What is Peppol?

Peppol is a network that lets organisations exchange business documents — like invoices and orders — electronically, regardless of which software each party uses.

The short version

Peppol (Pan-European Public Procurement On-Line) is a set of specifications and an operating framework that lets any sender reach any receiver through a shared network. You connect once, to a single service provider, and can then exchange documents with everyone else on the network.

It is governed by OpenPeppol AISBL, a non-profit association, and is used across Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Japan and beyond.

Analogy: Peppol is to e-invoicing what the mobile network is to phone calls. You pick one operator (an Access Point), and you can still reach anyone on any other operator.

The four-corner model

Almost everything in Peppol follows a four-corner model:

  1. Corner 1 — Sender. Your accounting or ERP software.
  2. Corner 2 — Sender’s Access Point. Your service provider, who puts the document on the network.
  3. Corner 3 — Receiver’s Access Point. The recipient’s service provider.
  4. Corner 4 — Receiver. The recipient’s software.

You only ever deal with Corner 2 — your own Access Point. The network and the SMP/SML lookup take care of routing to the right place.

What you can exchange

Peppol is best known for e-invoicing, but it carries a whole family of documents: invoices, credit notes, orders, order responses, despatch advices and catalogues. See document types for the full list.

Why it exists

  • Interoperability — one connection reaches every participant.
  • Compliance — many governments now mandate Peppol-based e-invoicing for public-sector suppliers.
  • Automation — structured documents can be processed without manual re-keying.

What Peppol is not

  • It is not a single piece of software you install.
  • It is not free email — you exchange through a certified Access Point.
  • It is not only for the public sector — business-to-business use is growing fast.