Since May 2020, the XPertBilling Application Server and XPertBilling API solutions have been equipped with an additional module for exporting XPertBilling invoices in XML format.
Digital invoicing using electronic formats has been in place in B2B for many years (notably via EDI), but new standards are being imposed at European level. Each country has its own specifications, but the vast majority derive from the UBL (Universal Business Language) format.
This is part of the general movement for European administrative simplification. In fact, in 2014 the European Parliament adopted Directive 2014/55 / EU7 relating to electronic invoicing in the context of public contracts. This regulation establishes a common European standard for the format of electronic invoices and requires public authorities to accept and process electronic invoices.
XPertBilling allows the export of XML files including or not the original PDF.
The exported XML format is UBL2.1 and UBL2.3 compatible as well as the e-fff format (http://nw.e-fff.be/?lang=en, https://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/UBL-2.3.html).
XPertBilling is now ready to meet PEPPOL ‘BIS‘ specifications (PEPPOL stands for Pan-European Public Procurement Online and BIS: Business Interoperability Specification, https://docs.peppol.eu/poacc/billing/3.0/bis/).
PEPPOL has developed the BIS for common eProcurement processes to standardise electronic documents exchanged and validated through an open and secure network, between sending and receiving Access Points for public sector buyers and their suppliers across Europe and beyond.
The eProcurement specifications (PEPPOL BIS) maintained by OpenPEPPOL build on the work of the CEN Workshop on Business Interoperability Interfaces for Public Procurement in Europe (CEN BII). PEPPOL has not developed new standards but has used the CEN BII results to develop implementation guidelines, known as the PEPPOL ‘BIS’, that can be embedded in eProcurement and eBusiness exchange systems, to support interoperability across borders. The PEPPOL BIS are formal requirements to ensure pan-European interoperability of procurement documents, such as eInvoices.
Belgium adheres to the European vision, that recognizes e-Invoicing and e-Procurement as a source of significant efficiency increase. According to the studies ordered by the Belgian Service for Administrative Simplification, converting the 1 billion invoices exchanged in Belgium each year into effective e-Invoices, is expected to generate savings of at least 3,5 billion per year (source : https://peppol.eu/what-is-peppol/peppol-country-profiles/belgium-country-profile/)
ISO/IEC 19845:2015 specifies the OASIS Universal Business Language (UBL), which defines a generic XML interchange format for business documents that can be restricted or extended to meet the requirements of particular industries. Specifically, UBL provides the following:
– A suite of structured business objects and their associated semantics expressed as reusable data components and common business documents.
– A library of XML schemas for reusable data components such as “Address”, “Item”, and “Payment”, the common data elements of everyday business documents.
– A set of XML schemas for common business documents such as “Order”, “Despatch Advice”, and “Invoice” that are constructed from the UBL library components and can be used in generic procurement and transportation contexts.
In this context, PEPPOL provides:
- PEPPOL Business Interoperability Specifications (BIS) utilising the Universal Business Language (UBL – ISO/IEC 19845)
- Product catalogues, order/order confirmation/despatch advice, and invoices
- A range of pre-award PEPPOL BIS to be released in 2017
For more information, including technical specifications, sample software implementations, etc. – please go to the PEPPOL Post-Award ‘BIS’ Specifications and Guidelines.