Receiving Electronic Invoices by Email in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition

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In this blog, we will explore how SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition can help businesses comply with the new German regulation by receiving electronic invoices by email. As of January 2025, a new legal mandate in Germany requires businesses to be able to receive invoices electronically from their suppliers. For more information about the law in general, check out this blog New B2B electronic invoicing law in Germany: What you need to know.

Multiple solutions available

While this blog focuses on SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition for handling electronic invoices received by email, it's important to note that there are alternative SAP offerings for handling electronic invoices received from your supplier. To get a complete list, check out the Supported Business Scenarios.

For more information on some of these alternatives, please refer to the following blogs: 

• Receiving Electronic Invoices Through the Peppol Network in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition
• Receiving Electronic Invoices by Email in SAP S/4HANA, SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition or SAP ERP
• Receiving Electronic Invoices Through the Peppol Network in SAP S/4HANA, SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private E...
• Receiving Electronic Invoices by Email in SAP Ariba Central Invoice Management
• Receiving Electronic Invoices Through the Peppol Network in SAP Ariba Central Invoice Management

Overview of the process in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition

The process of receiving electronic invoices by email in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition involves several steps. Here's a detailed breakdown of the procedure: 

1. Receiving the Invoice: Your supplier sends an invoice or credit note to you by email. 
2. Extracting the XML File: You extract the XML file from the email to your local system.
3. Uploading the XML File to Business System: You use the Upload Incoming Messages app in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition to upload the file.
   • Upload Incoming Messages app
4. Creating an Electronic Document: You use the EDocument Inbound Message Handler app in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition to create an electronic document that shows up in the Manage Electronic Documents app.
   • Inbound Messages app
5. Submitting for Validation: In the Manage Electronic Documents app, you submit the document for validation to SAP Document and Reporting Compliance, cloud edition.
   • Submit button in the Manage Electronic Document app
6. Validating the XML File: The cloud edition validates the invoice and returns the validation result. It also creates an easy-to-read HTML version of the invoice and returns it to the business system.
7. Reviewing Status: You can view the new status after the validation as well as the HTML invoice in the business system in the Manage Electronic Documents app. In SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition further processing of the electronic document is not planned for invoices received by email. If you want to further process the invoice, use the solution Receiving Electronic Invoices by Email in SAP Ariba Central Invoice Management.
   • Display HTML button in the Manage Electronic Document app

For more information about the tasks you can perform in the eDocument Cockpit for the electronic invoice you’ve received by email, see Validating Electronic Invoices Received by E-Mail Using SAP Document and Reporting Compliance, Cloud....

 

More information

For details about the end-to-end solution, please refer to the following information: 

• Electronic Supplier Invoices (Receipt by E-Mail) 
• Validating Electronic Supplier Invoices Using SAP Document and Reporting Compliance, Cloud Edition

The integration of the Peppol Exchange process is one part of the integration steps for the end-to-end solution. If you are interested in why the Peppol Exchange process of the cloud edition is relevant for the receiving of invoices by email, check out this blog: Email Solution for Germany: Understanding Use of the Peppol Exchange Process in the Cloud Edition. In addition, we want to make you aware that if you already have done the integration of the Peppol Exchange process for the Receiving of electronic invoices through the Peppol network, you don’t need to perform all implementation steps again to get to the email solution for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition.

By leveraging SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, businesses in Germany can seamlessly transition to electronic invoicing, ensuring compliance with the new legal requirements while optimizing their invoicing processes.