Moneybird is one of the largest providers of online accounting software. Moneybird focuses on entrepreneurs and helps them do their own accounting easily and enjoyably, save time, and stay on top of their finances. “E-invoicing fits perfectly with this. Setting up our own connection to Peppol was therefore a logical step,” says Joost Diepenmaat, co-founder of Moneybird.
Joost has been involved with Simplerinvoicing (now the Dutch Peppol Authority) from the very beginning.“Moneybird has always supported the philosophy behind Simplerinvoicing,” says Joost. “For us, Peppol is the logical successor to email, because it offers business owners many advantages.”
“Processing an e-invoice takes a business owner considerably less time than processing a PDF or paper invoice,” says Joost. “An e-invoice is posted immediately. The sooner an invoice is posted, the more insight the business owner has into their financial position. There are also benefits for business owners who send invoices via Peppol. Because the recipient can process the invoices immediately, they can be paid faster.”
“The fact that Peppol is a secure network also plays a major role,” says Joost. “The secure exchange of (invoice) data is becoming increasingly important, which is why more and more organizations are asking their suppliers to submit e-invoices via Peppol. We want to make it easy for business owners to send—and receive—e-invoices through this channel.”
“It was clear that we wanted to connect Moneybird to Peppol,” says Joost. “Then the question arose: are we going to build it ourselves, or will we opt for an API? That decision was made quickly. For email, we have a service provider that handles our email traffic for us, and we wanted the same for Peppol.”
Moneybird likes to work with suppliers who have a clear and transparent business model. Joost explains: “We like to move quickly and look for partners who get straight to the point and have their documentation in order. 4CEE was the first provider to offer an API that allowed us to integrate Peppol into our own software. 4CEE’s documentation was clear, and the collaboration was very pleasant. As a result, the implementation went smoothly.”
The integration has been active for some time now. 4CEE manages the integration and ensures compliance with the most up-to-date specifications. “We no longer need to check on the integration—it just works perfectly,” says Joost.
Moneybird users can send and receive e-invoices via Peppol directly from within the software. Moneybird offers this functionality as standard. Within the existing subscription fee, business owners can send and receive an unlimited number of e-invoices.
“For example, a consultant running a sole proprietorship can very easily send an e-invoice to the government directly from Moneybird. That offers entrepreneurs real convenience, and that’s why we do it. We’re happy to be a leader in this area, because as far as we’re concerned, Peppol is a much more well-thought-out way to exchange invoices than other existing channels.”
Moneybird is seeing the number of invoices sent and received via Peppol increase by 20% each month. “We’re very pleased with this sustained growth,” says Joost. “This is mainly due to our validation process and Peppol’s autodiscovery functionality, which we utilize.”
A strict requirement from Peppol is that the data of every organization connecting to the network must be verified. This ensures the network remains secure, as every connected organization is indeed who it claims to be. The verification process involves data such as business address, Chamber of Commerce number, email address, and IBAN. Every business owner who indicates to Moneybird that they want to send e-invoices via Peppol goes through this verification process.
Moneybird has fully automated this process. Joost explains: “Because we’ve fully automated the verification process, we can quickly connect Moneybird users to the Peppol network.”
“The auto-discovery feature also contributes to the growth in the number of e-invoices,” says Joost. “When a business owner sends an invoice from Moneybird, the system automatically checks whether the recipient is connected to Peppol. If so, the business owner is given the option to send the invoice via Peppol. What if the business owner isn’t yet connected to the network, but the recipient is? Then they’re immediately given the option to connect.” In this way, Moneybird actively contributes to increasing the number of connections to the network, which makes secure e-invoicing possible for more and more organizations.
“We’re seeing enough growth to say this is the way forward,” says Joost. “I believe that in 3 to 5 years, a substantial portion of invoices will be sent via Peppol. Right now, there are still many parties that need to get used to this method of invoicing. Many companies still need to simplify their processes, but once that happens, the number of connections will increase rapidly. It’s great for us that small business owners can already receive and send e-invoices via Peppol at no extra cost.”