Legislation
From 2011 onwards, all central authorities were required to receive invoices electronically. In 2012, this was extended to all Norwegian public administrations.
Additionally, central authorities require their suppliers to invoice them electronically using the EHF format from 2012.
The legislation for eInvoicing is being reviewed and publication is foreseen to be published in 2017.
eInvoicing platform and eInvoicing management solutions
In Norway, public administrations use the PEPPOL network for receiving eInvoices. Solution providers operating PEPPOL access points often provide eInvoicing solutions for creating, submitting, transmitting, receiving and processing eInvoices. Both economic operators and public administrations rely on the service of these solutions providers. Additionally, Difi publishes a list of eInvoicing solution providers
Approach for receiving and processing eInvoices
Economic operators can submit eInvoices either by using their own internal ERP or accounting systems or by using approved eInvoicing solution providers[1]. The Norway eProcurement infrastructure is built around the PEPPOL standards and network, supplemented by specific national and EU-based systems.
OpenPEPPOL, the responsible for the PEPPOL infrastructure, operates the reception channel for eInvoices from economic operators. Difi, the Norwegian Agency for Public Management and e-Government, is the PEPPOL Authority in Norway. Difi authorises Norwegian-registered access points and operates the ELMA registry (PEPPOL Service Metadata Publisher) containing the identities and receiving capabilities of all Norwegian public administrations and economic operators that communicate using the PEPPOL transport infrastructure.
[1] Anskaffelser.no (2016) How to send an electronic invoice, Accessed on 31.08.2016 on https://www.anskaffelser.no/verktoy/how-send-electronic-invoice
Additional information
Difi also operates a test Access Point and validation services for business messages compliant with EHF/PEPPOL BIS. In order to facilitate technology adoption, Difi offers the Oxalis open source sample implementations for PEPPOL Access Points, which are widely used by solution providers across Europe