Minutes of UBL TC face-to-face meeting in Dublin, September 26-29, 2023

[Kenneth Bengtsson <kbengtsson@efact.pe>]

Minutes of UBL TC face-to-face meeting in Dublin, September 26-29, 2023

 

PARTICIPATION

 

Todd Albers

Kenneth Bengtsson (chair)

Erlend Klakegg Bergheim

Peter Borresen

Andrea Caccia

Paul Donohoe

Kees Duvekot

Sander Fieten

Cecile Guasch

Ken Holman

Yves Jordan

Wim Kok

Ole Madsen

Levine Naidoo

 

The meeting was quorate with 12 out of 12 voting members present.

 

SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS

 

Payments and Finance SC

 

The Payfin SC has worked extensively on mapping gaps between UBL and ISO 20022 document types. The remittance data exist in both standards and there is no need to expand the current UBL remittance advice.

 

The SC has explored possibilities of adding additional financial documents to UBL, such as factored invoices, letter of credit, and other trade finance documents. The SC will continue to monitor any eventual interest in these document types.

 

Post-award SC

 

The post-award SC reported that an invoice response document type is being requested from the market. It was agreed to work on this document type for UBL 2.5. The TC discussed different communities’ different approaches to response messages and whether these can be standardized.

 

Pre-award SC

 

The pre-award SC has contributed heavily to UBL 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 and 2.4: 21 new document types were contributed between 2.1 and 2.2, and the UBL library was significantly expanded in 2.3 and 2.4.

 

Transportation SC

 

The transportation SC is receiving input from various initiatives, such as the Peppol Logistics group. Duplicate/redundant document types is a frequently repeated issue, e.g., freight invoice, waybill, etc.

 

Suggestion from the TSC: Can we begin discussions about deprecating document types and BIEs? Agreed to continue the discussion at the meeting’s strategic session.

 

Organisation Master Data SC

 

The SC contributed the new Business Information document type to UBL 2.4. There have been talks about expanding the scope of the SC to also include other types of master data, for example product master data. Talks will continue in the SC and in the TC.

 

ISO SUBMISSION

 

Ken has developed functionality for producing a DOCX version of the specification (see also: https://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/ubl/202309/msg00007.html). The TC reviewed the DOCX document produced by Ken and agreed that we feel well prepared for submitting UBL 2.4 to ISO. Kenneth will work on a macro to reduce the aspect ratio of image files in the DOCX document.

 

It was discussed to rearrange the specification into multiple parts, to make it easier to read and use. Agreed that this could improve quality for later versions (not for UBL 2.4). Discussion to be continued during the strategic session.

 

FINALIZING UBL 2.4

 

Kenneth made the motion that the UBL TC approve the Chair requesting that TC Administration hold a Special Majority Ballot to approve UBL 2.4 contained in
https://www.oasis-open.org/committees/document.php?document_id=71383&wg_abbrev=ubl as a Committee Specification, subject to any eventual editorial changes that may be needed for its publishing. The motion was seconded by Ken.

 

Agreed by all members present.

 

VIDA/TAX INVOICE FORMAT

 

Cecile gave an update on the European ViDA (VAT in the Digital Age) initiative. The initiative is based on electronic invoicing and the EN16931 norm, and the expected impact is a broader use of e-invoicing in European B2B. There is a revision to consider new in elements in 2024.

 

All elements currently considered for the invoice are supported by UBL. It is necessary to also check against the credit note, as well as any country-specific customizations.

 

Agreed that the UBL TC will continue to follow CEN/TC 434 work to ensure correct mapping and to capture potential new element requirements.

 

REQUIREMENTS FOR SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING

 

Peter reported on sustainability reporting. The European Union CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) was enacted in 2022 and countries are now implementing. CSRD contains requirements for large companies to report (among other things):

 

• Environment: energy consumption, water consumption, recycling, and other environmental factors.
• Social factors: gender inclusion, worker satisfaction, working accidents, etc.
• Governance: differences in salary levels (e.g., from CEO to worker), and between genders.

 

Information is reported in XBRL format and is published as part of companies’ annual reports.

 

Can UBL be an important and strategic source of information for such reports? For example, invoices and transportation documents contain information that is used for calculating ESG factors.

 

It was agreed this is both interesting and relevant for UBL, and to reach out to subject matter experts. It was agreed that Peter lead this initiative.

 

INTEROPERABILITY VS. BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY, STRATEGIC OPTIONS + JSON/API PILOT

 

The current and previous TC charters were reviewed (https://www.oasis-open.org/committees/ubl/charter.php and https://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/tc-announce/200109/msg00000.html). In the original motivation for creating the UBL TC was stated as one of its aims to “avert a crisis in electronic business caused by competing XML business-to-business document standards”. UBL has largely achieved this and is globally established as the de facto business document standard. Other standards only exist and are in use in individual communities.

 

Over the years, UBL has accommodated for how different industries and communities have traditionally structured data differently. This has inevitably created duplicate and redundant information items in UBL, such as those identified by the TSC. A natural next step is to evolve UBL to also close these last gaps so that broader interoperability can be achieved. The TC had a thorough discussion about how to take this next step, and whether it can be achieved without breaking backwards compatibility with UBL instances created using existing 2.x versions. It was concluded that a deprecation policy will enable us to both guide the direction of existing and future UBL implementations towards enhanced global interoperability while at the same time preserving backwards compatibility with existing implementations.

 

It was agreed to adopt the following strategy:

 

• The TC will continue its focus on developing new minor revisions to the current major UBL version, and its commitment to 2.x backwards compatibility. There is no need for a new major UBL revision at this point.
• A deprecation policy will be developed as part of the UBL 2.5 normative specification.
• Starting from UBL 2.5, existing BIEs (e.g., XML elements) and supplementary components (e.g., XML attributes) can be deprecated.
• Also starting from UBL 2.5, existing semantic definitions can be deprecated and replaced. Old, deprecated definitions will be kept in the semantic library but clearly marked as deprecated.
• Semantic definitions must be made authoritative from UBL 2.5 and onwards (i.e., UBL implementations MUST adhere to the UBL definitions to be conformant).
• From UBL 2.5 and onwards, the specification will be separated into several logical parts, aiming to produce a multipart specification. The normative content will be retained in the main document.
• A byproduct of all the above is the ability to create “cleaner” bindings to non-XML syntaxes. A JSON syntax specification is to be developed and to be included as part of UBL 2.5.

 

The following work plan for UBL 2.5 was developed and tasks assigned:

 

• Deprecation policy:
• Erlend, Kees, Kenneth, Todd, and Wim
• Review semantic library and where needed deprecate BIEs, supplementary components, and update definitions:
• Entire UBL TC
• Implement component deprecation in the UBL tools and publishing environment:
• Erlend and Kees
• Separate specification contents into multiple parts:
• Kees, Kenneth, and Paul
• JSON syntax specification
• Erlend and Kenneth

 

APPRECIATIONS

 

The entire UBL Technical Committee expresses our heartfelt gratitude to Noleen, Fran, Edmund, and everyone else at the National Standards Authority of Ireland for your warm hospitality when hosting the UBL face-to-face meeting. Your exceptional support and generosity truly made our meeting not only productive but also enjoyable. Thank you!