Gone are the days when businesses and government bodies spent a lot of money and time conducting procurement documents and e-invoicing. If your business needs to send e-invoices to a customer nationally, or overseas, there’s a framework that you can adopt into your existing systems.
You can use the Peppol service to send the e-invoices without having to waste your time and money on manual verification. All is done by the Peppol access points.
Due to its efficiency in delivering e-procurement documents without any hassles, global market participants have been welcoming the true seamless e-invoicing set of standards known as Peppol.
Peppol was originally meant for e-procurement practices in the EU. But since its positive invasion of the European market, the world has quickly gained recognition of the particular solutions.
The members of the EU and countries who have joined the Peppol network nowadays are able to interact with each other without the risks of errors and disputes. Thanks to the Peppol invoice, one is able to conduct document procurement without having to scrap their current ERP systems. The guidelines of peppol are viable for the existing systems. It takes only a few minutes to send the invoices to the recipients across the globe.
European electronic invoicing practices in Europe
The current regulation of e-invoicing that has been effective in EU regions is the EN Directive 2014/55. In this directive, there’s an obligation for the public entities to be able to manage e-invoices in formats with the standard EN 16391.
The directive authority makes public administrations and entities follow the rules.The deadlines were set for 2019.
Meanwhile, the local government administrations and entities have prolonged deadlines to April, 2020.
Although not all of the groups and organizations are on the same track to accept the directive, the Peppol framework indeed convinced the conservative parties to look once again at the opportunities offered as the Peppol network members.
Some countries have even adopted the directive for e-invoicing in business-to-government relationships. These countries include France, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, as well as Sweden.
The government’s obligation to compel B2B and B2G businesses to use electronic invoices with the Peppol solution as the vessel for common grounds.Not only are there more European countries that show a willingness to take part in the movement, but other countries outside of Europe also have positive interests in the Peppol solution.
The obligation of digitizing the invoicing process
The use cases of electronic invoicing in Europe have been on a large scale. It may soon accelerate by the end of 2021. There have been significant increases in the number of members who are joining the Peppol network to encourage the obligation for all companies.
More and more countries share the same vision of the potential of the invoicing process, such as Belgium, Slovenia, Poland, Finland, as well as Luxembourg.
For instance, France, for instance, has been coming up with a tangible road map for implementing the obligation of e-invoicing in Europe. It has been three years since the companies have been adopting the Peppol framework in their e-procurement activities.
The electronic invoicing movement should effectively start in 2023. The process could last for two years until 2025. The departure of the analog invoice will be more significant from the end of 2021. However, the real practices that should be happening two years later have not emerged yet to the public.
France is not the only member that has stated their intention to introduce the B2B e-invoicing obligation. Although some countries have yet to announce their road map into it, it is for a good reason. Germany and Belgium, for instance, have been doing the analysis and brainstorming for the introduction of the B2B requirement to be aligned with their national regulations. The same positions are likely prevalent in other countries, including Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland, and Finland.
Obviously, we cannot overlook the fact that each country has different weights and considerations due to its unique culture and regulations.
The set of standards used for E-invoicing in Europe
The accuracy and effectivity of exchanging business documents through different systems is very important for enhancing the streamlined interactions between the markets.
It is important to facilitate smooth transactions between public entities and private suppliers across the EU. The use of the standardized format will be recommended in order to maintain good interaction between the involved parties.
The set of specifications offered by Peppol have been proven to be effective in streamlining communications between different systems in different companies and countries.
The EU and the important member states have made this happen. As mentioend before, the Directive 2014/55 focuses on providing the EU format for e-invoicing and other procurement.
The main objective of this movement is to standardize the operations. As a result, it will reduce the likelihood of errors and disputes, save time and money, and boost productivity in each country’s member.
The Peppol project is moving in the same direction as the EU members’ directions. The fascinating non-profit organization OpenPEPPOL created the architecture for Peppol e-invoicing.
The organization has a clear and sound objective.
They are striving to facilitate e-procurement processes at a cross-border level. That means the transactions are not only within a particular country, but also at an international level. Support is pinpointed for government entities and suppliers as well as private entities (mainly B2B).
From year to year, Peppol membership numbers grow. Although the level of adoption is still in an early phase, it has been spread around European countries and the outer ones. Peppol has such a great solution. However, not all countries have yet to be convinced to adopt the working solution for them. With such untapped potential, it is only a matter of time before more use cases emerge in the European country.
More and more European countries are considering the adoption of the PEPPOL framework into their existing systems. As mentioned, some countries have shown their interests. They just want to make sure that it is something that they are truly looking for.
