PEPPOL Requirements: Prepare Your Business for E-Invoicing

The European Union has laid the foundation for e-invoicing in public procurement with Directive 2014/55/EU, in which the Peppol network (Pan-European Public Procurement On-Line) plays an important role. This network ensures a secure and standardized exchange of electronic documents between companies and governments.

Certain obligations for e-invoicing are also expected for SMEs in Belgium:

European Standard: E-invoicing must comply with the European standard, which means that invoices are sent in a standardized (XML/UBL2.1) format and no longer as PDF.
Peppol Network: The use of Peppol is encouraged for electronic transmission of invoices between companies and governments. This network provides standard protocols and ensures interoperability.
Government contracts: SMEs that work with the government are already obliged to send e-invoices via Peppol.

However, these obligations differ per country and may depend on the size of the SME. For Belgium, you can find a nice article about PEPPOl & e-invoicing through KROTON Accountancy. The government will assist you in your transfer from your usual PDF invoice, to the new e-invoicing that will be mandatory by 2026.

Besides the government and your accountant, also Weichie.com can assist in your transfer from regular invoicing to the new way of e-invoicing. Contact us for more info!

Everything you need to know about eInvoicing via the PEPPOL Network

Peppol (Pan-European Public Procurement Online) is an electronic network designed to exchange digital documents such as invoices and purchase orders between organizations and governments in a secure and structured way. Here are the most important aspects SMEs need to know about Peppol:

What is Peppol?

Peppol is a network that uses standards and protocols that make it easier to exchange documents. Regardless of the software used by the companies (Interoperability), they can send electronic invoices to other companies and to the government. Rules can also be imposed automatically, such as making a purchase order number mandatory. If this is not present on an invoice, it will be returned immediately.

The Peppol network itself consists of Access Points. Only these access points can place and retrieve documents on the network. (send and receive). So as soon as you want to start sending out electronic invoices, or as soon as your company needs to receive electronic invoices, you will have to go through such an access point.

The Peppol network can do much more than just send out invoices. It is intended to allow you to share all types of secure documents with other companies and government agencies in a simple and fast way.

Weichie.com itself is not a Peppol Access Point, but it does have a permanent partner on which our Weichie.biz platform runs. The Weichie.biz platform is a kind of mailbox where our customers can easily consult the status of their invoices and send them via the Peppol Network.

How does Peppol work?

Your company must be registered on the Peppol network. You can do this by registering with a service provider that offers an access point. Here we try to offer a simplified method with Weichie.com, which carries out all these registrations for you behind the scenes. For example, you can use the Weichie.biz platform to receive and send all your e-invoices, and we work behind the scenes with our PEPPOL partner to correctly register your company and send all your documents securely over the PEPPOL network .

As mentioned, the documents must be converted to a standardized format (UBL) that complies with the European standard. You can also easily do this via our BIZ platform, and again we take care of the conversion behind the scenes. This way you can keep an overview of all your electronic invoices in a clear and organized manner.

Benefits of Peppol

The first step is always the biggest. You are ‘mandatory’ to get rid of your current system that you have been using for years without any problems. Now they suddenly say that you should start sending e-invoices. A new, unknown term and after some research it turns out to be a bit more complicated than expected.

The purpose of electronic invoicing via PEPPOL is to ensure a more efficient operation for the exchange of important documents. This allows invoices to be processed faster, or if something is missing such as a PO number or a reference, the invoice is automatically returned with a message that something is still missing. This way you can be sure that the recipient actually receives your invoice when it was received and that everything on the invoice is correct to make a payment.

Both sender and recipient can also access all exchanged invoices via the PEPPOL network. This means you have lower follow-up costs because the processing of the invoices happens automatically.

There is also compliance according to European and national regulations, which means that all invoices are put in a standardized format.

We recommend that you seek guidance in a timely manner and register your company on the PEPPOL network. So that you don’t have to register for this in a hurry. With the right guidance, you can switch systems in no time.

Why Peppol is important for SMEs in Belgium

More specifically for Belgium, e-invoicing will become mandatory for government contracts. The Belgian government requires that all suppliers send their invoices via Peppol.

As more and more European countries make electronic invoicing mandatory, Peppol is becoming the standard for secure and standardized document exchange. So the network will not only be used for invoices.

SMEs that already use Peppol and e-invoicing can work more efficiently and are better prepared for future legal requirements. We can only recommend that you prepare yourself for this before you suddenly receive your first electronic invoice and you suddenly have to connect your company to the Peppol network.

Electronic invoicing is currently only mandatory for invoices to and from the government, but it will soon also become the standard for all B2B invoices and documents exchanged between companies.

Implementation of e-invoicing with Peppol

Work with a Peppol service provider who is familiar with Peppol and can help integrate the access point with existing systems. We are happy to respond to this at Weichie.com. We are not an access point ourselves, but we are happy to guide and onboard our customers in a simple way on the Peppol network.

Weichie.com can also advise on implementing e-invoicing in your current systems. So that you can continue to work in your existing way as much as possible and the switch to electronic invoices is actually self-evident.

Conclusion

Peppol is a safe system that helps companies work more efficiently and comply with new regulations, making it important for SMEs to respond to this in a timely manner. You don’t like to be surprised by a sudden change in your current way of working. So if you start this in time, you won’t have to drop everything when you receive your first electronic invoice.