[adv] PEPPOL is more than electronic invoicing: digitize your entire supply chain

[Advertorial] As of 1/01/2026, it will become a legal requirement to exchange electronic invoices via the PEPPOL network. But other business documents such as order forms and delivery notes can also be sent or received via the same network. So choose a future-proof PEPPOL Access Point that can support the digitization of your entire business process and thus both your financial and logistics supply chain.

Legally required electronic billing through PEPPOL network

It’s probably all hands on deck in your company’s finance department since the government passed a law in February making it a legal requirement to exchange invoices between companies electronically or, in other words, digitally as of Jan. 1, 2026. To be clear, we are not talking about PDF invoices that are only sent and received electronically, but invoices that can also be interpreted and processed automatically by software.

The format of the invoices must comply with the PEPPOL BIS* standard and they must also be exchanged over the PEPPOL network. Hence, the finance departments (hopefully in coordination with IT) are in full search for a so-called PEPPOL Access Point. This is a service provider that can connect the financial system (billing, accounting or ERP package) in which invoices are created and entered to the PEPPOL network. If necessary, the PEPPOL Access Point can also translate between the language of the internal software and the standard language to be used on that PEPPOL network.

(* BIS is short for Business Interoperability Specification)

Other commercial documents in order-to-cash and procure-to-pay processes

Just as an ERP system is not chosen by one department, it is also useful to examine the issue in a multidisciplinary way when choosing the PEPPOL Access Point. While a lot of parties look at the file with a one-sided financial view, it is important to realize that the electronic invoice is only one document and actually the final piece of the order-to-cash or procure-to-pay process.

The difference between these two processes is in the direction of viewing the supply chain. With order-to-cash you look downstream; your customer initiates the process by sending an order form and you thus exchange documents with a party further down the supply chain. With procure-to-pay you look upstream; you yourself are the customer and so you send a purchase order to your supplier. So you are exchanging documents with a trading partner that is in front of you in the supply chain.

In these business processes, multiple commercial, logistics and financial documents can be exchanged. For all those document types, there is a PEPPOL BIS standard to digitize and automate this. Those commercial documents are not all the responsibility of the finance department, but also the commercial and logistics department.

  1. catalogue through which the seller shares product information (master data) with the buyer
  2. catalogue response allowing the buyer to reject or accept the contents of the catalogue
  3. order that allows the buyer to order products (or services) from the seller
  4. order response (advanced) that allows the seller to confirm, reject or send a modification proposal all or part of the order (after which the buyer may or may not send a new order, see 3)
  5. order change which allows the buyer to send a change to their order (after which the seller can then send another order response, see 4)
  6. order cancellation that allows the buyer to cancel their order
  7. despatch advice that allows the seller to inform the buyer digitally even before physical delivery which goods will be delivered
  8. invoice that allows the seller to invoice the buyer for the products or services provided
  9. invoice response that allows the buyer to inform the seller about the status of the invoice in its approval and payment process
  10. credit note allowing the seller to send a correction to their invoice to the buyer

Some other messages exist for specific purposes, which are omitted in this article.

The standards of electronic commercial documents can be found here: invoice/credit note + other commercial documents.

Other application: logistics

In addition to the order-to-cash and procure-to-pay application which is basically about exchanging electronic commercial documents between trading partners (customer-supplier), there is also a PEPPOL incubation project for another application; specifically logistics.

This allows companies to exchange electronic documents with logistics subcontractors who perform transportation and warehouse activities for them. The first pilot projects are currently underway in Scandinavia.

Granted, it is still in its infancy and, for now, is limited to documents for transportation.

The overview of existing logistics posts, can be found here.

Conclusion

PEPPOL is much more than the exchange of electronic invoices. So take a multidisciplinary look at this project from IT, finance, logistics and commerce. Think broadly and long term.

Choose a future-proof PEPPOL Access Point that can support the digitization of your entire business process and thus both your financial and logistics supply chain.

C&W Logistics – PEPPOL support for the entire supply chain – peppol@cwlogistics.be


This is a commercial contribution from C&W Logistics. The editors are not responsible for the content.