What is Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 and how does it work?

How the Peppol Network Works

Peppol (Pan-European Public Procurement Online) works like email for business documents. According to Invoice Navigator's compliance tracking:

1. Registration — Each business registers with a Peppol Access Point provider and receives a unique Peppol Participant ID.
2. Lookup — When sending an invoice, the sender's Access Point looks up the recipient's Access Point via the SML (Service Metadata Locator) and SMP (Service Metadata Publisher).
3. Delivery — The invoice (in Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 format) is securely transmitted from sender's Access Point to recipient's Access Point using the AS4 protocol.
4. Validation — Both Access Points validate the invoice against Peppol BIS rules before forwarding.

Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 Specification

Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 (based on UBL 2.1) adds approximately 60 additional business rules on top of EN 16931. Key Peppol-specific rules include:

• Mandatory Peppol endpoint IDs for buyer and seller
• Peppol-specific code lists for tax categories and payment means
• Stricter currency handling rules
• Enhanced attachment and reference requirements

Country Adoption

Peppol is mandatory for B2G invoicing in: Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Netherlands, and several other countries. Belgium mandated Peppol for B2B from January 2026. The Peppol network now spans 30+ countries including non-EU members like Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand.

Integrating with Peppol

To send or receive Peppol invoices, businesses need: (1) a Peppol Access Point provider, (2) a Peppol Participant ID, and (3) invoices in Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 (UBL) format. Invoice Navigator validates Peppol BIS invoices against the complete EN 16931 + Peppol CIUS ruleset and can auto-remediate structural errors before submission to the network.