Peppol
A network for exchanging business documents
Peppol is a European network and rulebook for exchanging electronic business documents, primarily invoices. Rather than each company connecting to every other, a business joins through one access point provider and reaches everyone else through it.
How the network works
Think of it as a mobile network for documents. You do not choose the recipient's operator — you choose your own, it handles delivery, and the recipient does the same on their side. These providers are called access points, and they are what ensures a document reaches the recipient whatever software they run.
For that to work the document must be in an agreed shape. This is set by the Peppol BIS profile, built on the European standard EN 16931 for electronic invoices. It is why a recipient's system can read an invoice from another country without writing a converter for it.
Why Slovakia's mandate builds on it
Slovakia's mandatory electronic invoicing from 2027 does not invent a national format from scratch; it rests on this model — structured XML in the Peppol BIS profile, delivered exclusively through a certified delivery service provider.
The arrangement is described as five-corner: to the usual four corners of an exchange — sender, sender's access point, recipient's access point, recipient — a fifth participant is added, the tax administration, which receives the invoice data as well. For a business the practical consequence is that it chooses a provider rather than a format.
What it means for company systems
In practice the question is whether your invoicing or ERP system can produce a document in the required structure and hand it to a provider's interface, and whether it can receive an incoming document and match it to an order.
Receiving is the underrated half. Most systems can be adapted to send an invoice, but accepting someone else's structured invoice, checking it against the order, and routing it for approval is its own task. That is also where the largest saving sits, because retyping incoming invoices disappears. Connecting to a provider's interface is an ordinary integration job using an API.
Need invoicing connected to the network?
Explore custom solutionsFrequently asked questions
Do I register with Peppol myself?
Not directly. You join through an access point provider, which registers you on the network and handles delivery. What you choose is the provider and the interface your system connects through.
Is Peppol the same as an electronic invoice?
No. An electronic invoice is the structured document; Peppol is the network and the rules for moving such a document between companies. Slovakia's 2027 mandate is built on this model.
Does Peppol carry only invoices?
Invoices are the most widespread use, but the network is designed for other business documents too, such as orders and catalogues. In practice most companies meet the invoice first.