According to European Directive 2014/55/EU all contracting entities in Europe must be able to receive and process e-invoices from the end of 2018. In order to prevent numerous non-interoperable agreements and standards, the Committee for Standardization (CEN) has been commissioned to establish a European E-invoicing standard: the European core e-invoice.

After one and a half years of intense labour, the deliverables of the CEN working group TC434 (that developed this standard) were unanimously approved. Building the foundation for a proper exchange of e-invoices between suppliers and governments in Europe: EN 16931-1: Semantic data model of the core elements of an electronic invoice. In essence EN16931-1 is a subset of UBL 2.1

To support organisations that have to or want to implement this new EN 16931 standard, UBL Ready set out to develop demo reference files based on the UBL syntax and fully compliant with EN 19631. These files are now publicly available.

The demo invoices are available in both UBL and PDF format with an explanation on the structure and calculation of the invoice.

UBL Ready currently provides the following demo files:

• An extensive e-invoice with multiple VAT rates, discounts and surcharges – UBL + PDF
• The extensive e-invoice, but now with additional UBL elements, allowed by EN 16931 (though not necessary) – UBL + PDF
• Credit note based on the extensive e-invoice – UBL + PDF

UBL Ready is currently working on other demo e-invoice files based on EN 16931, as well as working on a conversion guideline for those that already implemented UBL2.1/2.0.

About UBL Ready

UBL Ready is a not for profit initiative with a vision of free, flawless, seamless exchange and processing of e-invoices! The primary goals of UBL Ready are (1) to support you to get ready for UBL e-invoicing and (2) to communicate your ‘UBL readiness’ to your customers and /or suppliers, using the ‘UBL Ready’ label. UBL Ready focusses on all organisations that send and /or process e-invoices: accounting software suppliers, (online) e-invoice service providers, suppliers of OCR solutions, large billers, public bodies, etc.

7 months after its launch, over 100 organisations declared themselves UBL Ready. Any organisation can apply for UBL Ready here. It is free and hassle free.

More information

For more information visit the website of UBL Ready or contact Friso de Jong at +31 (0)6 – 196 229 47, [email protected] or https://nl.linkedin.com/in/frisodejong