Digital Invoices – compliancy UBL / e-fff / PEPPOL BIS
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.
Telenet Business
Telenet Business, a Belgian integrator, focuses on SMEs, large enterprises, government institutions, healthcare and non-profit organisations and integrates a broad portfolio of ICT- and security solutions combined with its Lifecycle services. The company adopted a unique customer service approach with a fixed contact and a sustained focus on quality.
Telenet Business develop in-house CRM and other software that enable to supply excellent service to their clients. XPertBilling is the main Customer Care & Billing software that collects Call Data Records from various suppliers & format, calculates prices and bill the clients. Telenet Business’s software interacts with XPertBilling’s database, which is located in Telenet Business’s secure data center.
Telenet Business differentiates itself in the market by concentrating on the added value of its solutions and experienced major growth over the past 16 years. Today 320 employees serve 10,000 customers from the branches in Wommelgem and Zaventem.
XPERTBILLING WILL BE @MWC20 MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS 2020, BARCELONA.
XPertBilling will be present at Barcelona, from the 24th to 27th February for the Mobile World Congress 2020 Event. You can meet us at the Belgian Exhibitors Space, Hall 7 booth 7G71. See our official page on the MWC 2020 website. If you want to be sure that we will have sufficient time to speak with you about your needs, it is better to book a meeting with us !
UNBUNDLING – NEW PACKAGING SYSTEM
After long testing period, we implemented successfully a new packaging system, that enable to unbundle a marketing offer.
This unbundling can be done per subscriber.
It co-exists with Bundles as we always did.
Soon this system will be implemented at a major operator.
XPERTBILLING & GDPR
XPertBilling GDPR Readiness programme update for our customers
On 25 May 2018, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will come into force, reflecting the importance of data protection in our increasingly digital world. For us it is important that the personal information of your customers and your own people is handled in accordance with GDPR.
XPertBilling is fully compliant to the GDPR rules, and it is already in production.