Legislation

Currently, there is no legislation on B2G eInvoicing in public procurement in the Netherlands.

There is an ongoing initiative to implement eInvoicing in the Dutch Procurement Law following the eInvoicing Directive.

eInvoicing platform and eInvoicing management solutions

The Dutch government provides Digipoort which is a digital network for exchange of messages, including eInvoices, with the Government authorities in the Netherlands. Digipoort is the primary eInvoicing platform used by public administrations and economic operators in the Netherlands.

Logius is the main eInvoicing solution provider used by public administrations and economic operators in the Netherlands. It is a public organisation part of the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations. The use of Digipoort, provided by Logius is recommended.

Simplerinvoicing has been set by private parties in cooperation with de Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Approach for receiving and processing eInvoices

Economic operators can submit eInvoices in three ways[1]:

1. Using the government solutions and services provided by Logius (government service). In this way, economic operators can submit eInvoices manually via webforms or establishing a direct link between their proprietary solutions and the Digipoort;
2. Using the Simplerinvoicing network. Simplerinvoicing is a network of accounting software vendors and solution providers that have made arrangements for exchanging standardised eInvoices. The network can be used both for B2B and B2G exchanges. It is managed by the SIDN, a not-for-profit organisation, whose main responsibility is to register the Dutch (.nl) internet domain. It also allows for cross-border invoicing as it is connected to PEPPOL since 2013[2];
3. Using market solution providers. Economic operators can submit eInvoices via solution providers that have established direct link with Digipoort. Logius provides a list of solution providers on their website.

The processing of eInvoices once received by public administrations is carried out in a semi-automated way. The processing of eInvoices by public administrations depends on the maturity of their levels of automation and IT systems. Some agencies process eInvoices automatically; others manually.

Additional information

Public administrations in the Netherlands are able to receive eInvoices in three formats:

1. UBL-OHNL is a standard that describes the messages for public procurement of all goods and services, except hiring of temporary staff. UBL-OHNL is based on the international standard UBL. The standard UBL-OHNL will eventually be replaced by SI-UBL;
2. SI-UBL is a subset (200 elements) of all the UBL specification (2400 items). The SI-UBL standard is used by the SimplerInvoicing, a network of collaborative software and eInvoicing services that enables direct exchange of eInvoices between ERP software and eInvoicing services. SimplerInvoicing is a PEPPOL authority;
3. SETU (HR – XML) standard describes the messages (including eInvoices) in the context of data exchange for hiring temporary staff. This is currently the highest volume of invoices to (central) government.