS invoice into a format that can be imported. If your platform can’t, your Access Point provider will be able to integrate with your platform, extract and translate the data from a BIS format into a format that can be imported by your platform.

What fields are required to receive a Peppol invoice?

When you receive a Peppol e-invoice you will receive all of the mandatory data in that invoice (see What invoice information is required to send a Peppol invoice? Section above ). However there is not a requirement for you to use all of that data if you don’t want to. You can work directly with your access point provider to determine what data you want to integrate into your financial systems that are made available with the Peppol invoice.

Can I use a different access point for sending and receiving invoices? 

Absolutely, the Peppol network has been specifically designed to enable choice for people who are using the network, meaning that you can use one access point provider for sending e-invoice and a different access point provider for receiving the invoices. Depending on your circumstances some businesses may benefit from having one access point provider to both send and receive e-invoices.