Code of practice and glossary of terms

WORKSHOP
ELECTRONIC INVOICES, PHASE 3

Open Meeting

12 December 2011, Brussels

Code of Practice and Glossary of Terms

Phillip H. Schmandt
PT5 CEN e-Invoicing Open Meeting, CEN WS eInvoices III
Brussels 12 December 2011
2005 CEN – all rights reserved
Workshop Phase 3  2008 CEN – all rights reserved 10/01/2010

1

Open Meeting, CEN WS eInvoices III
 2008 CEN – all rights reserved 10/01/2010

Reaping the Benefits of Electronic Invoicing
for Europe (2 December 2010)

“CEN should develop by end of 2011, a Code of
Practice taking into account the work of the
Expert Group on e-invoicing. This Code of
Practice, to be adopted by trading parties,
service providers and public authorities, should
include a consistent terminology and a definition
of roles and responsibilities of the distinct actors
within the e-invoicing process.”


2

2 Forward………………………………………………………………………………………………………………3

3 I. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………….3

4 A. References and Resources………………………………………………………………………………..4

5 B. Core Principles………………………………………………………………………………………………4

6 II. Code of Practice for Trading Parties……………………………………………………………………5

7 A. When issuing or receiving unstructured data electronic invoices (e.g. pdf), taxable

8 persons should:…………………………………………………………………………………………………5

9 B. When issuing or receiving structured data electronic invoices (e.g. xml or EDIFACT)

10 taxable persons should:………………………………………………………………………………………..6

11 III. Code of Practice for Service Providers………………………………………………………………...7

12 IV. Code of Practice for Public Administrations………………………………………………………….7

13 Open Meeting, CEN WS eInvoices III

Core Principles


3

Legislative Compliance


Solution Neutrality


4

Auditability


Proportionality


5

Interoperability


Responsibility


6

Code of Practice for Trading Parties


II.A. When issuing or receiving unstructured
data electronic invoices (e.g. pdf), taxable
persons should:


7

II.A.1) Ensure the invoice represents an
actual supply of goods or services and is stored
with appropriate records establishing this fact in
accordance with the business‟ internal control
processes. Business internal controls that
already achieve this in a paper environment
should be sufficient when invoicing electronically.


II.A.3) Determine how the authenticity of the origin, the integrity of the content and
the legibility of the invoice will be ensured. Taxable persons are free to choose
how these requirements will be met.

i) Examples of how authenticity of the origin and integrity of the content can
be met include business controls that create a reliable audit trail between an
invoice and a supply, or technologies such as EDI or qualified electronic
signatures.

ii) Practical information on how these methods can ensure authenticity and
integrity can be found in the Compliance Guidelines and the E-invoicing SME
Enablement CWA. The Compliance Guidelines also provide practical information
on achieving legibility.


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II.A.7) Consider migrating to using
structured invoices as an enabler to more fully
reaping the benefits of electronic invoicing,
ideally a structured invoice based on an open,
royalty free standard.


II.B. When issuing or receiving structured data
electronic invoices (e.g. xml or EDIFACT)
taxable persons should:


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II.B.4) Confirm that the intended invoice
recipient would accept a specific Format of
electronic invoice and has the appropriate
technology to receive and process structured
data electronic invoices. The issuer and receiver
of the electronic invoice must agree in advance
on the Format that will be used, the transmission
protocol to be used and the format of the
electronic documents to be exchanged.
Preferably, this agreement should be explicit to
facilitate subsequent evidence, but is not
required to be in writing for purposes of VAT
compliance.

II.B.9) The Format in which invoices are
held may be converted to other Formats in a
controlled and auditable process, providing that
the VAT information remains correct (i.e. the
integrity of the content is not affected).


10

III. Code of Practice for Service
Providers


III.2) Service Providers should conduct their
operations in accordance with the Conformance
Criteria or similar codes providing trading parties
equivalent protections and promulgated by an
international standards organization.


11

III.3) Service Providers should use and support
royalty free standards for invoice content
published by international standards
organizations, including as an example the
UN/CEFACT Cross Industry Invoice.


III.4) Service Providers operating in a four
corner model should interoperate with other
service providers by use of the CEN Model
Interoperability Agreement or an agreement that
offers substantially equivalent protections to
trading parties and is promulgated by an open
and neutral organization.


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IV. Code of Practice for Public
Administrations


IV.1) All public administrations should encourage
adoption of this Code of Practice by businesses
and service providers.


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IV.2) Public administrations should promote the
use of a consistent terminology for electronic
invoicing by using the Glossary of Terms.


IV.3.i) If a taxable person already uses
business controls with paper invoices to
establish a reliable audit trail between the invoice
and a supply of goods and services and those
business controls ensure authenticity of origin
and integrity of content, then those business
controls also suffice to demonstrate authenticity
of the origin and the integrity of the content of the
electronic invoice and no additional technologies
or processes are to be required for compliance.


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IV.3.ii) Public Administrations should publish
clear and uniform guidelines on what constitutes
business controls that create a reliable audit trail
between the invoice and a supply of goods and
services and ensure authenticity of origin and
integrity of content.


IV.3.iii) Public Administrations should not
require businesses to implement control
measures for audit and/or compliance purposes
that are disproportionate to their individual
circumstances. Circumstances that must be
taken into account include, but should not be
limited to, the size, activity and type of taxable
person and the number and value of transactions
as well as the number and type of suppliers and
customers.


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CEN Phase 3 E-invoicing Glossary of Terms

Consolidated Glossary


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Code of practice and glossary of terms

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