Canonical Invoice Format

Since invoice data coming into IBM Sterling e-Invoicing can be of any supported electronic data interchange (EDI) format, your incoming invoice data is mapped into a canonical format for uniform processing. A canonical map ensures that all mandatory invoice fields are present in incoming invoice data prior to signature or validation.

If necessary, after you have contracted for IBM Sterling e-Invoicing, the Onboarding group uses information from you about your invoices to build a custom map. A custom map will be mandatory for customers with XML or flat file invoice data, or if there are additional data validations required that are specific to your data requirements.

Archiving

If you are using the IBM Sterling e-Invoicing archive service, the canonical format of the invoice is also used to create a human-readable version of the invoice in PDF format.

The original invoice data and the canonical format of the invoice can be stored in the archive database for a period of up to 11 years. During this period, you can view, track, and generate reports from the archived data, using the IBM Sterling e-Invoicing archive service user interface.