The National Forum of Electronic Invoicing and Electronic Public Markets (FNFE-MPE) and the Forum of Electronic Invoicing in Germany (FeRD) have announced at the end of August 2020 the implementation of a new standard called Order-X.
This new standard for electronic orders, or e-ordering, is common to France and Germany. It aims to improve the efficiency of the ordering process in a context of increasing digitization of the supply chain.
Order-X: the continuity of Factur-X
Set up in 2017 and integrated into the Chorus Pro portal in 2018, Factur-X is a hybrid electronic invoice format.
Put simply, it’s a combination of an invoice in easily human-readable PDF format and invoice data presented as a structured file that allows information systems to proceed an automated integration and merger.
But what does it mean for you?
As usual, you can send your invoice in PDF to your customer. The XML data contained in the Factur-X is then translated by your customer’s EDI solution so that the invoice is directly integrated into their ERP. This makes it possible to facilitate exchanges between more or less mature companies in EDI.
This model of dematerialized invoices has been designed to be adopted by as many businesses as possible. As a result, different data profiles have been put in place to adapt to all sizes of company.
There are 5 data profiles:
- the Minimum, corresponding to the minimum data required by the Chorus Pro platform
- the Basic WL, which corresponds to the header and footer data of the most requested invoices
- Basic, which adds essential invoice line data to the previous profile
- EN 16931, corresponding to the European semantic standard of the same name which defines the essential elements that an electronic invoice must contain to ensure compliance with legal and fiscal obligations while allowing interoperability of commerce
- Extended, which adds some additional information to the data of the previously seen standard.
To find out which option is best suited to your needs, do not hesitate to contact us via the online form or directly by phone.
Operation of Order-X standard
As the Factur-X standard has proven its worth, the Order-X standard is based on the same concept. It is a hybrid system consisting of a human-readable PDF file and a machine-readable and understandable XML file.
For information, you can read the documentation made available on the FNFE-MPE site for the public review. It includes a description of the Order, Order Response and Order Change messages as well as examples for the different profiles that we will discuss below.
Order-X: Who is it for?
This new standard is available in 3 types of data profiles to adapt to all sizes of businesses. It is suitable for VSEs, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as large companies.
Depending on the size of your business, one of these profiles will be the most suitable:
- BASIC for simple use cases
- COMFORT for the most common cases
- EXTENDED for the most complex cases.
Order-X calendar
The first stage of this project was a public review phase. It took place between August 27, 2020 and September 30. During this phase, comments and suggestions were made by the actors concerned in order to improve this project so that this new standard best meets the needs of companies.
Then, there will be the final public review. It should take place in November 2020.
Finally, the publication of the final version of Order-X is scheduled for December 31, 2020.
What about TX2 CONCEPT?
At TX2 CONCEPT we develop and market EDI solutions for SMEs and large international groups to allow the automation and security of electronic data exchanges.
We collaborate on a daily basis with more than 2,000 companies in around 40 countries. The majority of them are part of our target sectors: the automotive industry, mass distribution, transport & logistics and optics.
TX2 CONCEPT is committed to providing you the Order-X solution as soon as it is implemented. Our goal is to support you as best as possible in your digital transformation to allow you to speed up your exchanges and improve your efficiency every day.
If you would like to learn more about our solutions, please feel free to leave us a comment or contact us directly. We will be pleased to give you information and support you in your projects.
