Supply Lens

How do I send an invoice over Peppol?

Send a Peppol invoice

Create an invoice in the Message Editor or upload an existing Peppol UBL file, validate it, and send it to your trading partner over the Peppol network.

About 5 min

By the end of this guide you'll have sent a validated invoice to a trading partner over Peppol. Every message you create or upload starts as Pending, so you can check and validate it before anything leaves Supply Lens.

Before you start

  • You're registered as a Peppol Participant. See Register for Peppol.
  • The receiver is set up as a trading partner. See Add a Peppol trading partner.
  • Your bank account details are stored as an Account in your Peppol metadata, so they go on the invoice.
  • Decide whether to send on the Test network first. Messages show whether they went over the live network (SML) or the test network (SMK).

Steps

Option 1: create the invoice on screen

  1. In the Peppol app, go to Messages and click Create New.
  2. Choose the message type from the drop-down, for example an invoice.
  3. On the Create Message screen, fill in:
    • Document ID: the unique reference for the document, such as your invoice number;
    • the Live/Test network toggle;
    • Sender ID: which of your Participants to send from;
    • Account: which financial account to put on the document;
    • Receiver: your recipient, chosen from your trading partners.
  4. Click Create to open the Message Editor.
  5. Fill in the contents of the invoice. Each field has a tooltip explaining it.
  6. Click Save and Close. The message is saved as Pending and you're taken to its details screen.

Option 2: upload an existing Peppol file

If your accounting system already produces Peppol files, upload a Peppol UBL file (the XML format Peppol documents are written in), or a Standard Business Document that contains one.

  1. Go to Messages and click Add message.
  2. Choose the file on your computer.
  3. Select the Live or Test network.
  4. Click Upload message. The message appears in your list as Pending.

Validate and send

  1. On Messages, click the magnifying glass (View more info) on the message to open Message Details.
  2. Click Validate. The results appear in the Validation section.
  3. If issues are listed, edit the message to fix them and validate again until it passes.
  4. Optionally click Print to see a PDF copy in your browser.
  5. Click Send. A notification tells you the message has been added to the queue to be sent.
A message that failed validation lists every issue to fix.

Check it worked

  • The Validation section shows the message is valid before you send.
  • On Messages → Outbound, the message's status changes to Sent.

If something goes wrong

  • The receiver isn't in the list. Add them from Metadata → Trading Partners. If you can't find them in the directory, contact the Support Team.
  • The message is Failed. Start with the error shown on the message. Most issues are missing mandatory fields, incorrect identifiers or unsupported document types; updating the underlying data, often your metadata, usually fixes it. See View Peppol messages.
  • You can't understand a validation error, or it concerns network delivery or validation rules. Contact the Support Team, who can help diagnose and correct it.