Peppol

Peppol is an open, four-corner network model for exchanging structured business documents, including invoices, between trading partners. Each party connects to a certified access point, and the two access points exchange a standardised document over a governed network, with no portal to log into or bilateral integration to build.

The four-corner model is the same logic that underpins a connected accounts payable network, applied to the invoice document itself: you connect once to the network rather than separately to every counterparty. It is the framework the UK has chosen for mandatory e-invoicing.

Peppol standardises how the invoice travels and what it contains. It does not, on its own, confirm that the supplier sending it is genuine or that their bank details are current, which is where verification and a trust layer remain essential.