Peppol: the B2B network powering Peppol e-invoicing

• Peppol is a network. It moves documents through certified Access Points.
• Peppol e-invoicing runs on BIS Billing, fully compliant with EN 16931.
• Data flows through a 4-corner model: sender, sender's Access Point, recipient's Access Point, recipient.
• Peppol covers both B2G and B2B invoicing. B2B has grown fast under new mandates.
• In some markets, Peppol sits alongside formats like XRechnung or Chorus Pro.
• Doxis handles Peppol e-invoicing both ways for SAP: outbound through Billing for SAP, inbound through Invoice Automation for SAP.
• The UK's e-invoicing mandate takes effect April 2029, using the same Peppol 4-corner model as the EU.

Peppol, short for Pan-European Public Procurement Online, is an international network operated by the non-profit association OpenPeppol.

It lets organizations exchange structured electronic documents, including invoices, orders, and catalogs, with any other connected organization through certified Access Points, without building a direct connection to each trading partner.

Peppol plays two distinct roles, and separating them clears up most of the confusion around it.

As a network: Peppol is the transport layer. Organizations connect through certified Access Points, which handle secure, standardized delivery regardless of what internal systems sit on either end.

You don't need a direct integration with every supplier or customer, just a connection to the network.

As a format: Peppol defines Peppol BIS (Business Interoperability Specifications), the document structures that specify exactly what fields an invoice, order, or credit note must contain.

BIS Billing, the invoice specification, is fully compliant with the EU's EN 16931 standard, the semantic data model behind most European e-invoicing mandates.

The 4-corner model

Peppol e-invoices don't travel directly from sender to recipient. They move through a 4-corner model:

1. The sender submits the invoice to their own Access Point, along with the recipient's Peppol ID.
2. The sender's Access Point routes the invoice to the recipient's Access Point, based on that ID.
3. The recipient's Access Point delivers the invoice into the recipient's invoice receipt platform for processing.

Each participant registers a Peppol ID with an Access Point, which is how the network finds the right destination without either party needing to know the other's internal systems.

Peppol Access Points

An Access Point is a certified gateway, typically run by a private-sector service provider, that connects your organization to the Peppol network.

Every country with an active Peppol Authority has certified Access Points available, and authorized ones are easy to verify through their Peppol certification.

Security is built into every hop: data protection standards apply at each Access Point, and the network logs every interaction for traceability.

Peppol started as a way to make public-sector tenders more accessible to SMEs bidding across EU borders, which is why B2G (business-to-government) use came first.

Public authorities in many EU member states are required to receive structured e-invoices from suppliers.

In Germany, that requirement has applied federally since November 2020, using the XRechnung format, which can be transmitted over Peppol among other channels.

B2B adoption has since overtaken that original scope.

As national e-invoicing mandates take effect, Peppol has become one of the most common ways businesses meet them, because one connection covers every country on the network.

The network now reaches well beyond Europe too, with active adoption in Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore, among others.

Peppol BIS Billing is standardized enough to satisfy mandatory e-invoicing requirements across much of Europe without converting into a separate national format.

That's a real advantage for businesses trading across borders: one format, one network connection, compliant everywhere it's accepted.

It isn't universal, though. Some countries run their own platforms and formats that aren't fully interoperable with Peppol.

Germany's XRechnung standard governs invoicing to federal government entities, and while Peppol can carry XRechnung-compliant documents, it isn't the only route.

France's Chorus Pro plays a similar role for invoicing French government entities, but it's B2G-only.

French B2B e-invoicing runs through a separate system, the Public Invoicing Portal (PPF) and accredited private platforms (PDPs).

Poland's KSeF and Italy's SDI are further examples of national platforms operating alongside Peppol.

The practical takeaway: check what your specific market and trading partners require before assuming Peppol alone covers you.

In many cases it does. In some, it's one piece of a broader compliance setup.

The UK is following the same Peppol-based direction.

From April 1, 2029, the UK e-invoicing mandate requires structured, machine-readable invoices for B2B and B2G VAT transactions, confirmed at Autumn Budget 2025.

Peppol invoicing in the UK runs through the same 4-corner model used across the EU: sender, sender's Access Point, recipient's Access Point, recipient.

Full technical standards are due at Budget 2026, but the direction of travel is set. Read the UK e-invoicing mandate timeline for what's confirmed so far and how to prepare.

Receiving a Peppol e-invoice is only the start of the process.

Once it's captured, it still needs validating, matching, approving, posting, and archiving, and each of those steps carries its own compliance requirement.

A validated invoice has to route through the right approval workflow before it can post to your ERP, with an audit trail showing who approved what and when.

After posting, it needs to land in an audit-proof archive that meets retention rules like GoBD in Germany or equivalent standards elsewhere, and stay retrievable for the length of that retention period.

Handling Peppol connectivity as an isolated integration, separate from approval workflows and archiving, recreates the fragmentation e-invoicing was supposed to remove.

The stronger setup treats Peppol as one entry and exit point on a platform that already manages the rest of the document's lifecycle.

For SAP customers, Doxis handles Peppol e-invoicing in both directions.

On the outbound side, Doxis Billing for SAP dispatches invoices directly from SAP ECC or S/4HANA through Peppol Access Points, alongside portals like SDI and KSeF, with real-time status monitoring so you can see exactly what was sent, delivered, and paid.

On the inbound side, Doxis Invoice Automation for SAP captures incoming Peppol invoices, matches them against the purchase order and goods receipt in SAP, and routes them for approval without manual re-entry.

Both capabilities sit on the same Doxis Intelligent Content Automation platform that handles the rest of the document lifecycle. That matters because Peppol connectivity on its own only solves the transport problem.

The platform also covers audit-proof archiving, approval workflows, and full order-to-cash and purchase-to-pay processes, so an invoice that arrives through Peppol and one that arrives as a PDF end up in the same governed process.

With Doxis for Peppol e-invoicing, you get:

• Outbound e-invoice dispatch through Peppol, SDI, KSeF, and other portals, automatically updated as formats and mandates change
• Inbound Peppol invoice capture with automatic PO and goods receipt matching
• Full visibility into transmission, payment, and approval status for every invoice
• Audit-proof archiving that meets GoBD and equivalent retention standards
• Native, SAP-certified integration across Order-to-Cash and Purchase-to-Pay
• One platform covering the full document lifecycle, from Peppol connectivity through to retention and retrieval

Doxis is recognized as a Leader in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Document Management.

If you're weighing how Peppol fits your SAP environment, get in touch with Doxis to see the inbound and outbound flows in action.

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