How to Become a Peppol Access Point? | Follow These Easy Steps |

Want to enable international e-invoicing in your software / ERP system? You can do so by connecting your software to the Peppol network.

Luckily this is easier than you think. In this article, we'll tell you everything you need to know about becoming a Peppol Access Point.

We'll answer the following questions:

1. What is a Peppol Access Point?

A Peppol Access Point is a company that connects other companies to the Peppol network.

This e-invoicing network functions as a connectivity platform between companies and governments, making it safer for them to exchange invoices with one another. Due to this increased safety, the European Union mandated the use of this network in 2019.

The whole Peppol Access Point principle is similar to a telephone company that connects users to the telephone network.

For example, a telephone company provides its users with a unique number (mobile or business number) in order for other companies to contact them by phone.

The same applies to a Peppol Access Point. An access point provides its users with a unique - so-called - Peppol ID to utilize for the exchange of business documents, including invoices.

Therefore it can be said that a Peppol ID and a telephone number are more or less the same.

As a Peppol Access Point, you have the ability to:

Connect your software to the international Peppol e-invoicing network;
Connect your customers to companies and governments from all over the world;
Allow users to send E-invoices to International Governments (obligated);
Implement the safest e-invoicing communication ever to be created.

Become a Peppol Access Point with the Storecove RESTful API — *With a user-designed interface in your software, the customer can perform a Peppol registration in three steps. You only have to organize the KYC process yourself.*

Why is this important? Why not stick with the current e-invoice method? You can read more about that below.

2. Why connect your software to Peppol?

Of course, the bigger question is ‘why?’. Why should you make the effort to connect your software to the Peppol network? Especially since there are already dozens of access points out there.

There are actually pretty good reasons why this might prove interesting to you. Below we will give a summary of the most essential advantages.

2.1 Increase the satisfaction level of customers

The first and foremost advantage is the compelling increase in customer satisfaction. Why? Because you provide your customers with a wide variety of powerful invoicing improvements.

For example, becoming a Peppol Access Point grants you the ability to connect your users to Peppol and hand out Peppol IDs yourself. In turn, this allows your users to:

Send and receive electronic invoices over this extremely safe network;
Deliver invoices straight into the bookkeeping system of the receiver;
Save up on 90% on the company its processing costs;
Get invoices paid a lot faster (resulting in a better cash flow);
Decrease manpower and manual activities needed for their processing invoices;
Eliminate the possibility of human mistakes (due to automatic recognition);
Reduce the costs of paper usage to 0%.

That are a lot of advantages to such a simple integration. Also, bear in mind that the popularity of Peppol and e-invoicing is increasing more and more each day. It’s only a matter of time until Peppol becomes the norm.

We all use the telephone network nowadays and with Peppol this will not be any different. Sooner or later your own customers will start to ask about these features.

2.2 Strengthening positioning and increasing competitive value

Not many large ERP systems/accounting software have implemented Peppol yet, despite its growing popularity. You could undoubtedly turn this into a competitive advantage, especially when you can market yourself as a ‘complete invoicing solution’.

It’s also a way of attracting new users that have recently joined the market and are planning to do business with the government. Think about wholesale companies, consultancy firms, or even cleaning companies.

Whoever has the government as a client is required to send their e-invoices according to the European Directive (2014/55). If your company does not support those features, you’re quickly excluded from the decision-making process.

Keep in mind though, that this is a time-bound advantage. As more and more ERP systems implement e-invoicing features, so decreases the competitive value over time.

2.3 Creating a new revenue model

Being a Peppol Access Point grants you the ability to develop a new revenue model for your business. One that allows users to send and receive e-invoices through Peppol from within your own software.

You could decide to offer the services for free of course. That option is completely up to you. However, if you wish to cover or surpass the monthly subscription costs, you can do so by requesting your customers an additional fee for the newly implemented e-invoicing features.

2.4 The importance of not lagging behind:

What happens to users who need to send electronic invoices to government agencies, but cannot do so because their accounting software lacks the required feature? Most likely they will not be happy about the company lagging behind the global developments.

This could result in the bookkeeping service losing its clients as a consequence, as their customers went on to find a better solution instead. One ‘complete solution’ that does support the necessary electronic invoicing features.

That’s why, as an ERP system/accounting software, it’s important to not lag behind the invoicing developments. Eventually, the change will come. And as more countries start to support Peppol, like India, Hong Kong, and Malaysia, it’s only a matter of time.

3. How to become a Peppol Access Point?

Are you interested in enabling Peppol e-invoicing inside your own software? You can easily connect your ERP system to Peppol with the Storecove Access Point API

Follow the simple steps below:

1. To use the Storecove API, the first thing you will need to do is to create an account. Some accounts are automatically created in sandbox mode, but if this is not the case with your development account you can do it yourself in Settings > Billing Details.

2. Next, create an API key. You can do this in the 'API Keys' section. You will typically need only one, but should you want to change the key every so often, you can create and use more than one during your migration period.

How to Become a Peppol Access Point with API Token Storecove.

3. Post a LegalEntity

4. Create a new PeppolIdentifier

5. Post an invoice to /invoice_submissions. Read more about that here

Want more information about the Peppol API? Or do you need help with the API implementation process?

Schedule a free video call with one of our e-invoicing experts: https://meet.intercom.com/dkars

4. Where do you send the invoices to?

When you submit a sales invoice for the client of your client, we take the following steps:

If your client's client is on the PEPPOL network, we send the invoice via PEPPOL;
If none of these could be used, the invoice is sent to the email address provided.

Before submitting your invoice you can perform a pre-flight check on whether Storecove can deliver the invoice through a channel other than email.

In that case, you can choose not to submit the invoice for delivery and send it via email yourself.

The Peppol 4 corner model for senders and ERP software systems

5. Connecting to Peppol with a RESTful API

The Storecove Peppol Access Point API connects your software to the international Peppol network and allows your users to send e-invoices to governments and companies worldwide.

Our RESTful API is highly suitable for ERP systems, MRP systems, online accounting packages, online payment systems, and other software providers.

How to become a Peppol Access Point with the Storecove Peppol RESTful API

What you can expect from us:

1. Safe and certified: We are ISO27001 compliant, full Peppol access point, and are guaranteed to run on European servers.

2. Own Certificate on Peppol.eu: With the Storecove API you can optionally have your own certificate on the Peppol website. For some companies, this can be very interesting for marketing purposes.

3. Complete Dutch SMP & Access point: Flexible and easily adaptable. No additional costs.

4. API: Easy to integrate with your software. API connected via RESTful API. Test & development facilities and clear API documentation. Set-up is done entirely in your own package.

5. Compliant: Latest features and always up-to-date with the latest developments.

6. Quick check: Determines whether the receiver is connected to Peppol before sending an invoice.

7. Request status: Receive the status of sent invoices in your software via Webhooks. This way your customer is always aware of the status of a sent document.

Our easily implementable solution offers:

AS4 support;
RESTful API with OpenAPI specification;
Developer sandbox mode for easy integration;
Single integration, even when the formats used on the Peppol network change;
Professional support;
No implementation fee;
No need to go through the Peppol certification process since you will be using our Peppol certificates.

Easy Integration:

RESTful/JSON
OpenAPI 2.0 specification
Clients are available for all platforms (SwaggerCodegen)

Developer support

Sandbox mode available
Excellent documentation
Email: apisupport@storecove.nl

Need further assistance with becoming a Peppol Access Point? Feel free to give us a call on +31 (0) 20 261 17 91 or send an e-mail to apisupport@storecove.com.

6. Why not develop a Peppol Access Point yourself?

A laptop for developing your own peppol access point while you should buy one instead.

Of course, you could decide to start your own Access Point as a Service instead of buying one externally.

However, the implications of such a project are challenging, costly, and incredibly time-consuming.

There are 6 important things to consider when making your own Peppol Access Point. Basically, it all boils down to:

Subscription cost; You'll have to join OpenPEPPOL. This membership has initial sign-up fees, as well as ongoing annual subscription costs. This could already cost more than using the Access Point of an external party.
Scalability; The solution you provide will need to be flexible enough to scale with the growing volumes as more companies begin e-invoicing, yet it still must be strong enough to be dependable.
Hosting platform; The hosting platform needs to be secure enough to meet various customer compliance requirements, yet accessible enough to not require investment in hardware or proprietary software
Implementation; You'll have to determine how to onboard your new and existing clients without having to start the integration from scratch each time. If you're an ERP Vendor or a Solutions Partner, you also need to consider the staffing requirements.
Support & maintenance; Having your own Access Point solution means you have to keep up-to-date with all the changes, for example in the invoice format, accreditations and adjustments of your API.
Speed: You also need to consider the time building your own access point is going to take. Not just in terms of your time-to-market, but also management cost, R&D, and implementation teams. A Peppol Access Point as a Service, however, could literally be up and running in days.

7. Schedule a Free Video Call

Want more information about the Peppol API? Or do you need help with the API implementation process?