# What is Peppol?

> Peppol is an international network for sending structured e-invoices between companies. Definition, how addressing works and a worked example.

Updated 2026-11-06. Source: https://atta.sh/glossary/peppol

Peppol is an open network for exchanging electronic business documents, mainly invoices. Senders and receivers are registered with an identifier. A document goes through an access point to the receiver's access point, in a standard format, with no email involved.

## Example

A Belgian consultancy sends a €1,210 invoice to a Dutch client. The consultancy's access point looks up the client's Peppol ID, finds their access point and delivers a structured XML invoice. It lands in the client's finance system and is read without retyping. If the client isn't registered, the lookup fails and the sender needs another route, such as a PDF by email.

## In Atta

Atta sends and receives e-invoices through a transport behind one interface. Which route a document may take is decided by the country's mandate; a mandate whose channel has no configured transport is a refusal, never an email instead.

A Peppol identity is the operator's to give. It is set by a script, not a form, because the access point key belongs to the platform. An endpoint has one holder, and inbound mail is routed only once the endpoint is verified. An unconfigured transport means off.

The payload is stored once, exactly as it travelled, before sending. See [e-invoicing](https://atta.sh/e-invoicing).

## What you need to start

A Peppol ID for the receiving company, an access point to send and receive through, and invoices in a format the network accepts. Without a receiver's ID there's nowhere to deliver, so check your top customers and suppliers are registered first.

## Questions

### Is Peppol a file format?

No, it's a network and a set of specifications. The invoice inside it is usually in a format such as Peppol BIS or UBL.