Peppol
Definition Peppol
Peppol stands for “Pan-European Public Procurement On-Line”. It is an international network that was developed to standardize and facilitate the electronic exchange of business documents, in particular invoices and orders.
Peppol enables companies and public institutions to exchange electronic documents via a common, interoperable infrastructure, regardless of the software solutions used. This helps to simplify processes, reduce costs and increase efficiency. In particular for SMEs, most of which do not have international branches, EU-wide participation in public tenders and procurement processes should be made easier or possible.
Peppol is managed and further developed by the international, non-profit organization “OpenPeppol”, which was founded in 2012 and consists of public and private Peppol stakeholders. OpenPeppol is responsible for the governance of the Peppol network and ensures that the standards and protocols remain consistent and interoperable.
Peppol Authorities
Peppol Authorities are national or regional bodies responsible for managing and monitoring the Peppol infrastructure in their respective jurisdictions. They play a central role in the implementation and promotion of Peppol standards and protocols at local level. In Germany, the Coordination Office for IT Standards (KoSIT) is responsible.
Functions of the Peppol Authorities:
How Does Peppol Work?
Peppol is based on a set of technical specifications and standards that are managed by the OpenPEPPOL organization. The network itself consists of so-called access points, which act as intermediaries between the various participants.
- 1
Registration: Companies register with a Peppol Access Point of their choice. This can be a service provider that offers access to the Peppol network.
- 2
Document Creation: The business documents (e.g. invoices) are created in accordance with the Peppol standards. This ensures that all documents are standardized and interoperable.
- 3
Document Transmission: The documents are fed into the Peppol network via the access point. The sender’s access point sends the document to the recipient’s access point.
- 4
Document Reception: The recipient’s access point receives the document and forwards it to the recipient.
- 5
Confirmation: The recipient can confirm receipt of the document, so the sender can be sure that the document has arrived.
The 4 Corner Model from Peppol
This is what the transfer of invoices with Peppol looks like in practice:
Four important elements guarantee the functionality of the 4 Corner model:
- 1
Access Points: are Peppol-certified service providers that connect to each other and enable trading partners to send and receive messages via the Peppol network. Sending access points must validate outgoing messages before sending to ensure compliance with the Peppol Business Interoperability Specifications (BIS).
- 2
ACL: The “Addressing and Capability Lookup”: These services can be offered by Peppol-certified service providers either separately or together with AP services. They enable trading partners to publish their availability and supported message types and formats electronically on the network.
- 3
Service-Metadata Locator (SML): determines which SMP an access point must connect to in order to determine the address data of any trading partner in the Peppol network (comparable to domain names on the Internet). The Peppol SML is a single centralized service provided by OpenPeppol.
- 4
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI): is used by the Peppol network to establish and maintain a trusted network that provides security and integrity for all messages exchanged over the Peppol network.
Benefits of Peppol for Companies
Peppol serves as a central platform for the electronic exchange of invoices. In Germany, the platform is also used in particular for invoicing the federal government, which has had to be carried out using the XRechnung standard since 2020. Although companies are not generally obliged to use Peppol, they often make use of the practical solution.
Who Can Use Peppol?
Peppol can be used by a wide range of parties, including
Requirements for the Use of Peppol
The following requirements must be met in order to use Peppol:
Where is Peppol Used?
Advantages of Peppol
Peppol is a powerful tool for improving electronic commerce and offers a standardized, efficient and secure solution for the exchange of business documents. The increasing adoption and support from governments and businesses worldwide underlines the importance of this network for the future of global trade.
