How to easily receive orders and submit invoices to NHS Trust?

Already a few years ago, the NHS embraced digitisation and developed a new eProcurement strategy, which required the adoption of the GDSN (in particular GS1 for product catalogue coding) and Peppol (for a secure and direct exchange of electronic documentation) standards for both Trust and suppliers. In this way, NHS ensured interoperability and unified data exchange between both parties.

The aim is to automate all purchase-to-pay transactions in the supply chain (invoices, purchase orders, despatch advices) by using electronic data interchange services, so that procurement processes become more immediate, secure, and efficient.

Unfortunately, the current situation of the pandemic, containment, and saturation of the health system has reinforced the need for an efficient eProcurement system. Therefore, priority is given to the reception of electronic orders and the sending of electronic invoices by NHS Trust suppliers. This ensures rapid access to orders, quick response to material needs, and an efficient payment system to maintain the economy of suppliers in these difficult times.

Are you an SME and NHS provider?

Currently, the safest and most efficient way to do business with English hospitals is by sending and receiving electronic documents. This can be achieved through a solution that integrates with the companies’ ERP systems to facilitate these functions or also through an online service that allows these functions to be performed without the need for an ERP.

The most affordable way for SMEs to meet the technical requirements of the NHS is to use a service provider, such as B2Brouter, to send and receive invoices, orders, and dispatch advices, at a reasonable price. Thus the service provider ensures a faster payment of their invoices and the best thing is that they do not have to worry about meeting all the technical requirements, the service provider does it for them!

To do this, if you are an NHS provider you must ensure that your Peppol service provider is able to:

Receive electronic orders through the Peppol network
Send electronic invoices through the Peppol network
Send despatch advices for the sent material – (As well as the ASNs, now being tested by the NHS).

In addition, a good Peppol service provider should ease as much as possible the usability and quickness in the electronic document processing. Storing the documents so you can have access to them in the future, providing billing reports for good management of the company, and have a quality technical service to support you whenever necessary

How do I start working with B2Brouter? – 5 easy steps

Create your company: Sign up is completely free, just follow a few simple steps to create your company and your billing information. You can also create as many customers as you want. Most Trusts are already in our database, so you can upload their data automatically.
Set up your Peppol connection: In order to work with the NHS supplier system you need to have a connection enabled for sending and receiving through the European Peppol network. To do this you must subscribe to a Business Plan with the company you have created. Once the Business plan is activated your company will be ready to receive and manage orders through the Peppol network, you only need to configure your Peppol connection and enable the option “enable the reception of documents via Peppol”. After that, you are ready to inform your customer (or hospital) that you are enabled to receive electronic orders. Simply provide them with your Peppol identifier so that they can send the documents to you correctly.
Orders and Labels Management: Once you start receiving orders electronically through the portal you can manage them directly from B2Brouter with the following options: accept (the customer will be notified of its acceptance); modify (your customer will be informed that you have modified the order); or reject (the customer will be notified that you have rejected their order). Once the order is accepted you can manage and print the labels (if the order requires it), as requested by NHS.
Sending electronic invoices to hospitals: Once the order has been accepted, and the labels printed (if applicable) it is time to create and send the corresponding invoice. With B2Brouter it is very easy since you can automatically convert the order into an invoice. After creating the invoice, you only need to modify it to include the corresponding taxes. In this way, you will avoid possible errors in the amounts and speed up the invoice creation process. You will also be able to follow up better since each order has its related invoice in the portal. No documents will be lost!
Despatch Advices and ASN: The NHS eProcurement system requires specific steps in terms of creating and sending the despatch advices, once you have sent the material to the hospital or NHS customer. No problem, with B2Brouter you can also generate and send despatch advice and Advanced Shipping Notes. Advanced Shipping Notes functionality allows you to specify SSCC (Serial Shipping Container Code) codes on the packing slip if requested by your customer. You can find more information about SSCC codes here.

Why use a Peppol service provider like B2Brouter?

A cloud platform such as B2Brouter provides small and medium enterprises with affordable access to the NHS eProcurement system, without the need for large investments in computer systems or specialized personnel.

Easy to configure: B2Brouter is a platform focused on user experience and user care. You have direct access to our support service to help you whenever you need it.
Affordable: Our Business plan allows you to have access to professional features for an affordable annual price. No management software or ERP with electronic invoicing functionalities will charge you the same.
Certified: B2Brouter is a certified Peppol Access Point and has the GSN1 accreditation required to work with NHS. Your transactions will be secure and will meet all regulatory and technical requirements set by NHS.

You are just one step away from being able to begin!