Overview
You have credentials. Here is how to exchange documents with them.
Someone — your software vendor, or us — has given you access to a Peppol connection. Your Peppol address is registered, what you can send and receive is configured, and the network part is handled.
What is left is getting documents to us and taking documents from us. There are two ways, and you can use either.
Over the API
Submit a document with an HTTP call, fetch what arrives. For software you control.
Over SFTP
Drop a file in a directory to send it; collect received files from another. For systems that speak files.
Both move the same documents through the same checks. Pick whichever your system already does well — an ERP that can schedule a file export is often better served by SFTP than by writing an HTTP client.
You can use both at once. Documents sent over SFTP show up in the API, and a webhook fires whether the document arrived for collection over SFTP or over the API.
Knowing when something arrives
Neither method makes you poll, though you can. Set up a webhook and we call your server every time a document is ready — no schedule, no wondering whether the last check was recent enough.
If you cannot receive inbound HTTP calls, poll instead. Received documents wait for you and are not deleted because you were slow.
Your address, and theirs
You send to a Peppol address, written as a scheme and a value: 0007:5569876543 is a Swedish organisation number, 0192 is Norwegian, 0088 is a GLN. Your trading partner has one and has to tell you what it is — it is not derivable from their name or their VAT number alone.
Your own address is the one others send to. Whoever set you up has it.
What can go wrong, and what it means
| What you see | Usually means |
|---|---|
| The document was accepted, then failed validation | The XML does not satisfy the Peppol rules for its type. The errors say which rules |
| The recipient could not be found | Their address is wrong, or they are not registered for that document type |
| Accepted and then nothing | Look at the status. AS4_ACCEPTED is delivered as far as Peppol goes |
| An invoice you expected never arrived | Often your own capabilities: you can be registered to receive invoices and not credit notes |
Accepting a document is not the same as validating it — see Sending.