Invoice validation

Sterling eInvoicing validation services provide for the validation of signed invoices.

Invoices can be in different formats for different trading partners. The invoices handled by Sterling e-Invoicing are converted into a canonical format for uniform processing. The system extracts the mandatory invoice data from these invoices and validates the invoices for compliance. Validation services can be purchased by a Buyer, or by Suppliers on behalf of their buyers.

IBM Sterling B2B Integration SaaS customers can use validation services for invoices that were not signed by IBM Sterling B2B Integration SaaS. This includes invoices signed by other companies and sent to IBM Sterling B2B Integration SaaS.

SCBN may send the end user-supplier’s signed invoice to the validate function of the Service. Upon receipt, the service will validate the end user’s signature on behalf of its trading partner-buyer. The validation process consists of TrustWeaver taking the end user’s C/XAdES-A, performing a cryptographic check of the C/XAdES-T signature and including newly or previously obtained certificate validity data from the issuing Certification Authority(ies). The End User’s C/XAdES-A is stripped off, after which new validation data are inserted and a new C/XAdES-A archiving timestamp is applied. This procedure will allow the end user to offer tax authorities sufficient elements to confirm that the certificate was valid when the invoice was issued, as well as ascertain the continued integrity of the invoice from that moment onward. The service sends the end user-buyer’s signed original invoice back to SCBN, which will either store it on behalf of the end user or send it to the end user for storage using TrustWeaver Archive Services in compliance with applicable law.

The standard service offering includes validation of mandatory fields for documents in an e-commerce format, such as EDI or XML. Validation of mandatory fields is not available for documents in a PDF format. Any invoice data that does not contain all mandatory fields will be rejected back to the sender and shown as a failure message in Inflight. This data must be fixed and resubmitted to the service.

An invoice is validated by comparing it against a canonical invoice format to make sure that mandatory information is present.

When you work with SCBN Onboarding, you can use the standard service maps, or you can customize a map with your invoice format so it can be translated to the published canonical format.