PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0

Also called PEPPOL BIS, PEPPOL

PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0 is both a CIUS that narrows EN 16931 and part of a network for delivering invoices between registered participants. Like any CIUS, it adds rules of its own, so an invoice can be valid EN 16931 and still fail PEPPOL.

Type: CIUS on EN 16931, plus a delivery network
Syntax: UBL
Scope: International, strongest in Northern Europe
Identifiers: Participants registered in a shared directory

A specification and a network, which is unusual

Most of the terms here describe a file. PEPPOL describes a file and the road it travels: participants are registered with identifiers, and access points exchange documents on their behalf.

That means "are we PEPPOL ready" is two questions. The document has to satisfy the BIS rules, and you have to be reachable on the network. Passing the first tells you nothing about the second.

The rules sit on top of EN 16931

PEPPOL BIS makes fields mandatory that EN 16931 leaves optional and constrains permitted values, in the same shape as XRechnung. Our validator runs those rules as part of the opt in server side check rather than the browser side EN 16931 pass.

Why it matters

If a customer says "send it over PEPPOL", satisfying EN 16931 is necessary and not sufficient.
Nordic and Benelux public sector buyers commonly require it, so it reaches beyond the French and German mandates.

Check it on your own file

Run the PEPPOL BIS rules
Part of the opt in server side check, alongside XRechnung and ISO PDF/A-3.

Common questions

Is PEPPOL the same as EN 16931?: No. PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0 is a CIUS that narrows EN 16931, and PEPPOL is also the network that carries the documents. An invoice can satisfy EN 16931 and still fail the BIS rules.