Electronic invoicing

Requirement

It is optional for the sender to send electronic invoices, but since 2019 it is compulsory for the government (B2G) receiver to accept e-invoicing. One region, Flanders, requries in all its public contracts that invoices be delivered electronically through the Mercurius platform from January 1, 2017.

The government approved a draft decree in March 2022 to implement B2G e-invoicing for all public administrations in Belgium. This obligation has already been introduced in several regions of Belgium.

The draft decree is not law yet, so the dates below could change:

• September 2022 - e-invoices for public contracts greater than EUR 214,000 must be issued within 6 months after the publication of the decree in the Belgian Gazette and on the first of each month.
• March 2023 - e-invoices for all public contracts that are equal to or greater than EUR 30,000 must be issued within 12 months after the publication of the decree in the Belgian Gazette and on the first of each month.
• September 2023 - e-invoices for all public contracts that are less than EUR 30,000 must be issued within 18 months after the publication of the decree in the Belgian Gazette and on the first of each month.

Contracts with a value of less than EUR 3,000 are exempt.

All B2G e-invoicing in Belgium takes place through the Mercurius platform. This platform was developed by the Belgian government and is connected to the PEPPOL network. Invoices and credit notes exchanged through Mercurius must conform to the PEPPOL BIS 3.0 document format.

Mercurius is managed by Fedict. It is a centralized platform based on the ePRIOR platform, developed and used by the European institutions, which allows businesses to facilitate the process of e-invoicing to the government (federal, regional, or even local). E-invoices received through Mercurius are automatically integrated into the accounting system of the Belgian Federal Public Service, Fedcom.

From 2016, Mercurius is integrated to PEPPOL to effectively promote the adoption of e-invoicing across Belgium, going one step towards B2B e-invoicing.

THROUGH PEPPOL

Sending documents through the PEPPOL network.

Unlike transmission directly through the Mercurius platform, exchange of documents thorugh PEPPOL is fully automated. As a result, businesses sending invoices through PEPPOL can experience the cost and time benefits of fully automated message exchange.

To send documents through PEPPOL, all you need is a connection to a PEPPOL access point, such as ecosio.

PEPPOL utilizes the four-corner model - these ‘corners’ being the sender, the sender’s access point provider, the receiver’s access point provider and the receiver itself as illustrated below. By using this method there is no need for multiple connections or service providers, no matter how many PEPPOL-connected companies you wish to exchange documents with. Instead of setting up point-to-point connections or requiring the sender and receiver to both have the same EDI service provider, the four-corner model allows any PEPPOL-enabled company to exchange documents with any other connected company with minimal effort.

M3 solution

Users can submit their invoices electronically in the required format using an integration with Infor Localization Services Platform (LSP).

For each issued invoice and regardless of the invoicing function used, an invoice BOD is created by M3 and can be viewed by users in 'Invoice Header. Open' (CMS500). The invoice BOD is then published and sent to LSP using ION. LSP then generates a .json file with the Sent status. Connectivity to PEPPOL for the registration of the invoices is provided through the LSP web services gateway. Once connected to the PEPPOL network, organizations can immediately start sending electronic invoices immediately. Successfully sent electronic invoices receive the Forwarded status. PEPPOL Access Point connects participants to the PEPPOL eDelivery network and performs the electronic document exchange.

Configuration guidelines

Program ID	Program name	Description or comment
CMS500	Invoice Header. Open	All created and recreated invoices are displayed. See NCR 11227 for details about the process.

See "M3 configuration for electronic invoicing" in the Infor M3 Core Configuration Guide for Infor Localization Services Platform.