Peppol is live: is your document archive ready for it?

Peppol is either mandatory or strongly recommended for business-to-government electronic invoicing in a growing number of European countries. Many organisations have already established the technical connection. The question that follows is equally important: what happens to those invoices once they arrive?

A Peppol connection handles the receipt of a structured XML file. What it does not handle is how that document is managed, archived, and retrieved. That is precisely where the challenge begins for finance and operations teams.

IGuana iDM automatically captures incoming Peppol invoices, links them to the correct file, and stores them in a tamper-proof archive that complies with GDPR and applicable retention legislation. No stray files in email inboxes. No manual saving to a shared drive. No uncertainty during a tax audit about where invoice 2023-04871 ended up.

Integration with your ERP or accounting system is handled via standard API connections. iGuana iDM reads the metadata from the Peppol file, automatically indexes on supplier, invoice number, date, and amount, and makes the document immediately searchable for authorised users. Approval workflows for incoming invoices are configurable without custom development: set threshold values, assign approvers per department or cost centre, and track status in real time.

For organisations handling mixed streams. Peppol, email, and paper. iGuana iDM provides a single centralised intake. The Digital Mailroom module digitises paper invoices via ScanFactory and merges them with the electronic stream into the same archive. Your accounting team always works from a single source of truth, regardless of the channel through which an invoice arrives.

Connecting to Peppol is step one. Step two is ensuring your organisation is operationally and legally prepared: an archive that meets retention obligations, a workflow that eliminates human error, and an audit trail that holds up under scrutiny. To see how iGuana iDM can make this concrete for your organisation, reach out via our contact page.