e-invoicing from your sap software via peppol
Case study: Attero
Döne Savas
Functional specialist
Secure e-invoicing with SAP software via Peppol
Attero processes the waste streams of millions of Dutch citizens and hundreds of companies. Attero is a national and international environmental company that is a market leader in the recovery and reuse of energy and raw materials from waste.
The occasion
A large proportion of Attero’s customers are in the government segment. “We were getting more and more requests from municipal customers to submit invoices electronically,” says Döne Savas, functional specialist at Attero. “We would like to accommodate our customers in this and have started to explore the possibilities.”
The principles
E-invoicing can be implemented in various ways. It depends on the wishes of the organisation which solution fits best. “We use SAP software for invoicing,” says Döne. “We wanted to be able to send our e-invoices from SAP as well. We also work with customised applications. In order for them to communicate with each other fluently, we need
flexible conversion options. Finally, it was important to us that we can deliver the e-invoices to our customers via the secure Peppol network.”
Data security is becoming increasingly important. This also applies to invoice data. Unlike email, the Peppol network is secure. For this reason, more and more (commercial) organisations are using it in addition to the central government.
“Once the basic principles were clear, we started looking for a service provider that could advise and support us in the implementation,” says Döne. “We compared several service providers and Tradeinterop gave us the confidence that they could offer us good substantive advice, a suitable solution and efficient implementation.”
E-invoicing with SAP software
“We started the process with our SAP software,” says Döne. “SAP can generate an e-invoice, but unfortunately it was not directly usable. This is because SAP has its own e-invoice format, the iDoc, and Peppol uses a different format. Tradeinterop therefore converts our iDoc invoices to the Peppol format and then they are sent to the customer via Peppol.”
As a Peppol Access Point, tradeinterop gives us access to Peppol. Our SAP software is now directly connected to this network through them. The great advantage of this is that we can easily determine ourselves which invoices we want to send through this channel. The combination of our own connection to Peppol and the extensive conversion options offer us a great deal of flexibility and that works very well.
“In addition to municipalities, large companies in particular want to receive e-invoices”.
More demand for e-invoices
Since 18 April 2019, all local authorities and other contracting authorities have been obliged to be able to receive and process e-invoices. “The number of requests from municipalities to receive e-invoices is clearly increasing,” says Döne. “In addition to municipalities, it is mainly large companies that want to receive e-invoices. It’s great that we can now set this up quickly and offer our customers extra service.”
Experiences with e-invoicing
For some time now, Attero has been sending e-invoices via Peppol to customers connected to this network. “Our experience so far is that it is running smoothly,” says Döne. “We keep a close eye on the processes and the invoice flows are correct and efficient. This process has given us a future-proof and secure method of working, with which we contribute to process optimisation for our customers.”
