An EHF invoice is an electronic invoice which is sent directly from the sender’s financial system to the recipient’s corresponding system. As this happens automatically, you can rest assured that it will arrive at the right recipient quickly.

Legislation

In 2012, it became mandatory for the suppliers of central government entities to send invoices electronically, being compliant with the European standard on eInvoicing. Starting from 2 April 2019, it is mandatory for all public contracting authorities, at both the central and sub-central level, to receive and process eInvoices.

eInvoices must comply with the definition within Directive 2014/55/EU and use the EHF/Peppol BIS Billing and the Peppol eDelivery network. Additionally, the central government contracting authorities issuing invoices are mandated to offer to send EHF/Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 invoices to business recipients.

It is also imposes an obligation for suppliers to public authorities, in transactions governed by the Public Procurement Act to only send eInvoices in the EHF norm. The Public Procurement Act covers transactions with public authorities valued over 100,000 NOK excluding VAT. The Norwegian government aims to further foster the uptake of eInvoicing, however, there are no current plans to introduce mandatory eInvoicing for Business-to-Business transactions (B2B).

From 2020 introduced a monitoring mechanism of eInvoicing from 2020. eInvoicing recipients must be able to report to the Norwegian Agency for Public and Financial Management (Direktoratet for forvaltning og økonimistyring) the total number of eInvoices received.

eInvoicing platform and eInvoicing management solutions

Norway is dependent on both the Peppol BIS 3.0 standard and the Peppol eDelivery Network – particularly for cross-border transactions. Both economic operators and contracting authorities in Norway rely on Peppol Access Point (AP) service providers to achieve compliance with national regulations. These service providers offer solutions for creating, submitting, transmitting, receiving, and processing eInvoices. A list of eInvoicing service providers is publicly available.

All transactions can be handled through a single provider. There is no need to establish new partner bilateral connections.

Approach for receiving and processing eInvoices

Economic operators can submit eInvoices by using their internal Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). The Norwegian eProcurement infrastructure is built around the Peppol Business Interoperability Specifications (BIS) and the Peppol eDelivery Network.

In addition to Peppol BIS document format, EHF (Elektronisk Handelsformat) format is also recognised by Norwegian public bodies. Both are based on UBL (Universal Business Language).

In Norway, the EHF has been implemented for other parts of the process. You can find our specifications here. The goal is to digitise the entire order to pay process.

eInvoicing implementation in sub-central level contracting authorities

As of 2 April 2019, it is compulsory for all contracting authorities, central and non-central public bodies, to be able to receive and process eInvoices. Likewise, public entities’ suppliers of such public entities are required to send eInvoices[3].

The eInvoicing strategy is Peppol-based. The non-domestic eInvoices are received through Peppol formats and network[4]. The latest statistics on invoices that are sent in the Norwegian market (B2B and B2G) are available on the DFØ website.

The CIUS in place is the Peppol CIUS. There is no specific communication as the Peppol CIUS corresponds to the EN to be used.

The target benefits of implementing eInvoicing at sub-central level is the cost and operational savings, the reduction of administrative burden and the contribution to process automation.

Status on the implementation of the European Standard on eInvoicing (EN)

Norway has fully implemented the European standard on eInvoicing.

EHF is used exclusively between Norwegian organisations. Peppol BIS format is used for cross-border transactions.

axsolutions module for elektronic invoices for Dynamics AX

axsolutions has developed a module in Dynamics AX that supports the exchange of electronic invoices in the Norwegian OIOUBL format and the international Peppol BIS format. The module is called EazyTrade and, as the name suggests, it is a simple way to send and receive electronic invoices. The module also supports the Norwegian EHF format.

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