Creating & Sending Sales Invoices

Overview

Outbound (accounts receivable) invoices live in Out Docs inside Invoice Manager at /flow. Once a sales invoice is created and ready, Tapr builds PEPPOL-compliant XML and delivers it to the customer.

Out Docs (Sales Invoices): open AR work from the sidebar, then create with New Invoice or Upload Invoice.

There are five ways to create sales invoices. Choose based on monthly volume and how much automation you need. All five produce a Sales Invoice in Out Docs. After creation, use Reviewing & Sending Sales Invoices for approval, PEPPOL send, and MLR.

Choose your path

Option	Volume guideline	AI key required	Ideal use case
New Invoice (manual)	Under 5 / month	No	Occasional one-off invoices
Upload Invoice	5–20 / month	Yes (BYOK)	PDF or image files in the UI
AR Email	5–20 / month	Yes (BYOK)	Email a PDF to a Tapr mailbox
ERP Integration	Bulk	No	Invoices already created in an ERP
API Integration	Bulk	No	Custom systems or pre-built XML

All five paths land as rows in Out Docs. The Channel column shows how each invoice entered Tapr:

Channel values such as Email, API, and Manual Upload map to the create options below (ERP appears when AR ERP fetch is used).

Prerequisites

Before you create or send outbound invoices:

1. Legal Entity configured (seller identity, addresses, tax IDs)
2. PEPPOL registration approved for that legal entity
3. Access to Invoice Manager → Out Docs
4. For Upload and AR Email only: an AI provider API key in Tapr Settings → AI & Extraction (bring your own key)

Customer PEPPOL Receiver ID should be known (or resolvable) before send.

Shared lifecycle

After creation, every sales invoice moves through the same states:

State	Meaning
Draft	Editable; manual New Invoice starts here
Pending Review	Data needs a human check
Pending Approval	Waiting on an approver (if required)
Ready to Send	Cleared for PEPPOL transmission
Sent to Customer	Successfully delivered
Send Failed	Transmission or validation failed — fix and retry
Rejected	Rejected in approval; return to draft or review

Send step: open the invoice → confirm receiver ID, amounts, and lines → advance to Ready to Send → Send to Customer. Delivery status (including MLR) updates on the invoice when the network responds.

After creation and review, status Ready to Send unlocks Send to Customer. Optionally run Validate Peppol first.

Full send checklist: Reviewing & Sending Sales Invoices.

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Option 1: New Invoice (manual)

Best for: under about 5 invoices per month.
AI required: No.

Steps

1. Open Invoice Manager and switch to Out Docs.

2. Click New Invoice. From Out Docs, this opens the sales invoice form directly.

   If you start from Home instead, the type picker appears — choose Sales Invoice for outbound AR (not Purchase Invoice):

   

   Home → New Invoice → Sales Invoice.

3. Complete the form:

   • Legal Entity (required)
   • Peppol Sender ID — which of the legal entity’s PEPPOL IDs sends the invoice (defaults to the entity’s default ID; cancelled or rejected registrations are not offered)
   • Peppol Receiver ID (required for sales invoices)
   • Invoice Date, Currency, Invoice Number
   • One line item: description, quantity, unit price
   • Customer name if the PEPPOL ID does not resolve to a known party

   

   Required fields: Legal Entity, PEPPOL Receiver ID, invoice identity, and at least one line — then Create Draft.

4. Submit to create a Draft sales invoice.

5. Add further lines, charges, tax, or payment terms on the detail screen as needed. Fill Buyer Reference — it is required before the invoice can be saved (see Before you send).

6. Submit and approve until Ready to Send, then Send to Customer.

Tips

• If the legal entity holds several PEPPOL IDs, check Peppol Sender ID — the customer sees the invoice as coming from that ID. You can change it later in the invoice header.

• As you enter the PEPPOL Receiver ID, Tapr runs an SMP lookup and can fill customer details when the participant is found.

• Use Duplicate on an existing sales invoice to start a new draft with party and line patterns copied:

  

  Duplicate copies party and line patterns into a new draft — useful for recurring customers.

• Prefer Upload, Email, ERP, or API once volume grows beyond a handful of invoices.

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Option 2: Upload Invoice

Best for: roughly 5–20 invoices per month as PDF, image, or XML files.
AI required: Yes — bring your own key for plain PDFs and images.

AI setup (BYOK)

Upload uses XML-first extraction: ZUGFeRD, Factur-X, or UBL embedded in a PDF extract without AI. Ordinary PDFs and images need a configured provider.

1. Go to Tapr Settings → AI & Extraction.
2. Choose Claude, Gemini, or OpenAI as the primary provider.
3. Enter your API key and select a model.
4. Optionally configure a fallback provider.
5. Save (and test the connection if available).

Tapr Settings → AI & Extraction: set Primary AI Provider, API Key, and Model. Required for plain PDF/image upload and AR Email.

See AI Provider Comparison for setup detail.

Steps

1. Open Invoice Manager → Out Docs.

2. Click Upload Invoice.

   

   Upload accepts PDF, image, or XML. Plain PDFs need a configured AI key (BYOK).

3. Select one or more files (PDF, images, or .xml). Multiple files process in parallel.

4. Wait for processing to finish (success or error).

5. Open the new sales invoice in Out Docs.

6. Review extracted fields — customer, lines, taxes, totals — and correct as needed.

7. Confirm Legal Entity and PEPPOL Receiver ID. The upload panel shows which legal entity each file was matched to, so you can spot a wrong match before opening the invoice.

8. Complete the workflow through Ready to Send → Send to Customer.

Tips

• Prefer machine-readable e-invoice PDFs when possible for higher accuracy and no AI cost.
• Poor scans increase review time; re-upload a cleaner file if extraction is weak.
• Without a valid AI key, plain PDF and image uploads fail extraction.

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Option 3: AR Email

Best for: teams that email sales-invoice PDFs into Tapr instead of using the upload button.
AI required: Yes — same BYOK setup as Upload for plain PDFs.

How it works

Tapr provides an AR email address under Tapr Settings → AR Settings. When you send a message with a sales invoice attachment to that address, Tapr:

1. Polls the AR mailbox over IMAP
2. Downloads attachments
3. Extracts data (XML-first, then AI)
4. Creates a Sales Invoice in Out Docs

Configure the mailbox

1. Open Tapr Settings → AR Settings.
2. Enable Enable AR Email.
3. Note the Username/Email address assigned to your site.
4. Set or update the password with Update AR Password.
5. Use Test AR Email Connection, then optionally Fetch AR emails now.

AR Settings: enable the mailbox, set the password, then use the AR Email / AR Actions menu to test or fetch mail.

Full field reference: AR Email Configuration.

Day-to-day use

1. Email the AR address with the sales invoice PDF (or XML) attached.
2. Wait for the poll interval, or ask an admin to run Fetch AR emails now.
3. Open Out Docs, review the new invoice, set the PEPPOL receiver if needed.
4. Approve and Send to Customer.

Tips

• Attachments drive processing — emails without a usable invoice file are skipped or fail.
• Use the same AI provider configuration as Upload.
• Successfully processed mail is moved out of the inbox; failures go to an error path for investigation.

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Option 4: ERP Integration

Best for: bulk volume when sales invoices are already created in an ERP.
AI required: No.
Recommended for high volume.

How it works

With AR ERP fetch enabled for a legal entity, a scheduled job:

1. Connects to the ERP (ERPNext, D365, SAP S/4HANA, SAP B1, NetSuite, Xero, QuickBooks, Odoo, Sage, Bexio, Abacus, and others)
2. Lists sales invoices marked ready for PEPPOL
3. Creates matching Sales Invoices in Tapr
4. Syncs status back to the ERP as invoices move through fetched → sent → delivered

Setup

1. Open Tapr Settings → General → Legal Entity Setup for the selling entity.
2. Click Edit (pencil) on that entity’s row.
3. Under ERP Integration, enable ERP Integration Enabled and set ERP Type.
4. Enable Fetch AR Invoices from … (label is ERP-specific, e.g. Fetch AR Invoices from ERPNext).
5. Set company override / URL / credentials as required; use Change ERP Secrets only when updating secrets.
6. In the ERP, mark invoices ready for PEPPOL per that connector’s convention.

Row Edit → ERP Integration: enable integration, set ERP Type, turn on fetch, and configure connection fields (API keys masked in this shot).

Deep setup: ERP Connections Overview.

Day-to-day use

1. Create and finalize the sales invoice in your ERP.
2. Flag it ready for PEPPOL.
3. After fetch, open it in Out Docs.
4. Review the PEPPOL receiver ID and required fields.
5. Complete approval if required, then Send to Customer.

Why this scales

• No re-keying or PDF extraction
• ERP remains the system of record
• Status feedback closes the loop for finance

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Option 5: API Integration

Best for: bulk automation from a custom system, middleware, or when you already build PEPPOL XML.
AI required: No.

Authentication

All API calls use token auth:

Authorization: token <api_key>:<api_secret>

Generate keys for a user with permission on the relevant legal entity. Plans that include API access (for example Growth or higher) are required for PEPPOL API endpoints.

Create a Sales Invoice via REST

POST /api/resource/Sales Invoice
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: token <api_key>:<api_secret>

{
  "doctype": "Sales Invoice",
  "legal_entity": "Your Company AG",
  "customer_name": "Buyer GmbH",
  "peppol_receiver_id": "9930:DE123456789",
  "currency": "CHF",
  "send_via": "PEPPOL",
  "invoice_number": "AR-2026-0042",
  "buyer_reference": "PO-88231",
  "invoice_date": "2026-07-15",
  "net_total": 1000.0,
  "tax_total": 81.0,
  "grand_total": 1081.0,
  "items": [
    {
      "item_description": "Professional services",
      "quantity": 1,
      "unit_price": 1000.0,
      "net_amount": 1000.0,
      "tax_code": "S",
      "tax_rate": 8.1
    }
  ]
}

After insert, open the invoice in Out Docs or advance workflow until Send to Customer. Prefer letting the server derive tax breakdowns from lines and charges where possible.

Invoices created this way appear in Out Docs with Channel = API (see the channel screenshot under Choose your path).

Direct PEPPOL send with pre-built XML

If your system already produces UBL or CII XML:

POST /api/method/tapr_next.api.peppol.transmission.send_peppol_invoice
    ?receiver_id=...
    &sender_id=...
    &doc_type_id=...
    &process_id=...
    &country_c1=CH
Authorization: token <api_key>:<api_secret>
Content-Type: application/xml

Body: raw invoice XML. This uses the same AS4 gateway as the Sales Invoice send path.

See PEPPOL API and REST API Reference for full endpoint detail.

API vs ERP

Prefer API when…	Prefer ERP when…
Source system is custom or middleware	Invoices already live in a supported ERP
You need tight control over payload timing	You want status sync back into the ERP
You already produce PEPPOL XML	Finance works primarily inside the ERP UI

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Before you send

Confirm these on every outbound invoice:

• Correct Legal Entity and Peppol Sender ID (seller PEPPOL identity)
• Buyer Reference (BT-10) filled. Invoice Manager requires it when you save edits to a sales invoice. Invoices created by New Invoice, Upload, AR Email, ERP fetch, SFTP or API can arrive without it, so check it before sending. When the selected format is XRechnung it is the Leitweg-ID, and send also requires Payment IBAN and the seller contact name, phone, and email
• Customer name and address complete for the PEPPOL profile
• PEPPOL Receiver ID set (SMP lookup successful when possible)
• Document format is the type you mean to send. Left empty, Tapr sends Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 UBL when the receiver accepts it, even if they also advertise XRechnung or a French profile
• Invoice number, date, currency, lines, and tax codes consistent — on an export outside the EU, a banner on Line Items / Header Charges warns when a row still uses a domestic tax code such as S – Standard rate (it does not block send)
• Coded notes on the Notes tab, and a Business Process Code, only when French CTC is the selected document type. On BIS 3.0, leave Business Process Code empty and keep a single note unless both parties are German
• Totals match lines, charges, and tax
• Credit notes include required preceding invoice references
• Workflow state is Ready to Send

Only send when status is Ready to Send. Use Send to Customer for PEPPOL delivery.

If send fails, open the invoice, review sending errors, fix the highlighted fields, and retry.

Recommendation matrix

Your situation	Recommended option
Under 5 invoices per month	New Invoice
5–20 PDF invoices, use the UI	Upload Invoice
5–20 PDF invoices, prefer email	AR Email
High volume, invoices in ERP	ERP Integration
High volume, custom system or XML	API Integration

Related topics

• Reviewing & Sending Sales Invoices
• Invoice Manager Guide
• AR Email Configuration
• AI Provider Comparison
• Legal Entity Setup
• PEPPOL Registration
• ERP Connections Overview
• PEPPOL API
• REST API Reference