Universal Business Language (UBL), ISO/IEC 19845, is an open library of standard electronic business documents and information models for supply chain, procurement, and transportation such as purchase orders, invoices, transport logistics and waybills. Originally developed by an OASIS Technical Committee with participation from a variety of industry data standards organizations. UBL is designed to plug directly into existing business, legal, auditing, and records management practices.UBL 2.0 implementation library Retrieved on 2009-12-21. It is designed to streamline information exchange through standardization, facilitating seamless connections between small, medium-sized, and large organization, thereby eliminating the re-keying of data and providing a comprehensive framework for electronic commerce.
UBL is owned by OASIS and is available to all, with no royalty fees. The UBL semantic library is a well-developed information and data model with validators, authoring software, parsers and generators.Article by Tim Bray: "Don't Invent XML Languages" Retrieved on 2007-05-29. As of August 2026, the latest approved OASIS Standard is UBL Version 2.5,"Universal Business Language Version 2.5" which includes a total of 101 business document types. All UBL minor versions are fully backwards compatible back to UBL Version 2.0.
History Origins and development Originally tracing it origins back to the EDI standards and other derived XML standards, UBL has evolved to include a broader range of syntaxes such as JSON, thereby enhancing global harmonization and interoperability. UBL now defines a syntax-neutral information model that can be restricted or extended to meet the requirements of particular industries, sectors, and communities, thus providing interoperability between systems and vendors when used as a generic interchange format.
Ontologies and semantic web integration Ontologies are used to describe markup languages for business workflows. UBL is only one option to map e-business processes into an OWL description.
Versions and standards
Current versions UBL 2.5 - https://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/UBL-2.5.html (Published 12 August 2026)
UBL 2.4 - https://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/UBL-2.4.html (Published 20 June 2024)
UBL 2.3 - https://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/UBL-2.3.html (Published 15 June 2021)
UBL 2.2 - https://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/UBL-2.2.html (Published 9 July 2018)
UBL 2.1 - https://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/UBL-2.1.html
UBL 2.1 as ISO/IEC 19845:2015 - http://standards.iso.org/ittf/PubliclyAvailableStandards/
Historical versions UBL 2.0 - http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.0-update/
UBL 1.0 - http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/cd-UBL-1.0/
Technical specifications
UBL 2.1 as ISO/IEC 19845:2015
The OASIS UBL 2.1 specification has been approved as ISO/IEC 19845 as of 2015-12-15:
http://www.iso.org/iso/home/store/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=66370
UBL 2.2 The OASIS UBL 2.2 specification has been approved as an OASIS Standard as of 2018-07-09.
UBL 2.3 OASIS UBL Version 2.3 has been approved as an OASIS Standard as of 15 June 2021.
UBL 2.4 OASIS UBL Version 2.4 has been approved as an OASIS Standard as of 20 June 2024.
UBL 2.5 OASIS UBL Version 2.5 has been approved as an OASIS Standard as of 12 August 2026.
National standards adoption on February 17, 2017, Canada formally adopted UBL 2.1 as Canadian national standard CAN/CSA-ISO/IEC 19845:16 (paid content identical to free content from OASIS download web site cited above)
Governance and development
OASIS UBL Technical Committee The OASIS Universal Business Language (UBL) Technical Committee is responsible for the creation and maintenance of the OASIS Standard.
ISO/IEC 19845 Maintenance Agency OASIS UBL Technical Committee has been designated the maintenance agency for ISO/IEC 19845. The maintenance governance procedures describe how committee and non-committee members contribute to the development of the specification.
UBL Vocabulary Development The OASIS UBL Naming and Design Rules Version 3.0 documents how the UBL Technical Committee applies the OASIS Business Document Naming and Design Rules Version 1.0 specification for defining a business document creating XSD schemas on the basis of business objects described using the UN/CEFACT Core Component Technical Specification 2.01.
The committee has published a reference for one to create one's own UBL subset schema by starting from the same resources used by the committee to publish the UBL distribution.
The committee announced the first public review of the OASIS Business Document Naming and Design Rules Version 1.1 proposed OASIS Standard with new rules for creating JSON validation artefacts for JSON documents, complete with the OASIS Committee Note of all UBL 2.1 document types as JSON schemas and all UBL 2.1 example documents as JSON documents, beginning February 1, 2017 and closing April 1, 2017.
Technical specifications
Business processes
Business process support originating with UBL 1.0 (2004)
Ordering, Fulfilment, Billing
Business process support added in UBL 2.0 (2006)
Catalogue, Quotation, Payment, Statement, Transport Services, Certificate of Origin
Business process support added in UBL 2.1 (2013)
, Vendor Managed Inventory, Intermodal Freight Management, Utility Billing, and Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, Replenishment and e-Invoice / e-Archive and e-Ledger in Turkey
Business process support added in UBL 2.2 (2018) Weight Statement, Business Directory,
Document types
Document types originally defined in UBL 1.0 (2004)
Order, Order Response, Order Response Simple, Order Change, Order Cancellation, Despatch Advice [Advance Ship Notice], Receipt Advice, Invoice
Document types added in UBL 2.0 (2006)
Added document types for sourcing: Catalogue, Catalogue Deletion, Catalogue Item Specification Update, Catalogue Pricing Update, Catalogue Request, Quotation, Request for Quotation
Added document types for fulfillment: Bill of Lading, Certificate of Origin, Forwarding Instructions, Packing List, Transportation Status, Waybill
Added document types for billing: Credit Note, Debit Note, Freight Invoice, Reminder, Self Billed Credit Note, Self Billed Invoice
Added document types for payment: Remittance Advice, Statement
Added supplementary document types: Application Response, Attached Document
Document types added in UBL 2.1 (2013)
Added document types for : Awarded Notification, Call for Tenders, Contract Award Notice, Contract Notice, Guarantee Certificate, Tender, Tender Receipt, Tenderer Qualification, Tenderer Qualification Response, Unawarded Notification
Added document types for Collaborative planning, forecasting, and replenishment: Exception Criteria, Exception Notification, Forecast, Forecast Revision, Item Information Request, Prior Information Notice, Trade Item Location Profile
Added document types for Vendor Managed Inventory: Instruction for Returns, Inventory Report, Product Activity, Retail Event, Stock Availability Report
Added document types for Intermodal Freight Management: Goods Item Itinerary, Transport Execution Plan, Transport Execution Plan Request, Transport Progress Status, Transport Progress Status Request, Transport Service Description, Transport Service Description Request, Transportation Status, Transportation Status Request
Added document type for Utility billing: Utility Statement
Added supplementary document types: Document Status, Document Status Request
Document types added in UBL 2.2 (2018) http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/UBL-2.2.html Added document types for : Enquiry, Enquiry Response, Expression Of Interest Request, Expression Of Interest Response, Qualification Application Request, Qualification Application Response, Tender Contract, Tender Status, Tender Status Request, Tender Withdrawal, Unsubscribe From Procedure Request, Unsubscribe From Procedure Response
Added document types for transportation: Weight Statement
Added document types for business directories and agreements: Business Card, Digital Agreement, Digital Capability
Document types added in UBL 2.3 (2021) Added document types for transportation: Common Transportation Report, Export Customs Declaration, Goods Certificate, Goods Item Passport, Import Customs Declaration, Manifest, Proof Of Reexportation, Proof Of Reexportation Reminder, Proof Of Reexportation Request, Transit Customs Declaration.
Document types added in UBL 2.4 (2024) Added document types: Business Information, Purchase Receipt
Document types added in UBL 2.5 (2026) Added document types: Delivery Note, Invoice Status Request, Invoice Status Response, Work Report, Procurement Status, Procurement Status Request, Waste Movement, Waste Notification
Global adoption and implementation
Regional implementations
Europe
Northern European Subset - NESUBL As part of the Northern European cooperation on e-commerce and e-procurement, representatives from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, UK and Iceland set up a working group for developing a Northern European subset of UBL 2.0 documents. The main focus of NES is to define the semantic use of UBL 2.0 as applied to specific business processes. To achieve this the UBL 2.0 standard is restricted on additional levels by using "profiles" that apply to defined business situations. The use of individual elements is specifically described to avoid conflicting interpretation. Additionally each country has developed guidelines that describe the application of the NESUBL subset to domestic business practices. The goal is to enable companies and institutions to implement e-commerce by agreeing to a specific profile and thus eliminate the need for bilateral implementation. Additional countries have shown interest in joining the work. The NESUBL subset was published in March 2007.
Since its publication, NESUBL subset has influenced government eProcurement initiatives across Europe, for example in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, The Netherlands, Turkey. It is also the basis for an eProcurement initiative, , by the European Commission, Directorate General's of the European Commission, starting with the Directorate General for Information Technology (DIGIT). It is also the basis of the syntax for business documents created by the CEN/BII (Business Interoperability Initiative).
European-wide deployment of UBL in PEPPOL PEPPOL adopts the work products of CEN/TC434 and CEN/TC440 that include UBL customizations and syntax serializations of different document types for European business processes. The goal of PEPPOL is to enable public procurement across borders within the EU.
It was reported that CEN/TC434 has unanimously agreed to endorse UBL as one of two syntaxes complying with the forthcoming European Norm on e-Invoicing and will be listed in a specific CEN Technical Specification.
These efforts support Directive 2014/55/EU on electronic invoicing in public procurement in Europe.
On March 3, 2017, this summary update of recent announcements was published, including references to Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Italy (Emilia-Romagna region), Netherlands, Norway, Sweden.
Denmark
In December 2003 Denmark legislated the mandatory use of a customization of UBL 0.7, using the OIOXML specification, for electronic invoicing for government procurement starting February 2005. In March 2010 Denmark legislated the mandatory use of a customization of UBL 2.0, using the OIOUBL specification.
In 2011 the Danish government documented savings of €500,000,000 having used UBL.
Spain
In Spain, UBL is being used primarily for electronic invoice encoding. The UBL Spanish Localization Committee has been actively developing UBL awareness and has created implementation guidelines to allow easy adoption of UBL based on previous work done by CCI.
Czech Republic