Standard

Peppol BIS Billing 3.0

Definition

Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 (Business Interoperability Specification) is the Peppol specification for EN 16931-compliant invoices based on UBL 2.1. It defines the permitted content, mandatory fields, and code lists for invoices exchanged over the Peppol network. BIS Billing 3.0 is the standard for public procurement in many EU countries and is interoperable with XRechnung.

Background & context

Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 is the Business Interoperability Specification for invoices and credit notes issued by OpenPeppol. It is a CIUS of EN 16931 — a specialising restriction of the European standard — based on the UBL 2.1 syntax. While EN 16931 describes only the semantic model, Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 bindingly stipulates which code lists, identifiers and mandatory entries apply for exchange over the Peppol network. Such an invoice is recognisable by the ProfileID `urn:fdc:peppol.eu:2017:poacc:billing:01:1.0` and the CustomizationID `urn:cen.eu:en16931:2017#compliant#urn:fdc:peppol.eu:2017:poacc:billing:3.0`. Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 is the de facto standard for public procurement in many EU countries and is interoperable with XRechnung: a correctly created XRechnung in UBL can technically also be Peppol BIS-compliant. The profile thus enables cross-border invoice exchange via Access Points without sender and recipient needing to use the same national format.

In practice — a worked example

A German supplier wants to send an invoice to a Norwegian public buyer. Instead of learning the Norwegian national format, it generates a Peppol BIS Billing 3.0-compliant UBL invoice with the appropriate ProfileID and CustomizationID and transmits it via its Peppol Access Point. The Norwegian recipient receives the document in a format its software understands. The same technical UBL structure can also be used in Germany with the XRechnung CustomizationID.

Common mistakes

  • •Wrong ProfileID/CustomizationID: without the correct Peppol identifiers, the invoice is not properly recognised in the network.
  • •Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 is UBL-based — a pure CII file is not readily Peppol BIS-compliant.

Frequently asked questions

Is Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 the same as XRechnung?

Both are CIUS of EN 16931 based on UBL and largely interoperable, but not identical: XRechnung contains additional German rules (BR-DE) and mandatory fields such as the Leitweg-ID.

Which syntax does Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 use?

UBL 2.1. Invoices use the Invoice-2 or CreditNote-2 schema with the appropriate Peppol profile and customization IDs.

Switch to German:Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 (DE)

Related terms

PeppolPeppol (Pan-European Public Procurement On-Line) is an international network and infrastructure for the secure electronic exchange of business documents, especially invoices and orders. It is based on a four-corner model with Access Points, a central directory (SMP/SML), and standardised document formats (e.g., Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 based on UBL). In Germany, KoSIT operates the Peppol directory.UBL (Universal Business Language)UBL (Universal Business Language) is an OASIS-standardised XML vocabulary for business documents, including invoices, orders, and delivery notes. UBL 2.1 is one of the two permitted syntaxes for EN 16931-compliant invoices and is used for XRechnung as well as Peppol BIS Billing 3.0, among others. UBL invoices use the namespace `urn:oasis:names:specification:ubl:schema:xsd:Invoice-2`.EN 16931EN 16931 is the European standard that defines the semantic data model of a core invoice. It specifies the mandatory and optional fields (Business Terms), their meaning, and the validation rules that apply to all conforming electronic invoices in the EU. Nationally implemented standards such as XRechnung, ZUGFeRD (EN 16931 profile), and Factur-X must comply with this standard.XRechnungXRechnung is the German standard for structured electronic invoices in public sector procurement (B2G). It is based on the European standard EN 16931 and is available in two syntaxes: UBL 2.1 and UN/CEFACT CII. Since 27 November 2020, federal public buyers have been required to accept electronic invoices in XRechnung format, and state and municipal authorities have been progressively included.B2G (Business-to-Government)B2G refers to business relationships and invoicing from companies to government entities (federal, state, municipal, and public bodies). In Germany, electronic invoicing in the B2G sector has been progressively mandatory for federal authorities since 2020 and increasingly for state and municipal authorities. The required format is XRechnung or another EN 16931-compliant format.
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