Glossary
The vocabulary of e-invoicing and EDI
Short, factual definitions. Where a concept is routinely confused with another, that is said explicitly.
24 terms defined
- E-invoicing
- Issuing, transmitting and receiving an invoice in a structured form that the recipient’s system can process automatically. A PDF sent by email does not qualify: it is readable by a human but not interpretable by a machine without further processing.
- EDI
- Electronic Data Interchange: the transmission of commercial documents — orders, despatch advices, invoices — from one system to another in an agreed format, without human intervention. EDI predates e-invoicing by decades and coexists with it.
- EDIFACT
- The international EDI message standard defined by the United Nations (UN/EDIFACT). An EDIFACT message is built from segments and data elements identified by codes; it is the most widespread format for commercial exchanges in Europe.
- EDI mapping
- The correspondence rule translating one system’s data into the structure a partner expects, and back. Most exchange failures come from the mapping or the data feeding it, not from the transport channel.
- INVOIC
- The EDIFACT message representing an invoice. Its rejection hits cash most directly, since the invoice is not treated as received until it has been accepted.
- DESADV
- The EDIFACT despatch advice, sent ahead of the goods. It lets the recipient prepare their goods receipt; its rejection can physically block a delivery.
- ORDERS
- The EDIFACT purchase order message, usually the first in the exchange chain. An error at this stage propagates through to the invoice, which is why the symptom often appears far from its cause.
- ANSI X12
- The EDI message standard used mainly in North America. It plays the same role as EDIFACT with a different syntax and message numbering.
- AS4
- The secure transport protocol used to exchange structured documents between platforms. It handles transmission and acknowledgement of messages; it says nothing about whether their content is valid.
- AS2
- A protocol for exchanging EDI documents over HTTP, with signature and acknowledgement. Still widely used in exchanges with retail and manufacturing.
- OFTP2
- A file-exchange protocol originating in the automotive sector, still mandated by many industrial customers. Its configuration (certificates, identifiers) is a frequent source of blockers that are hard to diagnose.
- Factur-X
- A hybrid invoice format pairing a human-readable PDF with a structured XML file embedded inside that PDF. It satisfies a human reader and an automated process with a single document.
- UBL
- Universal Business Language: a set of standardised XML structures for business documents, including the invoice. It is one of the two syntaxes commonly accepted by European platforms.
- UN/CEFACT CII
- Cross Industry Invoice: the second standardised XML syntax for invoices, developed by UN/CEFACT. It is the one embedded inside a Factur-X file.
- EN 16931
- The European standard defining the semantic model of an electronic invoice: which information it must carry and how those elements relate, independently of the XML syntax used to express them.
- E-reporting
- Transmission of data about transactions, distinct from sending the invoice itself. Two different mechanisms, frequently conflated, which do not involve the same technical flows.
- Electronic identifier
- The identifier under which a company is registered and reachable on an exchange network. Registered or routed wrongly, it produces a misleading symptom: everything appears to work and nothing reaches the recipient.
- Invoice lifecycle
- The sequence of statuses an invoice goes through after issue — submitted, rejected, accepted, paid. Pulling those responses into your systems removes the need to open a portal to find out where each document stands.
- ERP
- The management system centralising a company’s processes: orders, stock, invoicing, master data. It is the source of most of the data feeding an invoicing flow.
- TMS
- Transport Management System: the system driving shipments and transport. It feeds despatch advices and the proofs attached to transport invoices.
- WMS
- Warehouse Management System: the system running warehouse operations. It holds the quantities actually picked and shipped — often the origin of gaps between delivery and invoicing.
- Middleware
- The software layer orchestrating exchanges between applications. It avoids connecting every system to every other one, and centralises error handling and retries.
- Reconciliation
- Matching invoices, orders and payments to verify they agree. Done manually, it is one of the most common repetitive tasks in finance departments.
- Remediation
- Fixing an existing flow that has stopped working or never fully worked, as opposed to a fresh implementation. It starts by identifying the cause, not by replacing the tool.
Where these concepts apply
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