E-Invoicing Accreditations Explained: Who Can Actually Connect to SDI, KSeF, Peppol, and the DGFiP

Engineering teams evaluating e-invoicing compliance usually start from a reasonable assumption: the tax authority publishes an API, we integrate against it, done. It's how every other integration works.

E-invoicing doesn't work that way. In most mandated countries, the right to connect is itself regulated. Governments don't want ten million businesses hitting a clearance platform with home-grown clients — they want a controlled ring of certified operators they can audit, test, and hold accountable. So between your invoice and the authority sits an accreditation layer, and who holds the accreditation determines who can actually operate.

This is the least visible and most decisive fact in the build-vs-buy decision. Formats can be generated by anyone. Connections cannot.

The Three Gatekeeping Models

Every mandated country uses one of three models to control access.

1. Network certification — Peppol

Peppol countries (Belgium, much of the Nordics, and a growing list across APAC) don't run a central government platform. Instead, invoices travel between certified Access Points over the AS4 protocol. To operate an Access Point you must join OpenPeppol, sign the network's transport infrastructure agreements, and pass conformance testing covering AS4 message exchange, SMP service metadata publishing, and BIS document validation — then keep passing as the specifications evolve.

The practical consequence: you cannot send or receive a Peppol invoice except through a certified AP. Either you become one (a standing operational commitment, not a one-off integration) or you use one. Clearvo operates its own certified Access Point — AP ID PIE001162, verifiable directly with OpenPeppol — rather than reselling a third party's, which is why there's no intermediary between our API and the network. More on how Access Points work →

2. Platform accreditation — France, Italy, Greece, UAE

Clearance and reporting countries increasingly license private platforms as the official on-ramp:

• France: B2B invoices must flow through the government portal (PPF) or a PDP — a private platform registered with the DGFiP. PDP registration is a genuine regulatory process: application dossier, security and interoperability requirements, provisional registration, then full accreditation. Clearvo has submitted its PDP application to the DGFiP (file 31890388) and operates as a provisional PDP pending full accreditation — invoices submitted through our API route directly into the French network. France 2026 checklist →
• Italy: SDI is not on the Peppol network. High-volume, automated exchange with SDI runs over accredited channels (SDICoop web services) established through a formal accreditation agreement with the Agenzia delle Entrate — which is why most businesses transact through an accredited intermediary rather than connecting themselves. Italy guide →
• Greece: myDATA e-invoicing runs through licensed e-invoicing providers accredited by the tax authority (AADE) — the provider regime, not the taxpayer, carries the compliance burden of the connection.
• UAE (phasing in 2026–2027): the announced model is built on accredited service providers — and accreditation is expected to require Peppol certification as a component, stacking both gatekeeping models.

3. Open API, hard credentials — Poland, Romania, Hungary

Some countries publish an open API but gate it with taxpayer-level credential regimes that carry their own complexity:

• Poland: KSeF has no vendor accreditation — but access requires per-taxpayer authentication (tokens, qualified signatures/seals), session management, asynchronous submission, and status polling. The gate is operational rather than regulatory. KSeF deep-dive →
• Romania and Hungary: ANAF's e-Factura and NAV's real-time reporting follow the same pattern — open specifications, demanding credential and certificate handling per taxpayer, and rule changes that arrive on the authority's schedule, not yours.

No accreditation to obtain — but someone still owns certificate rotation, credential storage, API version migrations, and the 2 a.m. behaviour of a government endpoint. The gate never disappears; it just changes shape.

What This Means for Build vs. Buy

Multiply the models by your country footprint and the shape of the problem becomes clear:

• Accreditations are per-country, per-regime, and ongoing. OpenPeppol certification, DGFiP registration, and AdE channel accreditation are separate processes with separate audits, separate test cycles, and separate maintenance obligations. There is no "accredited everywhere" shortcut.
• They are commitments, not milestones. Specifications evolve (Peppol releases, KSeF schema versions, French interoperability requirements), and accredited operators must track them continuously to keep their status.
• They concentrate liability. Authorities designed these regimes precisely so that a small number of auditable operators — not every taxpayer — carry the connection risk. Working with an accredited operator isn't outsourcing laziness; it's how the system is meant to be used.

Unless operating e-invoicing infrastructure is your core business, pursuing your own accreditations in each country is rarely rational — a conclusion even the large advisory firms have reached, which is why they partner with or build accredited platforms rather than recommending clients connect directly. The genuine build-vs-buy question is not "can we call the API?" but "do we want to become and remain an accredited operator in every country we trade in?"

The Questions to Ask Any Vendor

Because accreditations are invisible in a feature-list comparison, they're where vendor claims most need verification. Four questions cut through it:

• "Do you operate your own certified Peppol Access Point, or resell one?" An AP ID is public and verifiable with OpenPeppol. Reselling adds a dependency you can't see until it fails.
• "What is your status in France — registered PDP, application in progress (what file number), or 'partner network'?" Vague answers here mean your September 2026 readiness depends on someone else's roadmap.
• "Is your Italy connection an accredited SDI channel or a third-party intermediary?" Same dependency question, seven years more mature.
• "For credential-gated countries — who holds and rotates the KSeF tokens and certificates?" If the answer is "you do," the operational burden didn't go away.

Clearvo's answers are on the record: our own certified Peppol AP (PIE001162), a provisional PDP in France under file 31890388, direct authority connections — SDI, KSeF, ANAF, myDATA, XRechnung, CIUS-PT and more — across 32 countries, with credential handling managed inside the platform. One integration inherits all of it: the accreditations, the format engines, and the connection maintenance, through a single API.

For where these mandates apply to your footprint in the first place, start with the US company's guide to global e-invoicing mandates and the inbound receiving-obligations guide.