Universal Business Language (UBL), ISO/IEC 19845, is an open library of standard electronic business documents and information models for supply chain, procurement, and transportation such as purchase orders, invoices, transport logistics and waybills. Originally developed by an OASIS Technical Committee with participation from a variety of industry data standards organizations. UBL is designed to plug directly into existing business, legal, auditing, and records management practices.[1] It is designed to streamline information exchange through standardization, facilitating seamless connections between small, medium-sized, and large organization, thereby eliminating the re-keying of data and providing a comprehensive framework for electronic commerce.[2]
UBL is owned by OASIS and is available to all, with no royalty fees. The UBL semantic library is a well-developed information and data model with validators, authoring software, parsers and generators.[3] As of June 2021, the latest approved OASIS Standard is UBL Version 2.3,[4] which includes a total of 91 business document types. All UBL minor versions are fully backwards compatible back to UBL Version 2.0.
Originally tracing it origins back to the EDI standards and other derived XML standards,[5][6] UBL has evolved to include a broader range of syntaxes such as JSON, thereby enhancing global harmonization and interoperability. UBL now defines a syntax-neutral information model that can be restricted or extended to meet the requirements of particular industries, sectors, and communities, thus providing interoperability between systems and vendors when used as a generic interchange format.[7]
Ontologies are used to describe markup languages for business workflows. UBL is only one option to map e-business processes into an OWL description.[8]
OASIS UBL Technical Committee and ISO/IEC 19845 Maintenance Agency
The OASIS Universal Business Language (UBL) Technical Committee[9] is responsible for the creation and maintenance of the OASIS Standard and has been designated the maintenance agency for ISO/IEC 19845. The maintenance governance procedures[10] describe how committee and non-committee members contribute to the development of the specification.
Business processes described and supported in UBL
Business process support originating with UBL 1.0 (2004)
Ordering, Fulfilment, Billing
Business process support added in UBL 2.0 (2006)
Catalogue, Quotation, Payment, Statement, Transport Services, Certificate of Origin
Business process support added in UBL 2.1 (2013)
eTendering, Vendor Managed Inventory, Intermodal Freight Management, Utility Billing, and Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, Replenishment and e-Invoice / e-Archive and e-Ledger in Turkey
Business process support added in UBL 2.2 (2018)
This article needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(October 2020)
Weight Statement, Business Directory, eTendering
Standard document types defined by UBL
Document types originally defined in UBL 1.0 (2004)
Order, Order Response, Order Response Simple, Order Change, Order Cancellation, Despatch Advice [Advance Ship Notice], Receipt Advice, Invoice
Added document types for eTendering: Awarded Notification, Call for Tenders, Contract Award Notice, Contract Notice, Guarantee Certificate, Tender, Tender Receipt, Tenderer Qualification, Tenderer Qualification Response, Unawarded Notification
Added document types for Collaborative planning, forecasting, and replenishment: Exception Criteria, Exception Notification, Forecast, Forecast Revision, Item Information Request, Prior Information Notice, Trade Item Location Profile
Added document types for Vendor Managed Inventory: Instruction for Returns, Inventory Report, Product Activity, Retail Event, Stock Availability Report
Added document types for Intermodal Freight Management: Goods Item Itinerary, Transport Execution Plan, Transport Execution Plan Request, Transport Progress Status, Transport Progress Status Request, Transport Service Description, Transport Service Description Request, Transportation Status, Transportation Status Request
Added document type for Utility billing: Utility Statement
Added supplementary document types: Document Status, Document Status Request
Document types added in UBL 2.2 (2018)
This article needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(October 2020)
http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/UBL-2.2.html Added document types for eTendering: Enquiry, Enquiry Response, Expression Of Interest Request, Expression Of Interest Response, Qualification Application Request, Qualification Application Response, Tender Contract, Tender Status, Tender Status Request, Tender Withdrawal, Unsubscribe From Procedure Request, Unsubscribe From Procedure Response
Added document types for transportation: Weight Statement
Added document types for business directories and agreements: Business Card, Digital Agreement, Digital Capability
Document types added in UBL 2.3 (2021)
Added document types for transportation: Common Transportation Report, Export Customs Declaration, Goods Certificate, Goods Item Passport, Import Customs Declaration, Manifest, Proof Of Reexportation, Proof Of Reexportation Reminder, Proof Of Reexportation Request, Transit Customs Declaration.
UBL 2.1 as ISO/IEC 19845:2015
The OASIS UBL 2.1 specification has been approved as ISO/IEC 19845 as of 2015-12-15:
The OASIS UBL 2.2 specification has been approved as an OASIS Standard as of 2018-07-09.[11]
UBL 2.3
OASIS UBL Version 2.3 has been approved as an OASIS Standard as of 15 June 2021.[4]
Subsets and customizations of UBL
Danish subsets: OIOXML and OIOUBL
In December 2003 Denmark legislated[12] the mandatory use of a customization of UBL 0.7, using the OIOXML specification, for electronic invoicing for government procurement starting February 2005. In March 2010 Denmark legislated[13] the mandatory use of a customization of UBL 2.0, using the OIOUBL specification.
In 2011 the Danish government documented[14] savings of €500,000,000 having used UBL.
Northern European Subset - NESUBL
As part of the Northern European cooperation on e-commerce and e-procurement, representatives from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, UK and Iceland set up a working group for developing a Northern European subset of UBL 2.0 documents. The main focus of NES is to define the semantic use of UBL 2.0 as applied to specific business processes. To achieve this the UBL 2.0 standard is restricted on additional levels by using "profiles" that apply to defined business situations.[15] The use of individual elements is specifically described to avoid conflicting interpretation. Additionally each country has developed guidelines that describe the application of the NESUBL subset to domestic business practices. The goal is to enable companies and institutions to implement e-commerce by agreeing to a specific profile and thus eliminate the need for bilateral implementation. Additional countries have shown interest in joining the work. The NESUBL subset was published in March 2007.[16]
Since its publication, NESUBL subset has influenced government eProcurement initiatives across Europe, for example in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, The Netherlands, Turkey. It is also the basis for an eProcurement initiative, ePrior, by the European Commission, Directorate General's of the European Commission, starting with the Directorate General for Information Technology (DIGIT).[17][18] It is also the basis of the syntax for business documents created by the CEN/BII (Business Interoperability Initiative).[19][20]
European-wide deployment of UBL in PEPPOL
PEPPOL adopts the work products of CEN/TC434 and CEN/TC440 that include UBL customizations and syntax serializations of different document types for European business processes. The goal of PEPPOL is to enable public procurement across borders within the EU.[21]
It was reported[22] that CEN/TC434 has unanimously agreed to endorse UBL as one of two syntaxes complying with the forthcoming European Norm on e-Invoicing and will be listed in a specific CEN Technical Specification.
These efforts support Directive 2014/55/EU on electronic invoicing in public procurement in Europe.
On March 3, 2017, this summary update of recent announcements was published, including references to Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Italy (Emilia-Romagna region), Netherlands, Norway, Sweden.
Spanish UBL version based in CCI
In Spain, UBL is being used primarily for electronic invoice encoding. The UBL Spanish Localization Committee has been actively developing UBL awareness and has created implementation guidelines to allow easy adoption of UBL based on previous work done by CCI.
The SPIS consortium (currently named ICT unie) created an UBL 2.0 customization ISDOC to be used for e-Invoicing in the Czech Republic. The recently released ISDOC 6 supports e-Requests too.[23]
Peruvian UBL Customization - SUNAT
SUNAT, the national customs and tax administration for Peru, supports[24] a customization of UBL 2.0. Plans have been announced[25] by SUNAT to migrate to UBL 2.1
Belgian UBL Customization - e-fff
In December 2011 the Belgian government specified[26] a customization of UBL to maximize the interoperability of the electronic invoice between Belgian actors.
Swedish UBL Customization - Svefaktura
SFTI, the joint project of the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SKL), Financial Management Authority (ESV) and the government contracting authority specified Svefaktura, a UBL customization.
As of November 1, 2018 it will be mandatory[27] for Swedish electrical authorities to use PEPPOL.
Colombian UBL Customization - DIAN
DIAN, the Colombian national tax and customs directorate, implements [28] UBL 2 as the XML document format for electronic invoicing.
DFØ follows the direction once set out by Norwegian Agency for Public Management and eGovernment (Difi)[31] in using UBL and results from CEN BII (restarted as CEN TC434) as basis for national implementation of post-award document exchange.
Dutch UBL Customization - UBL-OHNL and Simplerinvoicing
UBL-OHNL is a Dutch government-specific customization for submitting documents via Digipoort.
Simplerinvoicing is a community of e-invoicing, ERP and accounting software providers making e-invoicing in UBL available for everyone. It includes access to the PEPPOL network for secure and reliable transfer.
In response to the European Directive 2014/55/EU the Dutch government has mandated[32] XML Invoicing for all contracts signed after January 1, 2017, using the UBL-OHNL customization via Digipoort or the Simplerinvoicing customization via PEPPOL.
Australia and New Zealand use of UBL
As part of a national initiative to increase the proportion of businesses participating in the Australian digital economy the Digital Business Council endorsed [33] an Interoperability Framework in 2016. The initial version of the framework includes a set of policies, standards and guidelines to promote the economy-wide adoption of eInvoicing. A subset of UBL 2.1 for the invoice and business response document was included in this initial release. The subset was initially based on a working draft of the European Committee for Standardization's work under the CEN/TC 434 - Electronic Invoicing project
In 2017 OASIS established a localisation subcommittee to promote the harmonised use of UBL and to support the broader market adoption across Australia. The subcommittee facilitates an open dialogue for information sharing and collaboration, under the auspices of OASIS transparent governance and operating procedures.
Further guidance and support is facilitated by third parties such as
DCAF Online - a contemporary and transparent approach to businesses having visibility of the digital standards and frameworks their service providers support. Recognised service providers are listed and resources are available to support the economy-wide adoption of digital procurement.
In February 2019 "the two countries’ intention to jointly adopt the Pan-European Public Procurement Online (PEPPOL) interoperability framework for trans-Tasman e-invoicing" was announced[34] by the Prime Ministers of New Zealand and Australia.
Italian use of UBL
The future of e-invoicing in Italy will facilitate the correct implementation of the national Technical Rules for Interoperability between e-Procurement platforms (Circolare 3 AgID) and the automation of the end-to-end procurement process, based on PEPPOL or, where a PEPPOL specification is not available, by implementing a CEN BII profile using the OASIS UBL 2.1 syntax.[35] In the long term, likely by 2022, the objective is to migrate to a single global standard, UBL, still supporting the other mandatory syntax with translations, and phasing out the national format.
Singaporean use of UBL
Singapore has established the first PEPPOL Authority outside of Europe[36] with the Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA) to help businesses in Singapore to benefit from digitalisation and better position themselves to plug into the international marketplace.
United States and Canadian use of UBL
On October 4, 2018, the Business Payments Coalition e-Invoicing Subcommittee,[37] an open technical committee consisting of US, Canadian, and Mexican interests in electronic invoicing and facilitated by the US Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, released[38] its first review of the semantic model of an invoice, expressed using the business objects of OASIS UBL 2.2.
National adoptions
on February 17, 2017, Canada formally adopted UBL 2.1 as Canadian national standard CAN/CSA-ISO/IEC 19845:16[39] (paid content identical to free content from OASIS download web site cited above)
Corporate support of UBL
MSC Belgium documented[40] their adoption of UBL 2.1 for sales invoices as of March 15, 2016
EDF France documented[41] their adoption of UBL 2.0 for orders as of March 23, 2010
IBM documents[42] their support of PEPPOL UBL for e-Invoicing
Industry support of UBL
Textile Clothing and Footwear industry - eBiz-TCF
eBIZ is a UBL customization available for the Textile Clothing and Footwear industry.
The e-Freight Framework
a joint effort to create "One Common Framework for Information and Communication Systems in Transport and Logistics" from FREIGHTWISE, e‐Freight, INTEGRITY, Smart‐CM, SMARTFREIGHT, EURIDICE, RISING, DiSCwise, iCargo, COMCIS, eMAR and other projects, developing a reference model and logistics information exchange "document" that are now part of UBL 2.1 - ISO/IEC 19845[43]
Danish Industry
ClearView Trade offers a portal for customers to obtain export documents using UBL[44]
go2UBL offers a service of converting PDF documents into UBL documents
the backbone document format for the Tradeshift platform is UBL[46]
UBLReady is an online validation service for UBL documents and for certifying the readiness of organizations[47] according to the UBL Ready configuration[48]
xa-elegans is a web application that accepts and runs rules over UBL documents as part of the Internet of Rules
Centiga is a cloud-based accounting software that utilises UBL to offer free invoicing services. The software is integrated with the majority for Norwegian banks, which means that one can control the economy as a whole in one place.
bBiller is a real world Ethereum Blockchain DAO for Double Entry Book-keeping and accounting using the International standard OASIS UBL Universal Business Language.
Semine is a Norwegian AI platform provider that provides automated double entry accounting for business documents received in the UBL format. The platform can be integrated with any ERP solutions using their open API.
Charlie-India is a tech startup providing a white-label e-invoicing platform; users of the services built on the platform can exchange invoice data in the OASIS UBL format.
Conta Conta is a web-based invoicing platform that utilizes UBL to deliver cost-free invoicing services within the Australian market.
The committee has published a reference[49] for one to create one's own UBL subset schema by starting from the same resources used by the committee to publish the UBL distribution.
The committee announced[50] the first public review of the OASIS Business Document Naming and Design Rules Version 1.1[51] proposed OASIS Standard with new rules for creating JSON validation artefacts for JSON documents, complete with the OASIS Committee Note[52] of all UBL 2.1 document types as JSON schemas and all UBL 2.1 example documents as JSON documents, beginning February 1, 2017 and closing April 1, 2017.
Related Research Articles
The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards is a nonprofit consortium that works on the development, convergence, and adoption of projects - both open standards and open source - for Computer security, blockchain, Internet of things (IoT), emergency management, cloud computing, legal data exchange, energy, content technologies, and other areas.
UN/CEFACT is the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business. It was established as an intergovernmental body of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) in 1996 and evolved from UNECE's long tradition of work in trade facilitation which began in 1957.
X3D is a set of royalty-free ISO/IEC standards for declaratively representing 3D computer graphics. X3D includes multiple graphics file formats, programming-language API definitions, and run-time specifications for both delivery and integration of interactive network-capable 3D data. X3D version 4.0 has been approved by Web3D Consortium, and is under final review by ISO/IEC as a revised International Standard (IS).
In computing, RELAX NG is a schema language for XML—a RELAX NG schema specifies a pattern for the structure and content of an XML document. A RELAX NG schema is itself an XML document but RELAX NG also offers a popular compact, non-XML syntax. Compared to other XML schema languages RELAX NG is considered relatively simple.
An invoice, bill or tab is a commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer relating to a sale transaction and indicating the products, quantities, and agreed-upon prices for products or services the seller had provided the buyer.
ISO/IEC 6523Information technology – Structure for the identification of organizations and organization parts is an international standard that defines a structure for uniquely identifying organizations and parts thereof in computer data interchange and specifies the registration procedure to obtain an International Code Designator (ICD) value for an identification scheme.
xCBL is a collection of XML specifications for use in e-business. It was created by Commerce One Inc. and is maintained by Perfect Commerce.
Jon Bosak led the creation of the XML specification at the W3C. From 1996–2008, he worked for Sun Microsystems.
JSON is an open standard file format and data interchange format that uses human-readable text to store and transmit data objects consisting of attribute–value pairs and arrays. It is a commonly used data format with diverse uses in electronic data interchange, including that of web applications with servers.
A media type is a two-part identifier for file formats and format contents transmitted on the Internet. Their purpose is somewhat similar to file extensions in that they identify the intended data format. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is the official authority for the standardization and publication of these classifications. Media types were originally defined in Request for Comments RFC 2045 (MIME) Part One: Format of Internet Message Bodies in November 1996 as a part of the MIME specification, for denoting type of email message content and attachments; hence the original name, MIME type. Media types are also used by other internet protocols such as HTTP and document file formats such as HTML, for similar purposes.
A cornerstone of the UN/CEFACT standardisation activities is the Core Component Technical Specification (CCTS). Core Components are the syntax-neutral and technology-independent building blocks that can be used for data modeling. Major benefits of CCTS include improved reuse of existing data artifacts, improved enterprise interoperability, and consistency across vertical industry standards.
Digital Signature Services (DSS) is an OASIS standard.
AS4 is an open standard for the secure and payload-agnostic exchange of Business-to-business documents using Web services. Secure document exchange is governed by aspects of WS-Security, including XML Encryption and XML Digital Signatures. Payload agnosticism refers to the document type not being tied to any defined SOAP action or operation.
In computing, Open Data Protocol (OData) is an open protocol that allows the creation and consumption of queryable and interoperable Web service APIs in a standard way. Microsoft initiated OData in 2007. Versions 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 are released under the Microsoft Open Specification Promise. Version 4.0 was standardized at OASIS, with a release in March 2014. In April 2015 OASIS submitted OData v4 and OData JSON Format v4 to ISO/IEC JTC 1 for approval as an international standard. In December 2016, ISO/IEC published OData 4.0 Core as ISO/IEC 20802-1:2016 and the OData JSON Format as ISO/IEC 20802-2:2016.
Electronic Business using eXtensible Markup Language, commonly known as e-business XML, or ebXML as it is typically referred to, is a family of XML based standards sponsored by OASIS and UN/CEFACT whose mission is to provide an open, XML-based infrastructure that enables the global use of electronic business information in an interoperable, secure, and consistent manner by all trading partners.
Electronic invoicing is a form of electronic billing. E-invoicing includes a number of different technologies and entry options and is usually used as an umbrella term to describe any method by which a document is electronically presented from one party to another, either for payment or to present and monitor transactional documents between trade partners to ensure the terms of their trading agreements are being met. These documents can include invoices, purchase orders, debit notes, credit notes, payment terms, payment instructions, and remittance slips.
CEN/TC 434 is a technical body within the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) developing standards in the field of Electronic Invoicing.
UNIDOC is an XML-based standard to support electronic data interchange (EDI) in business transactions between trading companies. Unlike other XML-based EDI formats, such as UBL, ebXML, RosettaNet or openTRANS, UNIDOC relies one a single structure. The first idea of such a universal format was published in 2014, its first specification in 2016 in the journal of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Swabia . The current specification can be found in the UNIDOC XML Schema Definition.
Peppol is a set of specifications for establishing and also the primary implementation of a federated electronic procurement system for use across different jurisdictions. Through Peppol, participant organisations can deliver procurement documents to each other including electronic invoices in machine readable formats, avoiding the labour of data entry.
↑ Magdalenic, Ivan and Vrdoljak, Boris and Schatten, Markus (2010). Mapping of core components based e-business standards into ontology. Research Conference on Metadata and Semantic Research. Springer. pp.95–106. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16552-8_10.{{cite conference}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
