Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 is the central invoice profile on the Peppol network. It is the European standard for e-invoices sent and received via Peppol, and forms the foundation on which country-specific variants such as NLCIUS and XRechnung are built.

BIS stands for Business Interoperability Specification. BIS Billing V3 is a CIUS (Core Invoice Usage Specification) of the European standard EN 16931. It takes the semantic model of EN 16931 as its starting point and adds Peppol-specific validation rules on top.

The standard supports two document types: Invoice and Credit Note. Both are available in two syntaxes: UBL 2.1 (the most widely used) and CII (Cross-Industry Invoice).

The DocumentTypeId uniquely identifies the format on the Peppol network:

UBL Invoice:

urn:oasis:names:specification:ubl:schema:xsd:Invoice-2::Invoice##urn:cen.eu:en16931:2017#compliant#urn:fdc:peppol.eu:2017:poacc:billing:3.0::2.1

UBL Credit Note:

urn:oasis:names:specification:ubl:schema:xsd:CreditNote-2::CreditNote##urn:cen.eu:en16931:2017#compliant#urn:fdc:peppol.eu:2017:poacc:billing:3.0::2.1

CII Invoice:

urn:un:unece:uncefact:data:standard:CrossIndustryInvoice:100::CrossIndustryInvoice##urn:cen.eu:en16931:2017#compliant#urn:fdc:peppol.eu:2017:poacc:billing:3.0::D16B

BIS Billing V3 adds hundreds of business rules on top of EN 16931. The main categories:

• Arithmetic checks: VAT amounts, line totals and invoice totals must be correct
• Identifier validation: schemeIDs must come from the correct code lists (EAS, ICD)
• Field consistency: certain field combinations must be logically consistent (e.g. VAT rate with VAT category S)
• Country-specific rules: additional Peppol rules may apply per country (NL-R-, DK-R-, SE-R-, DE-R-)

Validation is performed via Schematron artefacts published by OpenPeppol with each release.

OpenPeppol publishes a new release twice a year (May and November). After publication, a transition period of three months applies during which both the old and the new version are accepted. After that period, the new version is mandatory.

The current version (3.0.20) includes:

• Removal of the restriction on PDF attachments
• New EAS code 0244 and ICD codes 0241 through 0245
• Addition of VATEX code VATEX-EU-135-1
• Updated Danish country-specific rules

OpenPeppol AISBL published the PoAC Post-Award May 2026 release on 20 May 2026. This minor release is mandatory from 17 August 2026. The scope is strictly Peppol BIS3 Post-Award specifications and validation artefacts; PINT is explicitly out of scope. The changes concern code lists and the mandatory validation artefacts for all published Peppol BIS 3.0 documents.

Until and including 16 August 2026, the November 2025 release (3.0.20 + hotfix) remains mandatory for production traffic. Service Providers may already implement and test during that period. The detailed delta (code lists, business rules, schematron versions) is published by OpenPeppol on the release-notes pages at docs.peppol.eu/poacc/billing/3.0/upcoming/ and the related self-billing and upgrade pages. eConnect updates validation and code lists automatically before the mandatory effective date.

BIS Billing V3 occupies a central position in the standards hierarchy. It is the bridge between the abstract semantic model (EN 16931) and the country-specific implementations:

EN 16931
    └── Peppol BIS Billing V3   ← this format
         ├── NLCIUS (Netherlands)
         ├── XRechnung (Germany)
         ├── Svefaktura (Sweden)
         └── ...

Read more about this structure in From semantics to syntax.

The eConnect PSB validates all incoming and outgoing invoices automatically against the current BIS Billing release. With each new version, the Schematron artefacts are updated and new code lists are supported. The free online validator on the eConnect website also tests invoices against the current release.

BIS Billing V3 supports multiple invoice types via the InvoiceTypeCode. The two most commonly used codes are 380 (commercial invoice) and 381 (credit note). Additionally, code 383 (debit note) and 386 (prepayment invoice) are available within this profile.

Self-billing (code 389) is not supported within the standard BIS Billing V3 profile, but has its own Peppol profile: BIS Self-Billing 3.0, with a separate CustomizationID and ProfileID.

For the complete overview of all InvoiceTypeCodes, including comparison per standard and explanation per code, see the article InvoiceTypeCode.

BIS Billing V3 restricts via BR-CL-24 which MIME types are permitted as embedded attachments (BT-125). In the current production validation these are:

application/xml is not permitted in the current BIS Billing V3 validation as an attachment MIME type. XML as an attachment belongs to EN 16931-1:2026 and a future Peppol version (possibly BIS Billing 4.0). In the current production validation application/xml is rejected. See also BR-CL-24 in sending errors.

In the current BIS Billing 3.0, each invoice can reference only one order number (OrderReference). If an invoice relates to multiple purchase orders, the supplier must create multiple invoices. This limitation stems from the semantic model of EN 16931, on which BIS Billing is based.

On 13 February 2026, CEN (the European standardisation body) formally approved the revised version of EN 16931. The most important addition is support for multiple orders per invoice, including order references at line level. This removes the current limitation of one OrderReference per document.

Technical: the revised standard allows multiple OrderReference elements at document level and adds an OrderLineReference per invoice line. Additionally, AdditionalDocumentReference elements can already contain extra references (project, contract or buyer reference), but these do not replace OrderReference.

The changes are expected to be implemented in a new version of the Peppol standard in approximately one year, possibly as BIS Billing 4.0. Until then, the current limitation remains in effect. Once the new version is available, eConnect will update validation and processing so that you can immediately include multiple order references per invoice.