E-invoice, XML, UBL and DICO: here’s what you need to know about e-invoices

‘E-invoice,’ ‘XML,’ ‘UBL,’ ‘DICO’: you hear these terms thrown around more and more often. So there is a lot going on in the world of invoice formats. Some companies are already working with e-invoicing, partly because of collaborations with certain suppliers or industry initiatives. These (relatively) new developments logically bring questions and challenges. What exactly do all these terms mean? How do you navigate the growing forest of document processing? And how do you deal with the challenges surrounding the processing of (e-)invoices? In this blog post we answer the most important questions regarding e-invoices, XML, UBL and DICO!

The electronic invoice and XML: ideal versus reality

An e-invoice is a systematically constructed digital file that can be processed electronically from one automated system into another. The ideal of e-invoicing is an automatic exchange and processing of delivery notes, orders and invoices through the ERP systems of the supplier and the recipient. The main advantage of this is that you have to perform fewer manual tasks. Currently, there are several initiatives defining standards. Understandably, because the standardization of exchanging invoices using XML is based on an attractive idea: if everyone adheres to the guidelines, together you save even more time and money and the error rate decreases further. Those who receive a pure XML file can indeed skip certain steps. In a purely digital document, in fact, recognition is already good. But this is by no means always the case. And even when it does, you have to take into account bottlenecks. For example, e-invoicing in the chain is still very limited. Currently there is mainly an exchange of XML invoices (often via e-mail). In addition, the diversity of initiatives and standards surrounding e-invoices creates the necessary complexity. XML formats currently still vary widely. In practice, electronic invoices still often require an organization-specific process to process them all optimally. Because ultimately you need to process each (e-)invoice in the correct dimension, ledger account and cost center in your ERP system. And it remains important that the right approvers approve the invoice in a timely manner.

The e-invoice: variety and manual operations

The ideal picture is that everyone sends and receives invoices in the same e-invoice format, such as DICO or UBL, which means we all work with a type of XML file that defines an agreed-upon structure. But we’re not there yet. There are many different e-invoices, including UBL 1.0, UBL 2.0, SI-UBL (which the government uses) and DICO. So one e-invoice is not the other. And as a result, you face processing challenges. If you want to convert an e-invoice to a proper entry and attach a readable version to the entry, this usually still involves some manual processing.

Processing e-invoices: set up efficient digital records in 3 steps

E-invoicing is mostly done within industries. But in addition, you also receive documents from suppliers operating in other industries. They may not yet have embraced electronic invoicing or use different standards. So invoices arrive in a variety of formats – sometimes as attachments, sometimes as the body of the e-mail. This can be tricky when you want to set up efficient digital records. Because your ultimate goal is to process all incoming documents smoothly, efficiently and with as few errors as possible – regardless of the format of the invoice and how it arrives. How do you do that? By processing all incoming documents the same way! To do that, you can take the following three steps.

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1. Uniformly process e-invoice, XML, UBL, DICO and pdf with a total solution

With the right software, you can process all XML formats common within e-invoicing. These include INSBOU 3 (DICO), SALES005, UBL 2.0 and UBL 2.1. Are you using a different XML format specific to your organization, industry or ERP system? Then look for a software vendor that supports it. Ultimately, you want to work with a total solution that processes every invoice in your administration in a uniform way. Also for control and insight purposes, organizations often still want to process all incoming invoices in a somewhat similar manner, regardless of the form in which they arrive.

2. Less repetitive work with automatic rule recognition

There is software that prepares XML rules to prepare the booking. Convenient, because that way you don’t have to do anything for this. Therefore, choose a solution that offers automatic rule recognition.

3. Format all purchase invoices in one system

An electronic invoice, like all other invoice types, you need to get it past the appropriate approvers. They must approve the document in time for you to proceed to payment. With workflow software, this process is efficient and the entire processing of (e-)invoices takes place within one system.