What Peppol, SMP, SML and a “digital postman” are

Peppol in one sentence

Peppol (Pan-European Public Procurement OnLine) is a network and a set of standardsthat let businesses exchange invoices and other documents machine to machine, much as e-mail delivers a message between any two providers. You therefore do not need to worry about which software the other party uses; it is enough that both of you are in the network.

The 4-corner model

The basic exchange has four “corners”:

• C1: the sender (the company that issues the invoice).
• C2: the sender’s Access Point (the supplier’s “digital postman”).
• C3: the recipient’s Access Point.
• C4: the recipient (the company that receives the invoice).

The invoice travels C1 → C2 → C3 → C4. The sender and the recipient do not deal with the technology. Their Access Points take care of it.

Why Slovakia uses a 5-corner model

Because from 2027 invoice data are reported to the Financial Administration, the Slovak solution adds a fifth corner, C5 (the tax administration’s Access Point), and behind it C6, the Financial Administration itself. The model is nevertheless called 5-corner: the fifth corner of the network is C5, and the Financial Administration (C6) stands behind it as the final recipient of the data. Alongside the commercial invoice a Tax Data Document (TDD) is therefore created, carrying the data for the tax authority. More in the article on data reporting (SK TDD).

Access Point = “digital postman”

An Access Point is a certified operator that sends invoices into the network and receives them from it. In Slovakia the term digital postman (digitálny poštár) has caught on. Certification is granted by the Peppol Authority, which in Slovakia is the Financial Administration of the Slovak Republic. Mind the difference between an operator with its own Access Point and an entity that merely forwards through someone else’s; we discuss it in the article how to choose a provider.

SMP and SML: the network directory

So that an Access Point knows where to deliver an invoice, the network has a two-level directory:

• SML (Service Metadata Locator): a DNS-based “phone book” which, based on the recipient’s identifier, says which SMP manages it.
• SMP (Service Metadata Publisher): a register stating which documents the recipient can receive and through which Access Point. Slovakia uses a central national SMP.

The sending Access Point therefore first looks into the SML → finds the recipient’s SMP → learns its capabilities and the address to deliver to → delivers. All of this happens within seconds and automatically.

The invoice standard and the Slovak Peppol ID

The commercial invoice is sent in the Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 standard (built on the European norm EN 16931). Slovak entities are identified in the network by the scheme 0245 and their DIČ (tax ID), i.e. 0245:DIČ (for example 0245:2121358349; only the digits of the DIČ, without the “SK” prefix).

Where Verteco fits in

Verteco is a Slovak Access Point of its own, certified by the Financial Administration (PA SK ID EFSK000031, Seat ID PSK001128), with a direct connection to the Peppol network. Receiving, sending and the archive of originals are available from €2 per month per IČO (company registration number; receiving without the archive is free up to 1,000 invoices a month), sending is handled automatically and we take care of reporting the data to the Financial Administration for you automatically (the FS confirms the acceptance of every report with a delivery receipt).