Peppol BIS Despatch Advice 3.0

Peppol Despatch Advice

The document a supplier sends to say what has actually been shipped — against which order, in what quantities. Elsewhere in logistics it is called an advance shipping notice. On Peppol it travels as a UBL 2.1 DespatchAdvice, and it is the step most often missing when order-to-invoice automation breaks.

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At a glance

Direction: Supplier → Buyer
Answers: “What did you actually ship, and against which order?”
Referenced from the invoice by: IBT-016 · cac:DespatchDocumentReference
Required by tax authorities?: Generally no — it is a commercial document, not a tax one
Document type identifier: urn:fdc:peppol.eu:poacc:trns:despatch_advice:3

Where the despatch advice sits

Peppol carries the whole post-award conversation, not only the invoice. Tax mandates normally reach the last two documents; the earlier ones are driven by what your trading partner requires.

Who asks for it

Large buyers, retailers and public bodies — parties receiving goods at volume, who need to book a delivery before the invoice arrives.

Why it breaks automation

Three-way matching needs order, receipt and invoice. Without a despatch advice the middle term is manual, and the invoice waits.

Routing is capability-based

You can only receive one if the document type is published in your SMP entry. Senders will not route what you have not declared.

What a despatch advice carries

The mandatory core is small. Most of the operational value sits in the optional shipment detail, which is why implementations vary so much between buyers.

Element	What it says
Identifier & issue date	Which despatch advice this is, and when it was raised
Order reference	The order being fulfilled — the link that makes matching possible
Despatch & delivery parties	Who shipped, and where it is going
Lines: item and quantity	What is actually in the consignment, which may differ from what was ordered
Shipment & packaging	Consignment detail, packages, and the actual delivery date

Despatch advice, receiving advice, invoice

These three are routinely confused. The distinction is simply who is speaking, and about what.

Document	Sent by	Says	Invoice reference
Despatch advice	Supplier	“This is what I shipped”	`IBT-016`
Receiving advice	Buyer	“This is what arrived”	`IBT-015`
Invoice	Supplier	“This is what you owe”	—

Both references are optional. Where a jurisdiction's rules mention them they constrain rather than require — Oman's PINT OM Schematron, for instance, asserts only that each may occur at most once.

Exchanging one over Peppol

Same transport as an invoice. What differs is the document type identifier, and the fact that the receiver must have declared the capability.

POST /documents

curl -X POST https://app.goroute.ai/peppol-api/documents \
  -H "X-API-Key: $GOROUTE_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "receiver_scheme": "0088",
    "receiver_id":     "7300010000001",
    "document_type": "urn:oasis:names:specification:ubl:schema:xsd:DespatchAdvice-2::DespatchAdvice##urn:fdc:peppol.eu:poacc:trns:despatch_advice:3::2.1",
    "process_id":    "urn:fdc:peppol.eu:poacc:en16931:any",
    "document":      "<DespatchAdvice xmlns=...>…</DespatchAdvice>"
  }'

Check the receiver first with the participant lookup — it returns the document types they have actually published. See Peppol API integration and developer resources.

Frequently asked questions

What is a Peppol Despatch Advice?+

A Despatch Advice is the document a supplier sends to tell a buyer what has actually been shipped: which order it fulfils, which items are in the consignment, the quantities, and often the packaging and delivery detail. In wider logistics the same document is called an advance shipping notice, or ASN. On the Peppol network it is exchanged as a UBL 2.1 DespatchAdvice under the Peppol BIS Despatch Advice 3.0 profile.

Is a Despatch Advice mandatory under e-invoicing mandates?+

Generally no. Tax mandates concern the invoice and credit note, because those are the documents that carry the VAT position. A despatch advice is a commercial document between trading partners, so it is typically required by a buyer's procurement policy rather than by a tax authority. Large buyers, retailers and public bodies are the parties most likely to insist on one.

How does an invoice reference a despatch advice?+

Through business term IBT-016, the despatch advice reference, carried in UBL as cac:DespatchDocumentReference/cbc:ID. It is optional. Where jurisdictional rule sets mention it they constrain rather than require it: Oman's PINT OM Schematron, for example, asserts only that the despatch advice reference must occur at most once.

What is the difference between a Despatch Advice and a Receiving Advice?+

They travel in opposite directions. The supplier sends the despatch advice to say what was shipped; the buyer sends the receiving advice to confirm what was actually received, including any shortfall or damage. An invoice can reference either: the despatch advice through IBT-016 and the receiving advice through IBT-015.

What document type identifier does a Peppol Despatch Advice use?+

urn:oasis:names:specification:ubl:schema:xsd:DespatchAdvice-2::DespatchAdvice##urn:fdc:peppol.eu:poacc:trns:despatch_advice:3::2.1, with the transaction identifier urn:fdc:peppol.eu:poacc:trns:despatch_advice:3. A receiver must publish this document type in its SMP entry before senders can route one to it.

Can I receive a Despatch Advice if I only registered for invoicing?+

No. Peppol routing is capability-based: a sender looks up what the receiver has published in the SMP, and will not send a document type that is not listed there. Receiving despatch advices requires that capability to be registered against your participant identifier, which is a configuration change rather than a new integration.

What does a Despatch Advice contain?+

At minimum: an identifier and issue date, the despatch and delivery parties, a reference to the order being fulfilled, and one or more lines stating the item and the quantity actually despatched. Most implementations also carry the shipment and consignment detail, packaging, and the actual delivery date, since that is the operational value of the document.

Does a Despatch Advice need to match the invoice exactly?+

Not necessarily, and assuming it must is a common source of failed automation. A despatch advice states what was shipped, which can legitimately differ from what was ordered and from what is ultimately invoiced — partial shipments, substitutions and back-orders are all normal. Buyers who reconcile order, despatch and invoice should expect and handle these differences rather than reject on mismatch.