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The Sign-Off Table

Lesson 4 of 5

Peppol connectivity

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Peppol is often described as a format. It isn't, or not only. Peppol is an interoperability framework run by OpenPeppol AISBL, a non-profit international association under Belgian law. It defines how parties are identified, how they find each other, which document specifications they exchange, and how accredited service providers connect. OpenPeppol describes itself as an enabler, not a portal or an exchange service.

How a Peppol exchange works

Every party is a participant with an identifier in a registered scheme, written with a scheme code. For example, Belgian companies are often registered under scheme 0208 (enterprise number) or 9925 (VAT number), so a participant ID looks like 0208:0123456789. Each participant connects through an access point, a certified service provider. To send, the sender's access point looks the receiver up: the Service Metadata Locator (SML) points to the receiver's Service Metadata Publisher (SMP), which says which document types the receiver accepts and at which access point. The document then travels access point to access point.

One Peppol transmission: discovery through SML and SMP, then access point to access point.
The Sign-Off Table · thesignofftable.com/academy/sap-edi-303

The document most mandates care about is Peppol BIS Billing 3.0, an EN 16931-compliant invoice and credit note in UBL. Peppol also carries invoice responses and message-level responses, and SAP's documentation mentions Peppol International (PINT) invoice specifications for countries outside Europe. The public Peppol Directory lets anyone search registered participants and the document types they accept; it is useful in onboarding to check whether a customer can receive before you switch their invoices.

SAP's access point: Peppol Exchange in the cloud edition

For SAP S/4HANA and SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, SAP's documentation describes the cloud edition of Document and Reporting Compliance as a BTP service that acts as an access point to the Peppol network. The onboarding has a fixed shape:

  1. Activate the processIn the cloud edition's Activate Process app, activate Peppol Exchange for your subaccount.
  2. IntegrateFollow the integration steps for SAP S/4HANA: communication between the S/4HANA system and the cloud edition.
  3. Create a participantCreate a participant for your company with its Peppol identifier.
  4. RegisterRegister the company to send and receive the document types you need; registration publishes your capabilities.
  5. Enable business partnersCreate and check the list of customers registered in the Peppol network, and enable customers for electronic document exchange.
  6. ProcessPost invoices; eDocuments are created and submitted through the country's Peppol process; responses update the status.
Onboarding a company code to Peppol through the cloud edition, in the order SAP's documentation follows.
The Sign-Off Table · thesignofftable.com/academy/sap-edi-303

A few limits are documented: in the Peppol Exchange process, customer invoices including attachments may be up to 100 MB, with up to 200 attachments per document, and the same limits apply to supplier invoices received. Know them before a customer asks you to attach 300 delivery photos.

Testing on Peppol

Peppol testing needs the same separation as any other legal channel. Access point providers, including SAP for the cloud edition, describe how test registrations and test exchanges work; confirm before the first test that your test participant and your partners' test participants can't be reached by production traffic, so a test invoice never lands in a real customer's accounts payable. Test the negative paths as well: a receiver that isn't registered for the document type, an invoice that fails Peppol BIS validation, and a response such as an invoice rejection coming back. Each of these should be visible in the eDocument status, not only in the access point's log.

Other routes to Peppol

Not every company uses the cloud edition. Buyers who receive supplier invoices in SAP Ariba or SAP Business Network can use the cloud edition's Peppol Exchange process for those applications too, as SAP's task list shows for several countries. Others contract a third-party access point and connect it with SAP Integration Suite. Peppol is not a TPM agreement type: in TPM you model EDI partners, while Peppol participants and registrations live in the access point. Whatever route you choose, the eDocument in SAP should remain the place where finance sees the legal status.

  1. Is Peppol the legal channel for the country, as in Belgium?Yes → Peppol Exchange or another certified access point is mandatory · No → next question
  2. Does France apply, with approved platforms?Yes → choose an approved platform; SAP offers the E-Invoices and E-Reports (France) process · No → next question
  3. Is it a clearance country such as Mexico or Poland?Yes → the country process to the PAC or national platform · No → next question
  4. Is it post-audit, such as Germany today?Yes → any compliant channel; Peppol Exchange is one option · No → check the country task list
Choosing the connectivity route per country.
The Sign-Off Table · thesignofftable.com/academy/sap-edi-303

What would you do?

Before switching a Belgian customer to Peppol invoices, the what-if French entity's project team wants to know whether the customer can receive them. What is the best check?

Key points
  • Peppol is a framework run by OpenPeppol: participants, access points, SML and SMP discovery, and document specifications.
  • Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 is the EN 16931-compliant UBL invoice most mandates use.
  • The DRC cloud edition's Peppol Exchange process acts as SAP's access point: activate, integrate, create participant, register, enable partners.
  • Peppol is not modeled in TPM; check receivers' registrations before switching them.

Check your understanding · not graded

Lesson check

  1. 1. What does the SMP tell the sender's access point?

  2. 2. In SAP's solution for S/4HANA, what acts as the Peppol access point?

  3. 3. What is the documented size limit for a customer invoice in the Peppol Exchange process?

  4. 4. Which organization runs the Peppol framework?