UBLs

Universal Business Language (UBL) is an open international standard published by OASIS that provides a library of XML schemas for electronic business documents used in procurement and commerce. UBL is designed to support automated processing of business documents such as orders, invoices, despatch notices, and receipts by establishing a common, interoperable data model and syntax.

The UBL library is organized into reusable components, including CommonBasicComponents and CommonAggregateComponents, which define simple data types (identification numbers, dates, amounts) and more complex structures (addresses, parties, line items). Document types such as Invoice, Order, DespatchAdvice, Receipt, and Catalogue are built from these components and can be extended for industry or jurisdictional needs. The standard emphasizes localization, extensibility, and validation through XML schemas, enabling consistent interpretation across diverse systems.

UBL is widely used to support electronic invoicing and cross-border commerce. Governments and organizations adopt UBL-based formats or profiles to enable automated data exchange, reduce paper handling, and improve interoperability. Notable profiles include PEPPOL for European public procurement, as well as country- or sector-specific implementations, illustrating its role in scalable e-government and enterprise workflows.

Maintenance and governance are provided by OASIS, with collaboration from UN/CEFACT and the broader standards community. UBL has evolved through multiple versions, with the 2.x series representing major releases. It remains an open, architecture-neutral framework intended to accommodate evolving business practices and technology trends while remaining machine-readable and platform-agnostic.