What do you mean? All Belgian users unite?
V2 of InvoicePlane is on its way. We can connect to any API by then.
If there is a Peppol provider that offers Api access and if they’re helpful we’ll just connect to them.
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Peppol is not accessible to the public, only through Access Points. None of them will be willing to freely open their access to Peppol to IP-users. Except if IP would become an integrator for that Access Point. But that will not be free either. I had signed up as an integretor few weeks ago. They charged 65 EUR/year for being an integrator and 10 EUR (one time off) for enabling a registered VAT number.
As Peppol is a Belgian company and the Belgian government forces Belgian entrepeneurs to use it, it’s not something you can include in IP. I noticed the Italian users created their own IP in 2019 for the same reasons. France will have their own standards as from 2026.
The only solution I see is to turn IP into a hosted app, become a Peppol Access Point (and pay 2000 EUR/year) and try to make some money to cover the costs. Apart from Belgium there are a dozen of other countries that use Peppol and it’s flavor of the UBL Invoice standard. This can work, really!
IP could then grow into a SAAS SME-solution provider, just like Odoo has. My expectation is that somewhere in 2025, at least a dozen of new competitors will join this market. IP can be one of them.
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Hi everyone, I have some similar issue, but with spanish e-invoice that is more easy i guest , need to make a XML format file and an invoice PDF signed .
URL format:
https://www.facturae.gob.es/formato/Documents/EnglishFacturae3_0.pdf
Has anyone tried it .
Thank you
Version 2 of InvoicePlane is on its way, but let’s first figure out if our export of Zugferd etcetera is good enough.
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@myedgy if you want to help you can make an overview of the peppol providers (Access Points)
Figure out which ones have the best potential to take on an open source project.
Stuff like that.
If they have an Api, they’ll have more potential
hey underdog,
first of all thank you and all the contributers for this piece of golden OSS!
just landed here, cause i am also interested in this topic (and not by free will)…
may I share my idea on how the demanding user requests and the time limit for this whole e-invoicing madness could be implemented with less stress?
for example here are some providers who support manual upload.
- Qvalia (Belgium)
- Storecove (Netherlands with a branch in Germany)
- Webware24 / Webware Internet Solutions GmbH (Germany)
so, its not absolutely necessary to develop an API right from the start and lock yourself into a single provider, especially since such providers are happy to reward such initiatives later on by increasing their prices.
it would be better to initially focus on stable e-invoicing, using various CIUS (Core Invoice Usage Specification) formats, starting with EN16931 and PEPPOL BIS v3.0 (uses UBL 2.1) and perhaps v2.2. Later, expand to country-specific formats (XRechnung, FatturaPA-XML, KSeF, Artemis, ATCUD…).
B2B users can then use the services mentioned above (at the same time, thank their governments for the extra costs) and upload the invoice if their customer exists in the PEPPOL directory.
i have seen that work is also being done on the zugferd format (ZUGFeRD 2.1.1 EN16931), which is identical (automatically compatible) to the french Factur-X (Factur-X EN16931). users are currently raising concerns because it has been recognized that PDF and XML content are two different data sets, and therefore consistency is not guaranteed. since the XML content is binding, and the PDF part, which can be changed intentionally or unintentionally, cannot be trusted, the format is often questioned. only a electronic signature creates trust: QES is recommended in France, and even mandatory in Germany for invoices to public procurement agency. otherwise AES has to be the choice. this means additional costs for a QTSP or CA provider to securely use this format.
mate, thinking and writing about this is like opening pandoras box anew every time…
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Hi James,
Thank you for your message.
I’m on Discord if you want to discuss further.
Work on the e-invoicing branch can be considered “done” and we have an "rc2’ .zip fole for download at the moment.
If you want to explain what QES and QTSP is, br my guest.
O’m open to having users upload their files to their providers
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hey thank you, i will give rc2 a try and report, as soon as I can free up some time. same for discord 
QES (qualified electronic signature) is just a type of eSignature. it is subject to the eIDAS regulation and therefore probably only (but well) known in the EU. legally equivalent to a handwritten signature, it is intended to replace it on the path to digitalization. to use it you must obtain a certificate from an accredited provider (QTSP). from here on, the costs and dependencies begin again…
wiki has a quick overview, but fynk (a contract management service depending on QES) explains it very well.
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Another person finding this thread thanks to the whole “One Europe” direction where Peppol is becoming mandatory. I’m in the Netherlands, where it isn’t required yet, but it likely will be at some point.
I’ve seen service providers that offer a paid API so you can submit invoices directly. Manually downloading invoices and uploading them into another system isn’t really an option for us—we generate invoices frequently and that extra step adds too much friction.
Ideally, we’d like to automate this end to end. Do you offer (or plan to offer) an API or direct Peppol integration we can connect to?
Will V2 also have an API where we could automatically create invoices based on usage from a SAAS platform?
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Yes, howeverrrrr… we have to connect to something that’s called an “access point”.
Finding the right access point is going to be the important choice here.
I’ve found a couple (in Belgium, potatoes, potatoes…)
But i don’t know if they’re any good.
I’ve been in contact with e-invoice.be, it’s basically that the user of InvoicePlane creates an account there and we just connect to their REST Api.
From another person i heard that 25 cents per invoice is too expensive.
InvoicePlane, especially V2 can connect to “anything that has an API” (wait till i have to eat my words)
This is the repo of InvoicePlane v2
In Dutch that is “een kromme vraag”. I’ll explain in English:
InvoicePlane v2 will have an Api client.
- Let’s say we’ve found 10 Access Point Providers.
- The user can choose their provider and enter his credentials.
- When you create an invoice you can send it to Peppol through that Access Point.
- Since we consume their API with our Api client that will be possible
When using another system to automatically read in purchasing invoices, I’ve seen prices also 25 cents up to 33 cents.
Where the one asking 33 cents, also asks for 1.36 minimum fee each month.
I think the issue is not in the price from the AP’s, the issue comes from our governments, obligating us to use this.
Looking at for example 100 invoices each month, you would “only” pay 25-35 euros per month.
The ISO certification alone will probably cost 15.000 euros or way more. So 15.000 / 35 = 428 months = 36 years.
If you ask me, going through an AP, is a good option. I’ve seen alot more. And you can connect to any AP you want, it doesn’t have to be in a specific country.
With this I meant, whether it is possible for us to make an api key in InvoicePlane V2, to create invoices only through the API, InvoicePlane could then function as a central system from which it could be send to an AP.
In our case: we automatically create invoices for our SaaS through our application at the moment. We also create manual invoice via InvoicePlane for additional jobs.
I don’t know which SaaS you are talking about, but yes:
- enter Api key for any Access Point
- press button: “Send to Peppol”
- Invoice gsts sent to Peppol
I already asked for the optimal flow 20 posts ago.
And i always talk about this on Discord.
Forums take too long. Discord is better, in my opinion