Re: [ubl-dev] DocumentCurrencyCode in Invoice, CreditNote, SelfBilledInvoice and SelfBilledCreditNote

[Stephen D Green <stephengreenubl@gmail.com>]

Although changing the meaning at UBL standard level is a break in backwards compatibility, a semantic shift, if it is defined vaguely enough, it can be tightened at implantation guide level (PEPPOL, etc) so that a rule can override it. There might be a rule, say, that if the document level code is stated, then no other currency code is used in any calculation-significant line level entity. Look at EU profiles to see if this is actually what is done for CEN for the EU. That kind of rule implies the document level currency is optional, for cases when there needs to be latitude over existence of other currencies. For example if tax must be paid in a certain currency but the other amounts can be in any currency. In the case of the SelfBilledCreditNote it might have been a mistake to make it mandatory. But even if it is mandatory, it might be that a list of currency codes used throughout the document could be supplied if it is multiple occurrence. How it is all used in profiles such as CEN and PEPPOL and others outside of EU needs to be considered. It is essential to consider how software uses it too, since it was included for software requirements in the first place. I am not sure that such software company needs get represented in UBL as much as necessary nowadays, and it is important that they watch discussions such as this to monitor to prevent regression in how closely their requirements are met over time as new versions are produced. I imagine there are few software product owners who review new versions in public reviews.Â

On Sat, 26 Aug 2023 at 15:57, David Goodenough <david.goodenough@broadwellmanor.co.uk> wrote:

But all Amount objects must have a current id, so which has precedence?

If a simple accounting system that can only cope with a single currency
receives a document with multiple currencies and uses the document code
ignoring the Amount codes then chaos will follow - or at least wrong numbers.

So perhaps the meaning of the DocumentCurrencyCode should be changed to meanÂ
that this is the only currency code present in the document. That would then
mean that it could safely be used by single currency accounting systems
without further checks, although of course the DocumentCurrenctCode would have
to specify the currency that the accounting system was set up to use. I am
not convinced it really helps.

But changing the meaning of a field (or come to that its name as the existing
name could not imply this meaning) is definitely not backward compatible.

On Saturday, 26 August 2023 13:08:45 BST Stephen D Green wrote:
> Greetings
>
> Just as a heads up from a first generation UBL design point of view, note
> that the document level currency code is something put in to meet
> requirements of software accounting systems at the time. A typical system
> could only support one currency per document. The possibility existed of a
> document in UBL having a different currency for each line, etcetera. It
> made sense for a document to declare its main default currency at document
> level. This would allow accounting systems and add-ons to support UBL,
> generally even without reliance on only supporting specific implementation
> subsets. I suspect this is a general requirement still today. Something to
> bear in mind. It might mean that any document involving currencies can be
> kept simple enough, out of the box, irrespective of community user guide or
> subset, for typical software systems to support UBL without the need to
> cater for multiple currencies in the same document.
>
> Kind regards,
> Stephen D Green
>
> On Thu, 24 Aug 2023 at 16:05, Kees Duvekot <kees@sipico.com> wrote:
> > David,
> >
> > That sounds like a reasonable request .. I will record it as a ticket and
> > see when we can incorporate it ...
> >
> > Kees D.
> >
> > On Thu, Aug 24, 2023, 17:02 David Goodenough <
> >
> > david.goodenough@broadwellmanor.co.uk> wrote:
> >> I recently noticed that in Invoice, CreditNote and SelfBilledIinvoice,
> >> DocumentCurrencyCode is optional, but in SelfBilledCreditNote it is
> >> required.
> >>
> >> This seems inconsistent.
> >>
> >> I realise that backward compatibility is necessary, so I suppose the only
> >> thing that can be done is to make SelfBilledCreditNote have it as
> >> optional as
> >> well.
> >>
> >> As all currency amounts are recorded in Amount objects which include a
> >> currencyId (a mandatory attribute) actually this field is probably
> >> redundant.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
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