SAP Document and Reporting Compliance for Peppol e-Invoices Singapore – Part 1

Peppol e-Invoices: All you need to know about the electronic invoices in Singapore

Image from IMDA website

Context of the electronic invoice in Singapore

In Singapore, most companies (seller) issue invoices by extracting the data from their accounting/ERP systems and formatting it in human-readable form and sending it to the buyers via paper or email.

At the receiving end (buyer), manual effort is required to enter or scan the information into their systems which is a time-consuming and error-prone process.

In May, 2018 – Singapore announced the adoption of its own national e-invoice system to help businesses improve efficiency, reduce cost, enjoy faster payment and stay green at the same time. This network is an extension of the International Peppol (Pan European Public Procurement On-Line system) E-Delivery Network allowing businesses to transact internationally with other linked companies. Info-Communications Media Development Authority (IMDA) is the Peppol Authority in Singapore.

Highlight on Key Milestones

• IMDA became the first Peppol Authority outside of Europe in May 2018
• The nationwide E-invoicing network was launched in January 2019, with 11 Access Point providers ready to serve the market
• The Peppol Ready solution accreditation was created in 2019 and more than 50 Peppol-Solution providers were successfully connected to the network by January 2020
• The Singapore government added a new channel for suppliers to submit e-invoices via the nationwide E-invoicing network in January 2020, and has since become the preferred channel for suppliers
• The E-Invoicing Registration Grant was announced in March 2020 to incentivise businesses to join the network
• The nationwide E-invoicing network was renamed as InvoiceNow in September 2020

On February 24th, 2023 the Senior Minister of State, Mr. Chee Hong Tat, announced that within the next few years, InvoiceNow become the default e-invoice submission channel for all Government vendors. Refer to FY2023 MOF Committee of Supply Debate Speech by Senior Minister of State Mr Chee Hong Tat

How is Peppol implemented in Singapore?

As the Peppol Authority in Singapore, IMDA’s functions include the following:

• Approving and certifying Peppol Access Point providers in Singapore;
• Accrediting Peppol-ready Solution Providers in Singapore;
• Specifying country specific rules and technical standards under the Peppol framework in Singapore, in particular, the SG Peppol BIS specifications;
• Governing the compliance of the Peppol framework in Singapore; and
• Promoting the adoption of Peppol framework in Singapore.

IMDA has adopted a centralised Service Metadata Publisher (SMP) model in Singapore and has appointed SGNIC as the SMP provider in Singapore. The Singapore Access Points (APs) will need to register the PEPPOL ID of Singapore businesses with the Singapore SMP. The format of the PEPPOL ID is 0195:SGUEN<Company’s UEN>.

UEN – Unique Entity Number, is the standard identification number of an entity a.k.a. Unique Company ID. UEN consists of 9-10 digits alphanumeric, search UEN at uen.gov.sg.

As of Jan 2023, there are 33 Access point providers in Singapore, find list of Authorized Access Point Providers at here

Peppol Ready Solutions are solutions such as Accounting (AR and/or AP), ERP and SCM which are connected to the Peppol network where business users can send and receive e-invoices through the Peppol network. As of Feb 2023, more than 270 Peppol Ready Service Providers in Singapore, find IMDA Pre-approved Peppol-Ready Solution Providers at here

SAP Asia is both Access Point Provider and Peppol-Ready Solution Provider in Singapore.

Image from IMDA website.

At Peppol Technical Playbook, you can find list of important technical related items such as:-

SG BIS 3.0 Specification

In Singapore, SG Peppol Bis Billing 3.0 has been adopted in order to cater for country specific requirements such as:

• Replacement of VAS (Europe) to Singapore’s GST (Goods and Services Tax) and to cater for non-GST registered businesses;
• Specific GST calculation and rounding steps for presenting amount in invoices
• Update of GST code list value to identify the specific GST categories available to use; and
• Singapore specific payments such as Direct debit using GIRO and Credit Transfer using Unique Entity Number (UEN)-based PayNow Corporate

For more information on the Singapore (SG) Peppol BIS 3.0 specifications at https://www.peppolguide.sg/

SG Peppol Directory

Business can find their partners on Peppol network using Singapore Peppol directory (https://www.peppoldirectory.sg/ ) that comes with Simple search using Name or UEN and Bulk search with function of uploading CSV/ excel file containing list of UENs and result of the search will be downloaded automatically.

Sending e-Invoices to Government

When you send e-Invoices to Singapore Government Agencies, you must comply to the requirement from the Singapore Accountant-General’s Department (AGD). Please refer to the guide developed by AGD.

More information can be found in the Playbook page.

This blog post is about a journey of Peppol e-invoices and how Peppol is implemented in Singapore.

SAP Document and Reporting Compliance, cloud edition is a SAP solution for Peppol-eInvoice or InvoiceNow and it’s available in Singapore since August 2020.

See SAP Solution for Singapore Peppol e-Invoices and how to implement the solution at SAP Document and Reporting Compliance for Peppol e-Invoices Singapore – Part 2

Please share your feedback and thoughts in a comment. If you have questions about SAP Document and Reporting Compliance, you can post your question here.