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Labeling for New Suppliers: GS1-128, SSCC, and Where Labels Have to Go 

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New suppliers often treat shipping labels as a simple formality once they have finalized their product barcodes. This perspective is a common misconception that can lead to immediate and expensive consequences. In the world of retail fulfillment, the shipping label is the identifier doing the actual work once a shipment leaves your dock. While a product UPC identifies the item, the shipping label is the physical link to the electronic record a retailer uses to receive goods automatically. 

The industry refers to this label as a license plate because it identifies and tracks shipments throughout the entire supply chain. For a first-time retail supplier setting up a shipping process, getting these labels right is a high-leverage task to complete before the first purchase order (PO) arrives. A labeling mistake is rarely a one-time error; it is usually a systemic process or template error that repeats with every single carton until someone identifies the flaw. 

Decoding the Terms: GS1-128 and SSCC-18 

One of the first hurdles for new operations teams is the terminology. It is common to hear the terms 

 used interchangeably, but they represent two different parts of the labeling equation. GS1-128 is the barcode symbology, or the visual format of the barcode itself. The 

 is the specific 18-digit number encoded within that visual format. 

Think of the GS1-128 barcode as a container. While it is most commonly used to carry an SSCC, it can also hold other data, such as 

 or batch numbers, using Application Identifiers (AIs). When you see a barcode on a logistics label, the digits 00 at the beginning tell the scanner that the information following it is an SSCC. 

The SSCC-18 itself is built from several components: 

The most critical rule regarding the SSCC is that it can never be reused, and it must match your electronic documentation exactly. 

The primary purpose of an SSCC label is to connect a physical box to an 

 receives your shipment, they don't want to open every box to count the contents manually. Instead, they scan the GS1-128 barcode on the outside of the carton. 

This scan triggers a search in their system for the corresponding ASN, which is an electronic document (EDI 856) that tells the retailer exactly what is inside that specific box. If the SSCC on the label does not match the SSCC listed in the ASN, the shipment becomes effectively invisible to the retailer's automated systems. This results in a scan failure, requiring manual intervention, which leads to receiving delays and compliance chargebacks. 

At Amazon, this specific failure is often categorized under 

 or No Carton Content Label (No CCL). If the label information is missing from the ASN, or if the label doesn't match the ASN SKU due to a typo, the retailer will impose financial penalties to recover the cost of the manual labor required to process the shipment. 

Where you place the label on the box is its own compliance category, separate from barcode quality. Retailers use automated scanning tunnels and specific workflows, meaning they expect to find your labels in very specific locations. 

Different retailers have different requirements. For instance, C&S Wholesale Grocers requires that GS1-compliant labels be visible on at least two sides of a case. They also mandate that labels include the PO number, case count, and an expiration date in a specific YYYY-MM-DD format. 

General GS1 guidelines suggest placing labels in the lower portion of the carton, but you must always consult your specific 

. A barcode that scans perfectly can still be non-compliant if it is placed over a seam, wrapped around a corner, or covered by shipping tape. Amazon specifically warns against placing barcodes on the corners or curves of a product, as this makes them unscannable for their imaging systems. 

Labeling errors are particularly dangerous because they are rarely isolated incidents. If your label template has an incorrect company prefix or a serial reference that repeats, every single carton on every shipment will trigger a chargeback until the template is fixed. 

The fees can erode margins quickly. C&S Wholesale Grocers, for example, may charge $50 or more for missing or illegible labels. If an incorrect PO number is used on the label, that fee can jump to $150 per instance. 

 taxonomy is even more granular. A Case Pack Defect occurs when a barcode for an inner pack is visible on the outside of a master pack. 

These penalties can be tiered based on your compliance rate over a rolling period. This means that as your accuracy drops, the cost per error often increases, significantly impacting your bottom line. 

For a new supplier, the goal is to build a process that prevents these errors from reaching the dock. This starts with quality control and training. 

No process is completely error free, but even a perfect process may occasionally receive an invalid chargeback. When this happens, documentation is your best defense. Retailers like Amazon allow you to dispute chargebacks, but the burden of proof is on you. 

 go through the Vendor Chargeback Dispute Management (VCDM) team. You typically have only 30 days from the date of the charge to file a dispute. You will need to provide evidence, such as photos of the labeled cartons or records of your ASN transmissions, to prove that the shipment was compliant. 

C&S Wholesale Grocers follows a similar document-driven process. To win a dispute there, you will need your original 

, a copy of the signed exit pass from the driver, and copies of the case labels used. Proactive record-keeping is a financial necessity for recovering lost revenue. 

Labeling and ASN mismatch failures are common sources of retailer chargebacks because they are so easy to get wrong and so expensive when they repeat. For a new supplier, the complexity of GS1-128 and SSCC-18 can be overwhelming. However, understanding that these labels are the digital license plates of your business is the first step toward a compliant, profitable supply chain. By aligning your physical labels with your electronic notices and following retailer-specific placement rules, you protect your shipments from the moment they leave your dock to the moment they arrive at the fulfillment center. 

 is a community-driven platform designed to help professionals navigate the complexities of modern retail and logistics. Whether you are looking for deep dives into EDI structures, tips for negotiating supplier agreements, or the latest updates on retailer compliance programs, our library of over 2,800 resources is built to help you learn faster and lead with confidence. Join over 60,000 industry experts and operators today to stay ahead of the trends shaping the market. 

What Importer of Record Means for Your Tariff Costs 

An importer of record (IOR) is the party responsible for making sure imported goods clear customs correctly. According to 

, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) requires the importer of record to handle a specific set of tasks: paying duties, taxes, tariffs, and fees, and making sure everything submitted to Customs is accurate. 

Here is the part most suppliers miss: CBP allows the importer of record to be the owner, purchaser, or consignee of the goods, or a licensed customs broker or third-party logistics (3PL) provider acting on their behalf. That means the role is not fixed by law. It is a choice the parties to a contract make, often years before anyone thinks to ask about it. 

If a co-manufacturer, distributor, or overseas vendor handles your customs entries, someone made a decision about who takes on that role. Most suppliers have never checked what their contracts actually say. 

Importer of Record vs Consignee: What Is the Difference? 

A consignee is the party a shipment is addressed to on the customs paperwork, often the buyer. The importer of record is the party legally responsible for the customs entry itself: filing the paperwork, paying the duties, and answering for any mistakes. 

The two roles often sit with the same company, but not always. A consignee can receive goods without ever being the importer of record. That distinction matters because CBP holds the importer of record accountable, not whoever’s name is on the shipping label. 

How Do Incoterms Decide Who Holds the Role? 

, the standardized shipping terms published by the International Chamber of Commerce, are usually where the importer of record question actually gets decided, even though most contracts never use that term directly. 

However, contract terms and the legal importer-of-record designation do not always line up. A vendor agreement can use DDP language while the actual customs entry names a different party as importer of record. That misalignment is where disputes tend to start. 

Where Does Tariff Cost Hide in Your Unit Price? 

When your vendor is the importer of record, tariff cost usually arrives embedded in what you pay them, undecomposed. You see one number. You do not see how much of it is tariff, how much is freight, and how much is the product itself. 

That is a problem the moment tariff rates move. If you cannot see the tariff line, you cannot tell whether a price increase is a fair pass-through or padding. 

The fix is simple to describe, harder to enforce: Ask vendors to break out tariff cost as its own line in cost data and quotes. Once it is visible, you can track it every time policy changes. 

Who Gets the Refund When Tariffs Are Reversed? 

This is where the abstraction turns into real money. When the US government struck down a set of tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, refunds with interest started flowing back to the businesses on record with CBP. 

: Those refunds go to the importer of record, and the importer of record is frequently a customs broker, logistics provider, supplier, or distributor acting on behalf of a downstream business. The business that actually bore the cost, through a higher unit price, is often not the one CBP is paying back. Businesses that are not the importer of record typically do not have direct access to the entry filings or liquidation notices that would tell them a refund is even coming. 

: If your customer was the importer of record on a flow, refund proceeds are likely to flow to them, not you. 

If this describes your situation, a few things are worth doing:  

The legal questions around who is entitled to these funds are still being worked out, and this article is not a substitute for that analysis. 

DDP terms feel like they hand off the tariff problem entirely. They do not, at least not the way most buyers assume. 

, regulatory liability under US law stays with the importer, regardless of who handles the logistics or who physically pays the duties. If a supplier underdeclares the value of goods or misclassifies them to reduce the tariff bill, the importer, often the buyer designated as importer of record under a DDP arrangement, inherits the fallout. That can include CBP penalties and, in more serious cases, 

This is not a section where you want to be improvising. If your business relies heavily on DDP terms with overseas vendors, this is exactly what trade counsel is for. 

What Questions Should You Ask About Your Import Structure? 

A short checklist, worth revisiting whenever a vendor relationship or a tariff policy changes: 

If you cannot answer most of these today, you are not alone. Most small to mid-market suppliers have never had to ask. 

Can a foreign company be the importer of record?

 that the United States allows nonresident companies to register as the importer of record, which is not the case everywhere. That is one reason an overseas vendor can legitimately hold the role on a shipment into the US. 

Does the 2026 USMCA review affect importer of record decisions?

 It could. Congress is required to conduct a formal review of the USMCA in 2026, and any changes to rules-of-origin requirements could shift which party owes what on North American import flows. Suppliers with Mexico or Canada exposure have another reason to double-check their current structure now, before the rules shift under them. 

Do only large companies manage import structure actively?

 No, though large companies are often more visibly deliberate about it. 

 disclosed its use of the first-sale rule, which lets importers in a multi-tier supply chain pay duties based on the earlier sale price rather than the final one. It is a reminder that sophisticated buyers treat import structure as something to manage on purpose. Smaller suppliers can apply the same instinct to a simpler question: knowing who their importer of record is on each flow they run. 

The importer of record designation was probably set years ago, for convenience, by whoever negotiated your first contract with a given vendor. It now quietly determines how much tariff cost you absorb without seeing it, whether you have any claim on a refund, and how much compliance exposure lands on your desk if something goes wrong. 

Suppliers who cannot answer who their importer of record is, on which flows, under which terms, are not managing tariff risk. They are hoping someone else is doing it for them. 

Getting tariff cost broken out in your data and understanding your partner structure will not solve every trade question, but it is the groundwork that makes the rest of this manageable. For a closer look at what that data discipline requires in practice, see 

This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, or customs compliance advice. Consult qualified trade counsel about the specific terms of your contracts and import structure.

How Do Tariffs Affect Profit Margins? 

Most tariff coverage tells suppliers what tariffs cost. This article is about something more challenging: finding out what they are costing you, specifically, right now. Tariff-era margin erosion hides. Companies bundle input costs into aggregate expense lines, watch gross sales instead of cash collected, and absorb cost increases gradually enough that no single month triggers an alarm. 

McKinsey documented a consumer goods manufacturer that took more than a year to notice its core component costs had risen 12 percent, because it bundled those inputs with other manufacturing expenses. By the time the company discovered the erosion, stemming it required an average 8 percent price increase, a far bigger jump than its customers were used to absorbing. The money was leaving the whole time, and nobody had instrumented the profit and loss (P&L) statement to see it. 

Below are 5 signals that tariff pressure is quietly eroding your margin, each paired with the specific place in your own data to check. A finance lead at a small or mid-market consumer packaged goods (CPG) supplier should be able to run all 5 checks within a week. 

Why Is Tariff Margin Erosion So Hard To See? 

The visible tariff line is the smallest part of the story. The duty you pay at import shows up on an invoice. The second-order effects, absorbed input costs, deduction creep after repricing, slower payments from stressed retailers and distributors, spread across accounts that nobody reads as tariff exposure. 

The scale of the quiet damage is measurable. S&P Global Market Intelligence found that companies paid at least 

 than anticipated on January 1, producing a 64 basis point contraction in global corporate margins. At the same time, early 2026 earnings commentary showed companies publicly calling tariffs manageable while their filings revealed margin compression and consumer pushback against further price increases, a gap the advisory firm Wiss highlighted in its 

Suppliers planning on stale margin assumptions are working from a picture that flatters them. The five signals below replace it with your own numbers. 

Signal 1: Is Your Gross-to-Net Gap Widening? 

 Sales reports stay healthy while cash collected lags behind them. Gross revenue holds or grows, but the spread between what you invoiced and what actually arrived keeps widening. 

 Deductions and allowances already claim a large share of CPG gross sales. Retailers may deduct 

 for promotional or compliance-related reasons before a supplier ever sees payment. Tariff pressure widens that band: retailers under their own cost stress enforce compliance programs harder, and every pricing change you push through creates new opportunities for discrepancies. 

 Trend gross-to-net monthly by retailer, not annually in aggregate. An annual aggregate view smooths the signal away; a monthly, per-retailer view shows which relationships are leaking and when the leak started, usually traceable to a specific repricing event or policy change. 

Signal 2: Why Is Calculating Tariff Impact on COGS So Hard? 

 If someone asked what tariffs added to your 

 last quarter, the honest answer would be an estimate, not a number. Input costs sit under broad expense headers, and no single line isolates tariff-exposed materials. 

 Aggregation masks volatility. The McKinsey consumer goods example above is the cautionary tale for this exact failure: an unnamed company 

, and a 12 percent component cost increase hid inside them for 14 months.  

 Calculating tariff impact on COGS starts with instrumentation: break tariff-exposed inputs into their own tracked cost lines, each with an effective date. Once tariff-exposed materials carry their own lines, the month a duty change lands becomes visible in the statement your finance team already reads. 

Signal 3: Does Deduction Volume Move After Repricing Events? 

 A few weeks after each tariff-driven price change, price discrepancy deductions tick upward. Each one looks small and routine, so accounts receivable clears them without escalation. 

 Every price change that is not synchronized across the cost agreement, the purchase order (PO), and the invoice generates a mismatch, and mismatches become deductions. Tariff volatility multiplies repricing events, and each event that reaches your retailers and distributors on different dates, or in different systems, creates a fresh wave of discrepancies. 

 Overlay deduction volume against your repricing dates. If deduction spikes trail your price changes by two to six weeks, you are looking at a synchronization failure on your side rather than a change in retailer behavior. Synchronization failures are fixable, and the deductions they generate are frequently disputable. 

Signal 4: What Is the Real Financial Impact of Tariffs You Are Absorbing? 

 Your pricing decisions assumed you would pass most tariff costs through. Your actuals say otherwise, and nobody made the decision to absorb the difference. 

Why tariffs cause it: Absorption tends to happen by default rather than by choice. Goldman Sachs economists estimated that as of August 2025, US businesses were absorbing a net 

, in part because it takes time to raise prices on consumers and negotiate lower import prices with suppliers. The American Action Forum, citing surveys alongside the Goldman analysis, put US companies’ absorbed share at 

. Even a disciplined, deliberate response can trail the erosion: P&G raised US prices 2 to 2.5 percent to offset tariffs yet still reported a 

, and its own Q1 FY2026 release shows 70 basis points of higher costs from tariffs and commodities pressuring gross margin. 

 Compare the absorption rate you planned in your pricing decisions against what your actuals show. The planned number lives in your pricing memos; the actual number is your tariff-driven cost increase minus the revenue recovered through price changes. If the two have never been put side by side, the gap between them is your undecided absorption. 

Signal 5: Is Your Trading Network’s Stress Becoming Yours? 

 Payments arrive slower, compliance enforcement tightens, and post audit activity gets more aggressive. None of it references tariffs, but all of it started in the same two quarters. 

 Margin stress spreads through supply chains. S&P Global found that firms whose supply chain connections were outperforming were 

 than firms whose connections were under stress. And the pressure rolls downhill unevenly: Grant Thornton notes that retail operates on low margins, so 

 to negotiate with suppliers or shift sourcing, while smaller players with weaker negotiating positions face unit margin erosion or volume declines. This is the reader’s mirror at scale: a PYMNTS Intelligence survey of 60 chief financial officers (CFOs) at US middle-market companies found 

 in 2025, while only 12 percent saw improvement. 

 Watch retailer and distributor behavior shifts as leading indicators, before they show up in your financials. The signals worth tracking are: 

Run the 5 checks, then order the fixes by speed to cash. The three response lanes move at very different speeds: Deduction recovery returns dollars in weeks, cost instrumentation pays back over quarters, and pricing renegotiation takes the longest but moves the most money. 

Deduction recovery is the fastest dollar because the money was already earned: invoiced, shipped, then clawed back, often on disputable synchronization failures. Cost instrumentation is the most durable fix because it prevents the next 14-month blind spot. Pricing renegotiation is the slowest and largest lever, and it goes better when you walk in with the instrumented numbers from Signals 2 and 4 instead of an estimate. 

What are tariff mitigation strategies for retailers and suppliers? 

Common tariff mitigation strategies for retailers and suppliers include diversifying sourcing, reclassifying products where legitimately supported, negotiating cost sharing, and repricing. This article deliberately stays one step earlier: detection. Every mitigation strategy works better when you know precisely where the erosion is, and mitigation decisions belong with your own trade counsel and finance leadership. 

Do I need a landed cost calculator with tariffs? 

 calculator with tariffs built in helps you price new purchase orders accurately, and it is worth having. It will not surface erosion that has already happened, though: A calculator models the cost of the next order, while the 5 signals in this article audit what past orders actually did to your margin. 

How fast can a supplier detect tariff margin erosion? 

Faster than quarterly reporting will show it. The 5 checks in this article run on data you already have: 

Most suppliers can complete a first pass within a week, and a monthly refresh keeps the picture current from then on. 

Of the 5 signals, deduction data is the one you can act on quickest and recover real dollars from, which makes it the logical starting point. 

 identifies, disputes, and recovers invalid deductions from your remittance data, the exact records where Signals 1 and 3 live. It addresses the deduction-creep signal directly; the other four checks remain yours to run, and this article is designed to help you run them. 

 has resources on trade spend, net sales leakage, and 

 to keep building the finance-grade view of your supply chain. 

This article covers how to detect margin erosion in your own transaction data. It is not trade, legal, or financial advice; tariff mitigation strategy belongs with your own trade counsel and financial advisors.

EDI Business Central: Der Einstieg ohne Umwege

Wer als Lieferant, Hersteller oder Distributor mit Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central arbeitet, stößt früher oder später auf dieselbe Frage: Wie kommt EDI eigentlich in mein System? Business Central ist ein ERP-System für kleine und mittlere Unternehmen und deckt Finanzen, Lager, Einkauf und Verkauf ab. Elektronischer Datenaustausch mit Handelspartnern gehört serienmäßig nicht dazu. Genau hier setzt dieser Beitrag an: Was EDI in Business Central bedeutet, wie E-Invoicing über EDI funktioniert und wie eine Anbindung an Handelspartner ohne wachsenden internen Wartungsaufwand gelingt.

Kurz gesagt: EDI ist keine eingebaute Funktion von Business Central, sondern eine Ergänzung, die von außen angebunden wird.

EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) bezeichnet den automatisierten Austausch von Geschäftsdokumenten wie Bestellungen, Lieferavisen und Rechnungen direkt zwischen den Systemen zweier Handelspartner, ohne manuelle Eingabe. Business Central selbst bringt dafür keine native Übersetzungsfunktion mit. Damit ein eingehender Auftrag eines Einzelhändlers oder eine ausgehende Rechnung an einen Lieferanten korrekt verarbeitet werden kann, braucht es eine zusätzliche Komponente, die zwischen den unterschiedlichen Formaten der Handelspartner (zum Beispiel EDIFACT) und der internen Struktur von Business Central übersetzt.

Diese Komponente kann auf zwei Wegen bereitgestellt werden:

In beiden Fällen gilt: Ohne zusätzliche Software oder einen Dienstleister, der diese Übersetzung übernimmt, lässt sich EDI mit Business Central nicht betreiben. Die zentrale Entscheidung ist also nicht 

 diese Anbindung erfolgt, insbesondere mit Blick darauf, wer die Handelspartnerregeln pflegt, wenn sich Formate oder Anforderungen ändern.

EDI Cloudlösung Business Central: Add-on oder Managed Service?

Bei einer App aus dem Marketplace liegt die laufende Pflege der Mapping-Regeln meist beim eigenen Team. Bei einer EDI Cloudlösung für Business Central, die von einem spezialisierten Anbieter betrieben wird, übernimmt dieser Anbieter Einrichtung, Aktualisierung und Support der Anbindung, während Business Central selbst nur die bereits aufbereiteten Daten empfängt.

E-Invoicing EDI: Elektronische Rechnungsstellung mit Business Central

Ein Bereich, in dem diese Frage besonders sichtbar wird, ist die elektronische Rechnungsstellung. Seit dem 1. Januar 2025 müssen alle inländischen B2B-Unternehmen in Deutschland E-Rechnungen empfangen können; die Pflicht zur Ausstellung folgt gestaffelt ab 2027. Für Unternehmen, die bereits EDI-Rechnungen austauschen, ändert sich dadurch nicht der Kanal, wohl aber die Anforderung an das Format und an die korrekte Extraktion der steuerlich relevanten Daten.

In der Praxis zeigt sich ein wiederkehrendes Muster: Eingehende EDI-Belege treffen in unterschiedlichen Formaten ein, je nachdem, welches System der jeweilige Handelspartner nutzt. Damit Business Central diese Belege verarbeiten kann, müssen sie zunächst in ein einheitliches XML-Format konvertiert werden. Viele Unternehmen lösen das über zusätzliche Konvertierungssoftware, die zwischen den Handelspartner-Formaten und dem ERP vermittelt. Bei einem Volumen von mehreren Hunderttausend Belegen im Jahr und mehreren Dutzend Lieferantenanbindungen bedeutet das: jede neue Anbindung, jede Formatänderung und jede regulatorische Anpassung (etwa durch die deutsche E-Rechnungspflicht) muss in dieser Konvertierungsschicht separat gepflegt werden.

Das ist technisch lösbar, bindet aber kontinuierlich interne Kapazität, insbesondere wenn die Zahl der Handelspartner wächst oder sich Formatanforderungen ändern. Die Frage, die sich viele IT-Verantwortliche irgendwann stellen, ist deshalb weniger „Können wir das selbst bauen und pflegen?", sondern „Wie viel unserer Zeit soll dauerhaft in die Pflege von Formatregeln fließen, statt in Aufgaben, die unser Geschäft direkt voranbringen?"

EDI Dienstleister Business Central: Wie SPS Commerce die Anbindung an Handelspartner unterstützt

Genau an diesem Punkt setzt SPS Commerce an. Mit Fulfillment EDI für Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central übernimmt SPS die Übersetzung, Anreicherung und Standardisierung von Auftrags-, Versand- und Rechnungsdaten zwischen Ihren Handelspartnern und Ihrem Business-Central-System. Statt für jede Handelspartnerverbindung eigene Formatregeln aufzubauen und zu warten, nutzen Sie eine einzige Verbindung, die bereits auf die Anforderungen von tausenden Einzelhändlern, Lieferanten, Distributoren und 3PLs abgestimmt ist, einschließlich komplexer Auftragsabwicklungsmodelle wie Ship-to-DC, Ship-to-Store oder Drop-Shipping.

Als Microsoft-zertifizierter Partner seit 2004 hat SPS mehr als 5.000 Systemintegrationen in Microsoft-ERP-Umgebungen begleitet. Ein dediziertes Team von über 300 Microsoft-Spezialisten übernimmt dabei nicht nur die Einrichtung, sondern auch den laufenden Betrieb: von der Konfiguration der Geschäftsregeln über die Datenstandardisierung bis zum 24/7-Support, wenn sich Anforderungen ändern. Für den Bereich E-Invoicing kommt hinzu, dass SPS Commerce die gesetzlichen Anforderungen in über 50 Ländern im Blick behält, einschließlich der aktuellen Entwicklungen zur E-Rechnungspflicht in Deutschland, sodass neue Formatvorgaben nicht bei jedem Handelspartner einzeln nachgepflegt werden müssen.

Für Unternehmen, die Business Central als führendes System nutzen, bedeutet das: Die Anzahl der Lieferanten- und Retaileranbindungen kann wachsen, ohne dass die interne Mapping- und Wartungsarbeit im gleichen Maß mitwächst.

Häufig gestellte Fragen zu EDI und Business Central

Was bedeutet EDI im Zusammenhang mit der Rechnungsstellung?
⁠

Im Rechnungskontext bezeichnet EDI den Austausch von Rechnungsdaten in einem strukturierten, standardisierten Format direkt zwischen den Systemen zweier Handelspartner, anstelle einer papierbasierten oder als PDF versendeten Rechnung. Die Rechnungsdaten werden dabei automatisch aus dem ERP-System des Rechnungsstellers erzeugt, in das vereinbarte Format übersetzt und direkt in das System des Empfängers eingespielt, etwa in Business Central. Das reduziert manuelle Erfassung und ist zugleich die Grundlage dafür, dass EDI-Rechnungen auch die aktuellen gesetzlichen Anforderungen an elektronische Rechnungen erfüllen können, sofern die notwendigen Pflichtangaben korrekt abgebildet werden.

Was ist der Unterschied zwischen EDI und einer API?


EDI und APIs dienen beide dem Datenaustausch zwischen Systemen, unterscheiden sich aber in Aufbau und Einsatzzweck. EDI basiert auf feststehenden, oft branchenweit genormten Nachrichtenformaten (etwa EDIFACT) und eignet sich besonders für wiederkehrende, standardisierte Dokumente wie Bestellungen oder Rechnungen im Handelspartnernetzwerk. APIs ermöglichen einen flexibleren, meist direkteren Datenaustausch, erfordern aber in der Regel eine individuelle Anbindung je Partner. In der Praxis werden beide Ansätze häufig kombiniert.

Brauche ich für EDI in Business Central zusätzliche Software?


Ja. Business Central bringt keine eingebaute EDI-Funktion mit. Für den Austausch mit Handelspartnern ist entweder eine App aus dem Microsoft-Marketplace oder eine webbasierte Lösung eines spezialisierten Anbieters wie SPS Commerce notwendig, die die Formatübersetzung und die laufende Pflege der Handelspartnerregeln übernimmt.

EDI in Business Central einzuführen, bedeutet nicht, ein komplett neues System zu lernen. Es bedeutet, die Übersetzungsebene zwischen Ihren Handelspartnern und Ihrem ERP so aufzusetzen, dass sie mit wachsender Anbindungszahl nicht zum internen Dauerprojekt wird. Wenn Sie herausfinden möchten, wie eine EDI- und E-Invoicing-Anbindung für Ihr Business-Central-System konkret aussehen könnte, sprechen Sie mit dem 

E-Invoicing in The Netherlands: Everything You Need to Know

: the separate Dutch bill on cross-border e-invoicing and digital reporting is expected in summer 2027, with an internet consultation planned for Q4 2026. The EU's effective date for cross-border B2B e-invoicing/digital reporting remains 1 July 2030; single VAT registration measures are expected to phase in from 2027 to 2029.

, it became clear that The Netherlands—and all other countries in the EU—had to make business-to-government (B2G) e-invoicing mandatory. For The Netherlands, that deadline has well passed, and today, e-invoicing is gaining momentum—even in the B2B space!

In The Netherlands, all public and contracting government authorities must be able to receive e-invoices. The implementation of e-invoicing has been executed by the adoption of the Peppol framework for setting up an exchange infrastructure. Currently, all Dutch government agencies have direct or indirect connections to the Peppol infrastructure. This is the so-called DIGIPOORT, used for the reception of electronic invoices.

From a global point of view, it’s clear that e-invoicing is here to stay, and, especially in The Netherlands, it’s taking over as the preferred invoice exchange method – regardless of industry.

E-invoicing is here to stay in today’s B2G and B2B environment and we expect it to only continue to grow in The Netherlands. But let’s start at the beginning….

E-invoicing was introduced in The Netherlands on January 1st, 2011. From that moment on, central government agencies were legally required to be able to 

, the central hub where message traffic for the government is handled.

 e-invoices was extended to central government suppliers on January 1st, 2017. It wasn’t until August 2019, however, that this was 

; the central government wanted to give entrepreneurs time to prepare for the new way of invoicing.

, the e-invoicing obligation was further extended to all Dutch sub-central governments (in addition to central governments), government organizations, and other contracting authorities. This meant that these public authorities also had to be able to 

 e-invoices from their suppliers according to the European standard format.

But this didn’t mean that all Dutch government agencies had fully switched to e-invoicing by April 2019. That’s because their suppliers were not legally required to 

 e-invoices—public authorities only had to be capable of receiving and processing e-invoices should any number of their suppliers choose to utilize it. Not surprisingly, the majority of suppliers opted to stick to their usual way of doing business. They were reluctant to switch to e-invoicing because they were more comfortable sending the paper invoices or scanned PDFs that they had been creating for years. In practice, this situation still occurs regularly.

All of this, combined with the fact that the Dutch central government—until August 2019—did not strictly monitor or enforce e-invoicing, meant that e-invoicing didn’t really take off in The Netherlands until almost 10 years from when it was first introduced back in 2011.

That brings us to today. The Netherlands is finally at the point in which enough public and private sector organizations have adopted e-invoicing for its benefits to be more widely addressed within the business community. Despite the lack of mandate at the state level for suppliers to 

 e-invoices, we’re starting to see that more and more public authorities are encouraging their suppliers to make the switch by communicating the “why” behind something that otherwise seems to be nothing more than an inconvenience. And now, with the help of onboarding services from service providers like SPS Commerce, the transition to e-invoicing can be quite simple for suppliers.

If you’re a supplier, there are various ways in which you can send e-invoices, so the first step is to determine which solution is right for you based on your specific needs. To figure this out, you can start by calculating the number of invoices you send each month or each year along with the number of customers you have. From there, you should also evaluate the capabilities of your ICT infrastructure. If you’re a buyer, the initial “getting started” process is virtually the same, only the other way around, of course.

If you’re getting started with B2G e-invoicing in The Netherlands, the Dutch government is connected to the secure Peppol network. That being said, it’s absolutely critical to choose a service provider that acts as a Peppol Access Point (AP), such as SPS Commerce. In doing so, you’ll be able to send e-invoices to all connected institutions in The Netherlands and abroad, including private organizations, with one simple connection. The Peppol network is also increasingly being used in the B2B space, so choosing a service provider that serves as an AP is a smart choice regardless.

You can send invoices via Peppol in the following ways:  

Different governments and municipalities offer different options. SPS Commerce is a service provider to the central government, the Municipality of Amsterdam and the Municipality of Rotterdam, among others.

Several standards are used for e-invoicing in The Netherlands. In sum, standards describe the rules for the specific formatting of electronic messages (like invoices and purchase orders). By standardizing the structure of the messages, diverse systems are able to understand the data and process it accordingly.

 Used by the Dutch government for the procurement of goods and services, except for the hiring of personnel (based on the international UBL standard)

 Used for e-invoices within the central government

 Ensures cross-border interoperability for those utilizing the Peppol network

 An additional specification to the mandatory European standard (EN 16931) that is only applicable in The Netherlands and describes how e-invoicing with the government works (can also be used in B2B instances)

The above standards are mainly, but not exclusively, used by the government. If you’re interested in learning more about the various standards in use for specific industries and regions, here’s a good overview.

Besides those listed above, it’s also important that we mention the 

. It’s an internationally recognized standard on information security, and up-to-date certification is now mandatory for all service providers in The Netherlands that wish to serve as a Peppol Access Point. So, include this as an important point while evaluating service providers.

The Future of E-Invoicing & E-Procurement

As more and more Dutch public authorities begin to double down on their e-invoicing requirements, an increasing number of large organizations, like Rabobank, PostNL, and KPN, are beginning to embrace the switch. Today, it is no longer a question of 

 you will send e-invoices in the future, but rather a question of 

As a matter of fact, we’re also starting to see that some countries have already begun to enforce B2B e-invoicing, like

France. This hasn’t happened in The Netherlands yet, but judging from how things are moving along, we can assume it’s a highly likely possibility.

And as many organizations have already realized, the logical digitalization step that follows the implementation of e-invoicing is e-procurement. Many businesses are already on their way to a fully automated procure-to-pay process, and it’s only a matter of time before sending all documents electronically becomes the norm—it won’t stop at e-invoicing.

To conclude, as many organizations have already noticed, the logical digitization step that follows the implementation of e-invoicing is 

. Many companies are already moving towards a fully automated purchase-to-pay process, and it is only a matter of time before sending all documents electronically becomes the standard.

Keep an eye out for changing regulations in The Netherlands!

E-Invoicing in Belgium

E-Invoicing in Belgium - SPS Commerce

The Belgian Council of Ministers approved a preliminary bill 

, complementing the structured e-invoicing mandate in effect since 1 January 2026. The bill has been submitted to the Data Protection Authority and the Council of State for advice. 

 now that structured e-invoicing is mandatory for most domestic B2B transactions from 1 January 2026: corrective documents must follow the structured e-invoice logic where the mandate applies, the evidentiary role of the structured e-invoice for VAT deduction is clarified (preserving the fallback rule for technical inability to receive), and VAT rounding on structured e-invoices is aligned with the European e-invoicing standard.  

, replacing FPS Policy and Support (BOSA), becoming the central point of contact for e-invoicing and e-reporting to streamline decision-making and simplify administrative processes during the transition. 

After some delays, the Peppol e-invoicing system is being put in place in Belgium for all transactions, including B2B, in January 2026. Let’s zoom on the Belgian e-invoicing regulations.

As of 2022, the Flemish government has reached their e-invoicing goals. This means that government entities are required to utilize e-invoicing under the

. Since 2017, the Flemish government has required e-invoices from all of its suppliers.

On January 31, 2025, an agreement was reached on the formation of a new Belgian federal government. The coalition agreement includes significant tax policy changes aimed at promoting entrepreneurship and competitiveness. A key VAT measure in the agreement is the introduction of near real-time reporting, which is scheduled to begin in 2028. This initiative, designed to combat VAT fraud, will complement the mandatory e-invoicing requirement that will come into effect on January 1, 2026.

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