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Purchase to Pay

Invoice Processing with Peppol

Digital invoice processing via the Peppol network with Elari. Using Peppol makes receiving invoices safer and more efficient than ever. What is Peppol, how does it work, and why would you want to use this network? Find out below.
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What is the Peppol network?

Peppol stands for Pan-European Public Procurement OnLine: a kind of digital highway for conducting business online. For example, e-orders, e-packing slips, and e-invoices can be easily exchanged via the PEPPOL network.

It is a secure network to which only companies and government agencies can be connected after the organization has been verified. This makes it ideal for secure invoice processing.

What can I do with Peppol?

Through the Peppol network, you can send and receive electronic invoices securely and efficiently throughout Europe. This allows you to:

  • Easily make electronic purchases worldwide.

  • Submit standardized digital documents.

  • Onboard easily with a simple process.

What are the benefits of Peppol invoice processing?

  • Automatically Post Invoices

  • Preventing phantom invoices

  • Strong security, meaning less risk of fraud

  • High-quality messages

  • Real-time data exchange

How does Peppol work?

The strength of the Peppol network is that all participants are verified. That makes Peppol the safest way to receive invoices. You can sign up as a recipient, a sender, or both, and get started right away.

Receiving invoices from suppliers

  • Let us know that you'd prefer to receive invoices via Peppol rather than by email or mail.

  • All you need is your supplier’s Peppol ID.

  • This eliminates the possibility of phantom invoices and data entry errors.

Standardized and secure

  • Invoices are standardized according to the UBL format.

  • Invoices are processed directly, automatically, and error-free in Elari.

  • A highly secure and efficient way to receive invoices.

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2 Tips Before You Get Started with PEPPOL

  1. First, check whether your financial software has already automatically requested a Peppol ID for you. Since you can only have one, you’ll need to deregister from any existing registration first.

  2. With more than 72,000 affiliated companies, you won’t receive a notification when a supplier joins the network. Want to optimize your invoice processing? Simply ask your suppliers if they can send PEPPOL files.

How do I sign up for Peppol?

Please note that you can only receive digital UBL invoices via PEPPOL; PDFs are not supported. There are two ways to connect.

1. Enable Peppol through your accounting software

Connect to a Peppol Access Point, which is often provided by your financial software package. Access Points connect organizations to one another via Peppol IDs: a type of personal identification number that you use to send and receive invoices.

 

Before you can use the ID, your identity as a representative of the company is verified, usually within one day.

2. Enable Peppol in Elari

You can also apply for a Peppol ID directly through Elari. You can apply for a Peppol ID, for Dutch or foreign tax authorities, free of charge in just 5 minutes. We’ll validate your business within one day. The connection between Elari and Peppol is direct, so Elari takes care of all the technical details for you.

Peppol is part of Elari Purchase to Pay

The integration between Elari and Peppol is fast, user-friendly, and compliant with the UBL standard. This is how the entire process works, from order to processed invoice.

You put together a request (for example, via an OCI connection) and create an order.

You receive a delivery and record in Elari whether it arrived correctly.

You will receive the invoice in Elari.

Elari recognizes invoice data using advanced, AI-driven text recognition technology and automatically fills it in. With an XML invoice, this data is copied exactly as it appears.

Do the purchase order, the recorded delivery, and the invoice match? If so, Elari processes the invoice fully automatically, and the payment is made.

One solution for your financial workflow

Invoice processing with Peppol is part of Elari Purchase to Pay. We also offer Elari Expense, for corporate credit cards and expense reporting. See below to find out what’s right for your organization.
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Expense

Provide employees with a smart debit card and automate the entire expense reporting process. No receipts, no forms—just real-time visibility for Finance.
Check out Elari Expense
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Purchase to Pay

From order request to paid invoice: bring control and speed to your entire procurement process. No more surprises in your general ledger account.
View Purchase to Pay

Frequently Asked Questions About Peppol

Here you'll find answers to the most frequently asked questions about Peppol and Elari.

Peppol BIS stands for Business Interoperability Specifications. This is the standard that precisely defines how a message—such as an invoice—is structured within the PEPPOL network: which fields it must contain and in what order. Without Peppol BIS, organizations would not be able to automatically read each other’s invoices, even if they are on the same network.

Peppol is the network over which you securely exchange documents. Peppol BIS is the language spoken on that network: the standard that defines exactly how an invoice or other document is structured. So you always need Peppol BIS to communicate via Peppol, but they are not the same thing: one is the road, the other is the language.

UBL (Universal Business Language) is the file format in which an e-invoice is created. Peppol is the network through which that UBL file is sent and received. To work via Peppol, you therefore always need a valid UBL invoice: no PDFs, only structured digital files.

Yes, each organization can only have one Peppol ID. So, before you apply for one yourself through Elari, check first to see if your accounting software has already automatically requested an ID for you. If you already have an ID from another provider, you’ll need to deactivate it there first.

Nothing—it's free. You can apply for a Peppol ID through Elari in just 5 minutes, whether for Dutch or foreign tax authorities, and your company will be validated within a day.

Yes, Spend Cloud is now Elari since 1 October 2026. The integration with Peppol and the rest of the invoice processing remain unchanged; only the name has changed.

Want to learn more about invoice processing?

Curious to see how PEPPOL and the rest of Elari's invoice processing work together in practice?

Schedule a demo Download the fact sheet
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