Glossary

UBL (Universal Business Language)

In Latvian: UBL (Universal Business Language)

E-invoicing Updated

UBL (Universal Business Language) is an OASIS XML standard for business documents such as invoices, credit notes and orders. UBL 2.1 became an OASIS Standard on 4 November 2013, and its invoice and credit note messages are one of the two syntaxes in which an EN 16931 e-invoice may be written.

EN 16931 defines what each piece of invoice data means, not how it is written into a file. That is the job of a syntax. Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2017/1870 lists two: the UN/CEFACT Cross Industry Invoice, and the UBL invoice and credit note messages defined in ISO/IEC 19845:2015.

UBL 2.1 defines 65 document types in all, but e-invoicing uses two of them: Invoice and CreditNote. In Latvia, Cabinet Regulation No. 749 provides that the XML structure of an e-invoice accepted by VID follows UBL 2.1 and Peppol BIS Billing 3.0.

Example

SIA "Ozols" issues a EUR 121 credit note for returned goods. In the XML file a credit note has its own UBL document, CreditNote, and the buyer's system recognises it by its document type.

Legal basis

This explanation is for information and does not replace tax or legal advice. The law in its current consolidated text prevails.