As software developers with years of experience building custom business software, we believe companies deserve full control over their software and data. Software is an integral part of every company and increasingly defines what makes them unique - their unique selling proposition.
When Peppol came onto our radar a few years ago, we saw a great opportunity to simplify communication between businesses, but we also saw a major threat - a threat to every entrepreneur's freedom. Until now, companies could create and send invoices their own way - using custom software deeply integrated into their business processes. Creating and sending invoices was simple: generate a PDF and send it by email.
Peppol changes that. Creating an invoice can still be simple - you generate a structured XML file (a UBL invoice) instead of a PDF. But sending it is a whole different story. A simple email attachment is suddenly no longer legally valid. A Peppol Access Point is required, which - even for the smallest organizations - comes with a hefty price tag of thousands of euros per year and a full certification process in collaboration with the government.
We envisioned a future where the barrier to entry became so high that small SMEs had no choice but to abandon their well-integrated invoicing software and hand over the keys to the big accounting packages in our country. Bye freedom, bye control, bye efficiency.
After this realization, we immediately began developing Recommand. An alternative to the accounting giants - one that gives you control over your software and data, and recognizes and values the uniqueness of your company. Fully open source, yet still accessible.
Research from Horus Software and iVox shows that a quarter of Belgian SMEs still invoice using Excel - the epitome of freedom in business software. (Not of efficiency, but that's another story.) So why not demonstrate how easy it is to integrate Recommand? In Excel!
This isn't meant to replace polished invoicing software, of course - but it does show how easily you can create an invoice and send it via Recommand over the Peppol network. A neat PDF of your e-invoice is even included, based on a template you can fully customize. (It's still Excel, after all!)
How to try it?
- Download the Excel template here
- Create an account at peppol.recommand.eu/signup and register your company
- Generate an API key here
- Enter this key along with your company info in the "Settings" tab
- Optionally customize your invoice template in the "Invoice print" tab
- Create an invoice in the "Invoice input" tab
- Export as PDF to test and send your first invoice over the Peppol network
It's fascinating to see how simple it can actually be to send Peppol invoices directly from Excel. All it takes is a small VBA macro and some open source software (VBA-Web and Recommand).
Want to learn more about how this template really works? We'll soon publish a technical deep dive explaining the macro step by step.
Want to download the full Excel template and experiment further? You can do so here. The template is available for both Windows and macOS.