Peppol updates

Launched in November 2023, this initiative responds to market and regulatory changes requiring greater global interoperability for business transactions. The project introduces additions to the Peppol Interoperability Framework to accommodate a broader range of business documents and transaction patterns, particularly in the B2B sector.

 

The project aims to increase transaction volumes and the number of connected end-users within Peppol, helping businesses achieve economies of scale and avoid duplicating infrastructure. It aligns with global trends in e-invoicing and digital tax reporting, focusing on digitalizing SMEs and promoting automation in B2B transactions.

 

The incubation phase will run until at least the second quarter of 2025, with long-term governance decisions under discussion, including the possibility of a merger between GENA and OpenPeppol.

 

Pagero is actively participating in this project as part of the Interoperability Working Group, led by Michel Gillis and Michael Walther, and is collaborating closely with Peppol to accelerate B2B and e-reporting adoption.

 

The first service providers prepare to implement real-world use cases; more are invited to join.

 

The key benefits for participants include:

• Streamlined processes;
• Improved service transparency and reduced manual intervention;
• Incremental upgrades to current high-volume and highly automated systems;
• Readiness for Continuous Transaction Controls (CTC) and e-reporting obligations.

 

The project will be further discussed at the Exchange Summit in Prague on 23 September, with a roundtable on 24 September, and during GENA’s Annual General Meeting in Brussels on 5 December.

Peppol Practical, sharing technology-relevant news, announced the new mandatory version of Country Code in Peppol Business Message Envelope (SBDH) specification.

 

As of 1 January 2024, a new Country Code in Peppol Business Message Envelope v2. 0.1. specification is mandatory in the Peppol network.

 

Corner 1's country code has to be included in the SBDH as per this specification. The message is non-compliant without the country code, or if an invalid country code is used.

 

Receiving Peppol service providers, Corner 3, should report any non-compliance.

Peppol CTC is a collection of rules that follow the idea of Decentralized Continuous Transaction Controls and Exchange (DCTCE) model, which can apply to transactions within and between countries.

 

The Peppol CTC Addendum supplements the first edition of the Peppol CTC Reference Document with new insights gained after its publication in September 2021.

 

Peppol CTC Community released the document to help understand interconnections between different requirements, providing implementation details and country examples.

 

It includes the following information:

• Elaboration on data elements, defining business documents and tax data;
• Message Level Response (MLR) and Invoice Response Message (IRM) implementation;
• Cross-border transaction utilization;
• Illustration of Peppol network leveraged for B2C transactions;
• Certification and monitoring of service providers.

 

Additionally, the cross-border e-invoicing concept of Peppol CTC is in line with the EU ViDA proposal, reporting sales and purchase invoices for intra-community transactions.

 

The addendum is an interim document that will merge into a second edition of the Peppol CTC Reference Document later.

The OpenPeppol eDelivery Change Management Board (eDEC CMB) published Peppol Code Lists version 8.7, including the artefacts below:

• Document Types;
• Participant identifier schemes;
• Processes, and
• Transport Profiles.

 

Furthermore, the Peppol SMP Specification 1.3.0 was published, which solely includes the change from the hash algorithm SHA-1 to SHA-256. The migration period is six months, with the following timelines:

• Milestone T1- 1 December 2023

 

SMP servers may start using the new specification, and SMP clients must be able to support the new specification.

• Milestone T2- 1 June 2024

 

The migration period ends. SMP servers must use the new specification.

 

More information can be found in Peppol SMP 1.3.0 Change Impact Analysis.