What are UN/CEFACT standards for electronic invoicing?
Effective: 1981-01-01 · Authority: UN/CEFACT
UN/CEFACT (United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business) develops international standards for trade data and electronic documents. Its Cross Industry Invoice (CII) schema is used in Factur-X and ZUGFeRD. The UN Trade Data Elements Directory (TDED) provides the semantic foundation for global invoice data elements.
What is the UN/CEFACT CII standard?
CII (Cross Industry Invoice) is UN/CEFACT's XML schema for electronic invoices, based on the UN/CEFACT Core Component Technical Specification (CCTS). CII D16B is the version used in EN 16931 as an alternative syntax to UBL. It forms the XML layer of Factur-X and ZUGFeRD. CII is also used in some Asian trade networks.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the difference between UN/CEFACT CII and UBL?
- CII is developed by UN/CEFACT using the Core Component methodology. UBL is developed by OASIS using a different XML design approach. Both are accepted by EN 16931 as alternative syntax bindings for the European e-invoice semantic model. CII is preferred in France and Germany (Factur-X, ZUGFeRD). UBL is preferred for Peppol.
- Is UN/CEFACT involved in the Peppol network?
- UN/CEFACT contributes to Peppol's semantic work and maintains CII which is used by some Peppol documents. OpenPeppol references UN/CEFACT standards in its specifications. However, Peppol primarily uses UBL as its technical format.
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