UBL Invoice 2.x

UBL Invoice 2.x is the XML invoice format defined by OASIS and adopted as one of the two EN 16931 syntaxes.

Definition

UBL (Universal Business Language) is a set of XML business documents standardised by OASIS. The Invoice document is its billing-specific type: its root element <Invoice> carries all invoice data (seller, buyer, lines, amounts, VAT, payment terms).

The version commonly used for e-invoicing is UBL 2.1, and UBL 2.x in its later revisions.

Role in EN 16931

The European standard EN 16931 defines a syntax-neutral semantic invoice model, then binds it to two permitted XML syntaxes: UBL Invoice/CreditNote and UN/CEFACT CII. An EN 16931-compliant UBL invoice therefore faithfully reflects the model's business terms (BT) and groups (BG).

• Sector and national profiles build on UBL: PEPPOL BIS Billing, several national CTC mandates, and more.
• Conformance to a specific specification is declared through the CustomizationID and ProfileID elements.

Good to know

UBL is pure, machine-readable XML; unlike Factur-X it does not embed a presentation PDF. A UBL invoice and a CII invoice can carry exactly the same semantic content while differing only in their markup.