Peppol e-Invoicing is nothing new, for over 15 years, governments worldwide have been attempting to persuade the business sector in their countries to start sending UBL invoices via the Peppol network, with little success so far.

It is hardly surprising that Peppol e-Invoicing has failed to gain traction over the past 15 years, as the vast majority of companies still conduct their procurement processes using the old, highly labor intensive paper-based method, a method that is now reaching its limits. The number of procurement documents can skyrocket when companies have many hundreds or even thousands of pending purchase and sales orders, each typically consist of three to four separate procurement documents. Consequently, procurement processes can evolve into massive, labor intensive puzzles, leaving companies unable to handle the additional burden of UBL invoices.

We have developed an App that solves the above-mentioned problem, but before we delve into this App in greater detail, we first declare a few terms and definitions, used throughout this website.

Within this website, the term “UBL” is used as a collective term for invoice formats related to UBL, such as Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 and other formats, while the term “Peppol” serves as a collective term for distribution networks related to Peppol.

By the old, highly labor intensive paper method as mentioned above, we mean the process in which companies exchange tens of thousands of procurement documents with one another in order to initiate and monitor purchase and sales transactions, so that the resulting purchase invoices can be assessed and salesorders can be invoiced.

The procurement documents exchanged between companies include, among others: quotations, purchase and sales orders, order confirmations, waybills, receipts, delivery notes, invoices, and so on.

Despite the fact that these procurement documents are typically exchanged digitally between companies, they are almost invariably printed out on paper to facilitate the execution of the procurement process, amongs other for the following reasons:

-To complete procurement dossiers, the procurement documents, which often arrive fragmentarily and trickle in over a period of several weeks, are collected in common folders, which is easiest to do when the documents are printed out on paper.

-Documents are also often printed out on paper because physical operations need to be performed on them, such as approving and numbering purchase invoices or coding purchase and sales invoices for booking in the accounting system.

-Another reason for documents to be printed out on paper is, because invoices must be archived for many years, together with their underlying procurement documents, and the archiving is most easily accomplished when the documents have been printed out on paper.

As mentioned above, we have developed an App that automates procurement processes and eliminates the need to print procurement documents, and our App is called:

Procurement Document Manager (abbreviated as PDM)

PDM automates the entire paper-based procurement process and incorporates specific Peppol e-Invoicing functionalities, allowing UBL invoices to be easily ingested into PDM. As a result, companies will be far better equipped to support Peppol e-Invoicing and comply with the applicable guidelines.

PDM does not merely automate the procurement process, it also digitizes it, thereby rendering the printing of procurement documents obsolete. In this way, PDM also makes a significant contribution to Environmental Protection and Sustainability.

Because procurement documents no longer need to be printed on paper, they also no longer need to be archived in cabinets and archives. This results not only in enormous labor savings but also in enormous savings on office and archive space.

Within PDM, overviews of incomplete procurement dossiers can be requested, these are dossiers to which no purchase or sales invoice has been assigned yet. In this way, a much better overview is obtained of sales orders yet to be invoiced, so that the chance of forgotten invoicing is reduced and a better overview is obtained of purchase invoices that have yet to be received.

Within PDM, procurement dossiers can be located within seconds, by searching by name or date, which provides a huge advantage in terms of workload compared to the old-fashioned manual searching for paper folders, where it often takes minutes before the right folder is located.

The fact that PDM is a Web App brings additional efficiency benefits, as certain functions, such as the approval of purchase invoices, can be performed via the internet. This prevents bottlenecks in the procurement process, as there is no need to wait for invoice approvers to be present at the office.

Additionally, external parties such as accountants or tax inspectors can also access PDM via the internet, further fulfilling the original Peppol e-Invoicing objective, namely improving controls on VAT compliance by Tax authorities.

To give you an idea of ​​how profound the impact of PDM is on procurement, we show 2 diagrams below. The first diagram shows Peppol e-Invoicing as it has been applied over the past 15 years, and the second diagram shows Peppol e-Invoicing, but based on PDM.

Peppol e-Invoicing as it has been applied over the past 15 years

This diagram illustrates the current four-corner Peppol e-Invoicing model, in which e-Invoices are transmitted from supplier to customer via Peppol providers. It places a strong focus on the customer's role, clearly demonstrating how the invoice flow proceeds on that side. Over the past 15 years, this Peppol e-Invoicing model has performed poorly, a situation that even the Invoice Processing Providers, who were, and indeed still are, involved with this model from the very beginning, have been unable to remedy.

The Peppol e-Invoicing Model, but now Based on PDM

This diagram also depicts the four-corner Peppol e-Invoicing model, but this time based on PDM.

We are pleased to inform you that PDM does not just exist in a schedule, but it is Up and Running from this website, from where you can use and assess it Live

For example, if you are wondering how the Peppol e-Invoicing requirements are incorporated into the PDM App, you can see this in the PDM app by doing the following:

Click on: "PDM App" located at the very top left of this page's menu, and next click "Login" on the right-hand side of the page to log in to the PDM App. You will then be directed to a page within the PDM App where, among other things, you can view documents that can be instantly visualized in PDF or UBL format with 1 click of a button. This is the way in which UBL invoices can always be easily traced within the PDM App, in relation to the PDF invoices used for bookkeeping.

Within the PDM App, e-Invoices are also coded, this ensures that it is always possible to identify exactly which general ledger accounts the e-Invoices have been posted to, precisely what tax inspectors require to improve their oversight of VAT regulations.

And while we are working within the PDM App, we can also demonstrate how documents/invoices exchanged in both UBL AND PDF formats are uploaded to the PDM App as Inseparable Pairs:

To do this, click on "Upload UBL+PDF Docs." in the left-hand menu, then click "Choose Files," from your system select one UBL file with extension (XML or JSON) and one file with the PDF extension, and finally click "Open" to upload the files to the PDM App.

Once the files have been successfully uploaded, click on "Assignable Documents" in the left-hand menu. This will take you back to the same page you visited earlier, which now also lists the documents you just uploaded, and you can view these documents in either UBL or PDF format.

Uploading UBL+PDF Pair of Invoice documents is the only step companies need to take within the PDM App to comply with the government's Peppol e-Invoicing requirements.

The PDM model is founded on the vision that the successful digitalization of the procurement process is only possible when ALL procurement documents and ALL procurement operations that constitute the procurement process are incorporated into the PDM design. Consequently, PDM supports functions that lie at the very periphery of procurement, such as for instance, the coding of e-Invoices.

The PDM diagram also demonstrates that all procurement documents, including those not exchanged via the Peppol provider, yet which remain an integral part of the procurement process, are stored within the PDM database. This encompasses documents such as waybills, delivery receipts, issue slips, and correspondence exchanged between the supplier and the customer, it also extends to photographs of documents that exist solely in paper form, documents which can thus be digitized simply by taking a photograph and uploading it to the PDM App.

Documents uploaded to PDM are assigned to shared dossiers containing related documents, by the user. PDM users determine the specific criteria or properties, upon which dossiers are created, but dossiers are often created based on purchase or sales orders, thereby facilitating the validation of purchase invoices or the invoicing of sales orders.

Journal entries created in the PDM App, are digital in nature and can therefore potentially be automatically imported by ERP applications, however, this depends in part on the specific ERP application.

The PDM diagram shows that all e-Invoices (PDF, UBL, both incoming and outgoing) inclusive underlying documents are stored in the relational PDM database, for the entire retention period of invoices, and where they stay fully accessible and easily traceable for the entire retention period of invoices. Conversely, in the previous model, invoices end up unstructured on hard drives, rendering them inaccessible and difficult to trace.

The PDM diagram illustrates that, unlike the previous diagram, there is only one intermediary exchanging e-Invoices with the Peppol provider, the ERP provider.

We estimate that the number of hours spent on Procurement can be reduced by 40 to 50 percent through the use of the PDM App.

In future PDM versions, Apps of customers and suppliers will be able to exchange procurement documents via web services in such a way that the documents are automatically saved directly into the appropriate dossiers.

When evaluating the PDM App on this website, please disregard the type or content of the documents currently present within the App. PDM is publicly accessible on this website, and any visitor is free to upload any document they wish to the App, consequently, there is no logical coherence among the documents found within the App. However, the focus on this website is not on the content or type of the documents themselves, but rather on the functionality of the App and whether the documents are processed correctly.

And if you wish to asses the PDM App to its fullest extent and exclusively, you can request a free 2-month evaluation period, please see further down this page for details.

Environment and Sustainability also Benefit from the use of PDM

By using PDM, hundreds of thousands of procurement documents are no longer printed out on paper. This significantly reduces the amount of paper required for this purpose, meaning far fewer trees need to be felled, and also leads to a drastic reduction in the environmental pollution caused by printers.

PDM represents a major revolution in the field of Peppol e-Invoicing, but it also offers substantial benefits regarding the Environment and Sustainability, particularly when deployed on a large scale. We therefore invite everyone to request a free 2-month PDM trial period from us as soon as possible and in large numbers.

If you have tested and reviewed the PDM App on this website, you will have determined that it is very easy to: assess, based on underlying documents, whether:
-Purchase invoices are correct and
-Sales orders are billable,
without having to print out a single document.
You will also have determined that every UBL invoice is inextricably linked to the corresponding PDF purchase or sales invoice, meaning the UBL invoices are always just one mouse click away from the PDF invoices.
What more could governments and businesses wish for to get E-invoicing via Peppol up and running, and as a bonus, make a significant contribution to the environment and sustainability as well?

PDM is a Web App that runs on external web servers, consequently, NO PDM software needs to be installed on your own systems in order to evaluate or use PDM.

Because PDM is a Web App which is available in the English language, we can easily roll it out worldwide, physical distances therefore play no role.

PDM is intuitive to use, moreover, every page within the PDM app provides an explanation regarding the purpose and usage of that specific page, as well as the interconnections between the various pages within the app. Should you require further explanation, we are, of course, happy to provide it.

The free evaluation comes with absolutely no obligations, you may discontinue it at any time and remove any documents you have uploaded to the PDM app. On the other hand, should you decide after two months to continue using PDM, you can simply pick up right where you left off during the evaluation period.

The only thing left for you to do now is to request an evaluation, after which you will be able to start evaluating the PDM App after a few days.