[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":254},["ShallowReactive",2],{"\u002Fblog\u002Fe-invoicing-glossary-the-10-terms-you-need-to-know":3},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"description":245,"extension":246,"lastUpdatedAt":247,"meta":248,"navigation":249,"path":250,"publishedAt":247,"seo":251,"stem":252,"__hash__":253},"blog\u002Fblog\u002F0016.e-invoicing-glossary-the-10-terms-you-need-to-know.md","E-invoicing glossary: the 10 terms you need to know",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":231},"minimark",[9,13,18,25,32,41,45,51,54,61,65,71,74,77,81,87,93,100,104,110,113,119,123,129,132,138,142,148,156,159,163,170,182,186,192,199,205,209,215,218,225,228],[10,11,12],"p",{},"E-invoicing comes with its own vocabulary. When you start reading about it — from your ERP vendor, from a service provider, from the SIX documentation — you quickly encounter a cluster of abbreviations and standards names that are not explained anywhere obvious. This glossary covers the ten terms that come up most often and gives you enough context to understand what each one actually means for your business.",[14,15,17],"h2",{"id":16},"_1-peppol","1. PEPPOL",[10,19,20,24],{},[21,22,23],"strong",{},"Pan-European Public Procurement On-Line."," PEPPOL is a network infrastructure — not a file format — that lets businesses and public sector bodies exchange electronic documents (mainly invoices, purchase orders, and credit notes) with each other. Think of it as a postal network for business documents: you register with a local access point, the access point connects you to the network, and from there you can reach any other registered participant anywhere PEPPOL operates.",[10,26,27,28,31],{},"Switzerland joined the PEPPOL network through OpenPEPPOL and the SwissDIGIN initiative. The invoice format used on the network is ",[21,29,30],{},"PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0",", which is a specific implementation of the European invoice standard EN 16931. PEPPOL is one of the two accepted channels for invoicing Swiss federal government bodies.",[10,33,34,35,40],{},"More detail: ",[36,37,39],"a",{"href":38},"\u002Fblog\u002Fthe-peppol-4-corner-model-explained","how the PEPPOL 4-corner model works",".",[14,42,44],{"id":43},"_2-ebill","2. eBill",[10,46,47,50],{},[21,48,49],{},"eBill"," is Switzerland's national e-invoicing platform, operated by SIX Group. It connects billers (companies sending invoices) to payers through the payer's online banking interface. When a biller sends an invoice via eBill, the payer receives it inside their e-banking and approves it for payment without leaving the bank's application.",[10,52,53],{},"eBill is designed primarily for billing Swiss consumers and small businesses — it reaches around 3 million registered payers through the major Swiss retail banks. It is also one of the two accepted channels for B2G invoicing to the Swiss federal administration.",[10,55,56,57,40],{},"eBill and PEPPOL serve different audiences and are often used alongside each other rather than as alternatives. More detail: ",[36,58,60],{"href":59},"\u002Fblog\u002Fchoosing-between-ebill-and-peppol-for-your-business","choosing between eBill and PEPPOL",[14,62,64],{"id":63},"_3-en-16931","3. EN 16931",[10,66,67,70],{},[21,68,69],{},"EN 16931"," is the European standard that defines the semantic model for a core invoice — in plain terms, it defines what data fields a valid invoice must contain and what each field means. It was published by the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) in 2017 and underpins most modern e-invoice formats, including PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0, ZUGFeRD, and Factur-X.",[10,72,73],{},"EN 16931 itself is not a file format — it does not specify whether invoice data should be in XML or any other encoding. It defines the business rules: what is mandatory, what is optional, and how fields like tax amounts and line totals must be calculated to be consistent. The specific XML formats (UBL 2.1, UN\u002FCEFACT CII) are separate \"syntactic bindings\" that implement the EN 16931 model in a specific encoding.",[10,75,76],{},"When you see an invoice described as \"EN 16931 compliant\", it means the data model follows the European standard and can in principle be interpreted by any system that implements the same standard.",[14,78,80],{"id":79},"_4-zugferd-factur-x","4. ZUGFeRD \u002F Factur-X",[10,82,83,86],{},[21,84,85],{},"ZUGFeRD"," (Zentraler User Guide des Forums elektronische Rechnung Deutschland) is a hybrid invoice format: a human-readable PDF combined with a machine-readable XML file embedded inside the PDF. The PDF shows the invoice as a person would read it; the XML carries the same data in structured form for automated processing.",[10,88,89,92],{},[21,90,91],{},"Factur-X"," is the French version of the same format — they are technically identical and use the same XML schema (UN\u002FCEFACT CII). The difference is only in name and which country's authority governs the specification.",[10,94,95,96,40],{},"ZUGFeRD is useful because a recipient with no e-invoicing infrastructure can still open the PDF and read the invoice normally, while a recipient with automated processing can extract and use the XML. It is a practical bridge format for companies that have some structured-invoice-capable customers and some that are not there yet. More detail: ",[36,97,99],{"href":98},"\u002Fblog\u002Ffactur-x-and-zugferd-identical-standards-different-names","ZUGFeRD and Factur-X explained",[14,101,103],{"id":102},"_5-swissdigin","5. SwissDIGIN",[10,105,106,109],{},[21,107,108],{},"SwissDIGIN"," is the Swiss initiative that defines how PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0 is extended to cover Swiss-specific requirements. Switzerland has fields and rules that the base European standard does not cover: the UID company identifier format (CHE-xxx.xxx.xxx), specific Swiss VAT categories, and Swiss payment reference conventions.",[10,111,112],{},"SwissDIGIN publishes the Swiss PEPPOL profile — a set of additional validation rules and field definitions that sit on top of the base PEPPOL standard. When you hear about the \"SwissDIGIN format\" or \"Swiss PEPPOL extension\", this is what is meant. Invoices submitted to Swiss federal bodies or to SwissDIGIN-compliant buyers must pass both the standard PEPPOL validation and the SwissDIGIN Schematron rules.",[10,114,34,115,40],{},[36,116,118],{"href":117},"\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-is-swissdigin-and-why-does-it-matter","what SwissDIGIN is and why it matters",[14,120,122],{"id":121},"_6-schematron","6. Schematron",[10,124,125,128],{},[21,126,127],{},"Schematron"," is a rule-based validation language used to check business logic in XML documents. Where XSD (XML Schema Definition) validates the structure and data types of an XML file — is this field present? is this value the right type? — Schematron validates business rules: is the calculated VAT amount consistent with the declared rate? does the invoice total equal the sum of line totals?",[10,130,131],{},"E-invoice validation is typically two-pass: first XSD checks structure, then Schematron checks business rules. If you submit a PEPPOL invoice and it is rejected, the rejection message usually references a specific Schematron rule. Understanding Schematron error messages — which look like \"BR-CO-15: Invoice total VAT amount (BT-110) = Sum of VAT category tax amount (BT-117)\" — tells you exactly what the invoice got wrong and how to fix it.",[10,133,34,134,40],{},[36,135,137],{"href":136},"\u002Fblog\u002Fhow-schematron-validation-works-for-e-invoices","how Schematron validation works for e-invoices",[14,139,141],{"id":140},"_7-qr-rechnung-qr-bill","7. QR-Rechnung (QR-bill)",[10,143,144,147],{},[21,145,146],{},"QR-Rechnung"," is Switzerland's standard payment format, introduced in June 2020 to replace the old orange and red ESR\u002FIS slips. It consists of a payment section printed on an invoice or as a separate slip, containing a Swiss QR code that encodes the creditor's details, the amount, and a payment reference.",[10,149,150,151,155],{},"When a customer scans the QR code with their bank's app or enters it manually in e-banking, all the payment fields are filled automatically — no manual data entry, no risk of keying the IBAN incorrectly. For billers, the payment reference encoded in the QR code is returned in the ",[36,152,154],{"href":153},"\u002Fblog\u002Fcamt054-how-to-parse-booking-notifications-for-reconciliation","camt.054 bank notification"," when payment is made, enabling automated reconciliation.",[10,157,158],{},"QR-Rechnung is a payment format, not an e-invoice format — it can appear on a printed paper invoice or on an emailed PDF, not just on structured electronic invoices.",[14,160,162],{"id":161},"_8-uid-unternehmens-identifikationsnummer","8. UID (Unternehmens-Identifikationsnummer)",[10,164,165,166,169],{},"The ",[21,167,168],{},"UID"," is the unique identifier assigned to every company registered in Switzerland. It takes the format CHE-xxx.xxx.xxx (nine digits with dots after the third and sixth digit). The UID replaces several older company identifiers that existed across different registers and serves as the single authoritative identifier for a Swiss legal entity across government systems, tax registers, and commercial relations.",[10,171,172,173,177,178,181],{},"On Swiss e-invoices, the seller's UID is a required field for VAT-registered businesses. It appears in the ",[174,175,176],"code",{},"PartyTaxScheme\u002FCompanyID"," element in PEPPOL XML, with the scheme identifier ",[174,179,180],{},"CHE",". Leaving it off an invoice to a VAT-registered buyer is a common mistake that prevents the buyer from reclaiming input tax correctly.",[14,183,185],{"id":184},"_9-camt054","9. camt.054",[10,187,188,191],{},[21,189,190],{},"camt.054"," is an ISO 20022 XML message — \"BankToCustomer Debit Credit Notification\" — that Swiss banks send to account holders when money arrives in or leaves their account. For businesses that send invoices, the credit camt.054 is the notification that a customer has paid.",[10,193,194,195,198],{},"Critically, camt.054 carries back the payment reference the customer used when paying. If your invoice included a QR reference number and the customer used it, that reference appears in the ",[174,196,197],{},"RmtInf"," (remittance information) field of the camt.054. Your AR system can use it to match the incoming payment to the open invoice automatically — no human involved.",[10,200,201,202,40],{},"Before the ISO 20022 migration Swiss banks completed in 2022, payment notifications arrived in older formats (MT940, V11). camt.054 replaced these and is now the standard. More detail: ",[36,203,204],{"href":153},"parsing camt.054 for reconciliation",[14,206,208],{"id":207},"_10-pain001","10. pain.001",[10,210,211,214],{},[21,212,213],{},"pain.001"," is the ISO 20022 XML message for initiating credit transfers — it is what you send to your bank when you want to make a payment. If you approve an invoice in your AP system and the system generates a payment file, that file is almost certainly a pain.001 (or a batch of them).",[10,216,217],{},"For accounts payable teams, pain.001 is relevant because the payment reference you include in the transfer instruction — which you typically take from the supplier's invoice — determines what arrives in the supplier's camt.054. If the reference is wrong or missing at the pain.001 stage, the supplier cannot reconcile automatically, even if their invoice was perfectly structured.",[10,219,220,221,40],{},"The Swiss implementation of pain.001 has some specific fields required by Swiss banks: the local instrument code for SIC payments, the creditor's IBAN, and for QR-bill payments, the structured remittance reference in the correct format. More detail: ",[36,222,224],{"href":223},"\u002Fblog\u002Fpain001-deep-dive-building-a-swiss-credit-transfer-file","building a Swiss pain.001 file",[226,227],"hr",{},[10,229,230],{},"These ten terms cover most of what you will encounter when reading about Swiss e-invoicing or talking to a vendor or service provider. Once you understand what each one is and how they relate — PEPPOL is a network, EN 16931 is the data model, ZUGFeRD is a format, Schematron is a validator, camt.054 and pain.001 are the payment messages that bookend the transaction — the rest of the landscape becomes considerably easier to navigate.",{"title":232,"searchDepth":233,"depth":233,"links":234},"",2,[235,236,237,238,239,240,241,242,243,244],{"id":16,"depth":233,"text":17},{"id":43,"depth":233,"text":44},{"id":63,"depth":233,"text":64},{"id":79,"depth":233,"text":80},{"id":102,"depth":233,"text":103},{"id":121,"depth":233,"text":122},{"id":140,"depth":233,"text":141},{"id":161,"depth":233,"text":162},{"id":184,"depth":233,"text":185},{"id":207,"depth":233,"text":208},"From IBAN to EN 16931 — a concise reference to the terminology you will encounter when adopting e-invoicing.","md","2026-06-19",{},true,"\u002Fblog\u002Fe-invoicing-glossary-the-10-terms-you-need-to-know",{"title":5,"description":245},"blog\u002F0016.e-invoicing-glossary-the-10-terms-you-need-to-know","ygwKVsf9HwKFgLcv3ivrU61wu-9z3h5RnVNXgGgTjqE",1781861445403]