In order to improve the control over their VAT legislation, governments from various countries have already been working for 15 to 20 years to persuade the business community in their countries to carry out intercompany invoicing using invoices in a structured format (such as UBL) and to exchange these invoices with each other via special networks (such as Peppol), but despite years of attempts, there are still surprisingly few companies that send and receive UBL invoices via Peppol and administer them in such a way that it contributes to the improvement of the control over VAT legislation as desired by governments.

Governments have now come to the realization that it will not be possible to get e-invoicing started with a gentle approach, and have therefore proceeded to make Peppol e-invoicing mandatory, as Belgium, for example, did on 1-1-2026 and as many other countries will also do in the short term. In the following paragraphs, using two flowcharts, we explain why e-invoicing via Peppol has been so difficult to get off the ground and how it can be done much better.

The Peppol e-invoicing model

The 1st diagram is a representation of the current quadrilateral Peppol model in which e-invoices are sent from supplier to customer via Peppol providers. In this diagram, we zoom in heavily on the customer role so that the invoice flow proceeds there is clearly visible.

The crown jewel which was supposed to persuade companies to start using e-invoicing, is: That e-invoices would be automatically booked into the accounting system upon receipt by the customer. This would lead to significant work savings and result in faster payment of invoices. However, we cannot imagine that companies would pay invoices at all, that are not validated or approved, let alone to do so quickly. And the claim about significant work savings also seems questionable to us, because how much work savings can be achieved by automating an action that usually takes no more than 2 minutes per invoice to be performed?

It is by now quite clear that the crown jewel has failed to function, and that surprises us not at all, because it was simply substandard, but in the meantime, governments have proceeded to make e-invoicing mandatory, while many companies already have their hands full trying to get their procurement processes under control so that sales orders can be invoiced and purchase invoices can be booked.

And now Peppol e-invoicing is added on top of that, resulting in yet another extra burden for companies' procurement processes, causing them to get into even more trouble and the need for a crown jewel that actually functions and leads to significant work savings is growing ever greater.

We have taken the above into consideration and decided 2 years ago to develop our App : Procurement Document Manager, abbreviated PDM. PDM is a Web App that delivers exactly what companies need, namely providing work savings on the processing of their procurement processes, by executing them in an automated, digitized, and much more efficient manner, so that space is freed up for the processing of Peppol e-invoicing.

PDM is now operational and available on this website, as you will see further down this page.

Within the PDM App, all incoming and outgoing procurement documents such as Quotations, Order Forms, Order Confirmations, Bills of Lading, Receipts, and the UBL and PDF invoices that are received and sent via the Peppol provider are uploaded to the PDM App, where they are stored in the PDM database. Within the PDM database, procurement documents that are related to each other, for example because they originate from the same purchase or sales order, are linked to each other in Dossiers.

The streamlined management of procurement processes by the PDM App already results in enormous efficiency benefits, but because the PDM App is also a Web App, functions such as approving purchase invoices can be performed remotely via the internet, which results in additional efficiency benefits for the progress of procurement processes.

Other functions can also be performed over the internet when using the PDM App, such as uploading procurement documents to the PDM App, coding purchase invoices for booking in the ERP App, and external parties such as accountants or the tax authorities can also gain access to the desired data via the PDM App.

The Tax and Customs Administration, in particular, will be pleased with the smart way in which UBL invoices are made accessible by the PDM App. You can see how this works and looks here on this website, where a live version of our PDM App is operational and available:

To do this, click on "PDM App" in the menu at the top of this page and then on "Login" on the right-hand page to log in to the PDM App.
You will then arrive at a page in the PDM App where you can choose per document, whether you want to view the PDF or UBL version or both, and this is exactly what the Tax and Customs Administration needs, it seems to us.

And while we are in the PDM App, we can also show you how UBL and PDF documents are uploaded to the PDM App:

To do this, click on the link "Upload UBL+PDF Docs." Next, click on “choose files” and select 1 UBL file (Xml or Json) and 1 Pdf file and click on "Open" to upload the files to the PDM App.

After the files have been uploaded, click on "Assignable Documents" in the left menu, after which you will arrive at the same page you have been to before, but where the files you uploaded are now also listed, including the PDF and UBL links.

Uploading UBL+PDF invoices, in addition to sending and receiving invoices via Peppol providers, is all companies need to do to comply with government Peppol e-invoicing guidelines.

By the way, within the PDM App, the term “UBL” is used as a collective name for various document formats. This means that document formats such as Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 format, which is used in Belgium, are equally supported by the PDM App, provided the file extensions are Xml or Json.

Incidentally, please disregard the content of the PDF and UBL documents already present in the PDM App, as these documents do not match with each other; however, this exercise is not about the content of documents, but to show PDF's functionality. Incidentally, everyone is free to upload matching UBL and PDF invoices to the PDM App as a test, or to evaluate the PDM App in other ways.

A few other benefits of working with the PDM App are:
-There is no more need to print procurement documents on paper, and therefore they need no longer to be stored in cabinets and archives, which not only results in enormous labor savings but also a huge reduction in office and archive space.

-Images and photos can also be uploaded to the PDM App, and can be added to dossiers, for example, to record damage to deliveries.

-Within PDM, overviews can be generated showing all procurement dossiers that are still incomplete, or in other words, to which no invoice has been added yet. These are the salesorders that have not yet been invoiced and the purchaseorders for which a purchase invoice still needs to be received. In this way, forgotten invoices can be detected and an overview can be obtained of purchase invoices yet to be received.

-Within PDM, every procurement dossier can be found in an instant by searching by name or date, which provides a huge advantage in terms of workload when adding documents to the dossiers, compared to adding them manually, where it often takes minutes before the right file is found.

-In future versions, the PDM Apps of Client and Supplier will be able tp exchange procurement documents with each other via web services in such a way that documents end up directly in the correct dossiers. As a result, recipients will no longer have to perform the uploading and folder assignment themselves.

-PDM is not a pipe dream; it is operational and can be tested on this website, as shown above, but you can also opt for a free 2-month trial version from a webserver set up especially for you; just send an email.

We believe that the use of the PDM App can have a similar effect on accounting departments as the introduction of accounting programs (now called ERP Apps) 40 years ago. At that time, the card dossier with general ledger accounts disappeared from view and now, with the introduction of PDM, the many binders with invoices, the cabinets and archives are about to disappear from view as well.

We estimate that the number of hours spent managing procurement processes can be reduced by approximately 40 to 50 percent when using PDM and we estimate that the total number of hours spent to manage procurement processes, accounts for 50 to 60 percent of the total number of working hours in accounting departments.

The Peppol e-invoicing model, but now based on PDM

After all the information regarding the functioning and the savings that can be achieved with PDM, in the 2nd diagram we show a flowchart of procurement documents, which formed the basis for the development of PDM, again represented within the well-known four-sided Peppol e-invoicing model.

In this 2nd diagram, it is clearly visible that the various document flows within the PDM model proceed differently than in the 1st diagram; just compare the red and blue arrows from the 2 diagrams with each other. In the PDM model, incoming invoices are not posted to the accounting system upon arrival, but are first uploaded to the PDM App, where they are digitally linked to related procurement documents such as waybills, delivery notes, photos, or even correspondence conducted between supplier and customer, so that a solid basis is formed upon which the invoices can be validated, approved, numbered, and coded. Only after this are the invoices posted to the customer's ERP App, after which payment can follow from the ERP App, though this falls outside the scope of the PDM App.

Purchase invoices are digitally coded within the PDM App, which implies that PDM journal entries can optionally be automatically read and booked by the customer's ERP App, but this depends also on the ERP App. Incidentally, these automatic invoice entries are of a completely different order than the automatic invoice entries made directly upon receipt of invoices by the ERP App. The bookings made here are based on information from underlying documents.

Not just companies alone benefit from using PDM, but the Environment and Sustainability do as well

When using PDM it is no longer necessary to print out many thousands of procurement documents, resulting in enormous paper savings, which means far fewer forests need to be cut down for paper production. Not printing procurement documents also significantly reduces environmental pollution caused by printers.

PDM is not only a great App in terms of labor savings and performance, but it also has enormous environmental and sustainability benefits, especially when used on a large scale, so we encourage everyone to request a PDM trial period from us as quickly and en masse as possible!

To experience the revolutionary power of PDM as described above, we invite you to Evaluate PDM, and emphasize that NO PDM Software needs to be installed on your systems, because PDM is a Web App that runs on external Web Servers.
All you need to do is send an email to GroupPDM, after which you will receive an internet address from us from which you can use PDM. The free evaluation also entails no obligation whatsoever; you can stop at any time, and if you decide to continue, you will simply pick up where you left off during the evaluation period after 2 months.