Automatic addition of mandatory receiving capabilities
Background
The regulations of the Peppol network require that every participant (end user) must support at least the current Peppol BIS specification published by OpenPeppol for receiving electronic invoices.
At present, this is Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 in UBL syntax (Invoice and Credit Note). This requirement serves interoperability within the network and ensures that electronic invoices—especially in cross‑border scenarios—can be exchanged without additional effort. Peppol BIS Billing 3.0, like other specifications in the EU, is based on the European core invoice standard EN16931.
In addition, certain countries may mandate further country‑specific specifications.
Update in this release
To better support configuration during the onboarding of new Peppol IDs, the mandatory receiving capabilities will be added automatically starting with this release.
Which receiving capabilities are applied depends on the country code of the respective Peppol ID. This ensures that the Peppol network compliance rules are met and that configuration is carried out consistently.
Existing Peppol IDs marked as “bidirectional” will be reviewed in the coming weeks.
If necessary, affected customers will be contacted to add the required receiving capabilities and to ensure correct processing in downstream inbound workflows.
For customers with an active E‑Invoicing Service subscription (Global E‑Invoicing “old” or E‑Invoicing HUB “new”), the corresponding receiving capabilities are already included as part of the service.
Note for Germany: “Peppol BIS Billing 3.0” can also be used in Germany as an alternative to XRechnung 3.0. The business rules of the German specification also apply to BIS Billing 3.0 if both the sender/seller and the invoice recipient have the country code DE in their address data.
Example of general receiving capability “Peppol BIS Billing 3.0”:
Example of an additional country‑specific receiving capability in the Netherlands “SI‑UBL 2.0”:
IMPORTANT NOTE for Belgium – mandatory Peppol ID “0208”
In Belgium, the use of SchemeID 0208 (company number / numéro d’entreprise / ondernemingsnummer) is mandatory when registering a Peppol ID.
Excerpt from the “Peppol Authority Specific Requirements” for Belgium:
Information about the structure of the code
SchemeID: BE:EN
ICD Value: 0208
Structure of the code:
- • 10 numeric characters
- • The first digit must be “0” or “1”
In addition to the SchemeID mentioned above, it is also possible to use the VAT ID (9925):
SchemeID: BE:VAT
ICD Value: 9925
Structure of the code:
- • Country code BE + company number
At the beginning of the year, the Belgian Peppol Authority reviewed the registrations. During this process, it was identified that not all companies had registered the mandatory Peppol ID with SchemeID 0208.
As a Peppol Service Provider, we examined the cases reported to us. In most instances, the issue was related to an additional registration of the VAT ID (9925).
If the mandatory Peppol ID was indeed missing and had not been registered through another service provider, we added the required registration in order to restore compliance.
For sending, we recommend using the Peppol ID with SchemeID 0208 as the preferred option.
Katharina Koch (+49 40/238824-11, k.koch@seeburger.de) will be happy to answer any questions you may have.