United States (DBNA): Overview
Get an overview of the requirements for the United States.
Mandate
The United States does not operate a national e-invoicing mandate. E-invoicing remains voluntary and is shaped primarily by industry practice rather than legislation. Adoption is driven by large buyers, federal procurement platforms, and private-sector automation initiatives rather than statutory obligations.
Federal agencies accept structured electronic invoices through systems such as the US Treasury’s Invoice Processing Platform (IPP) and the Department of Defense’s PIEE/WAWF environment. Outside federal procurement, businesses typically exchange invoices via PDF, EDI (for example, ANSI X12 810), or structured XML/UBL formats depending on sector requirements.
To support interoperability across the market, the Digital Business Networks Alliance (DBNA) introduced a voluntary framework based on UBL 2.3, AS4 transport, and network-based participant discovery. Participation is optional, but expected to encourage greater standardization and automation across US supply chains.
Description
The DBNA network uses an invoice format based on the Universal Business Language (UBL 2.3).
Details
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Official Specification | Digital Business Networks Alliance (DBNA) |
| Format | Universal Business Language (UBL 2.3) |
| Supports | B2B and B2G |
Document conventions
The following terms are used in the documentation for the various elements:
XPath - XPath is a query language used to navigate and select specific elements or data from an XML file. In this case, it refers to the VRBL document.
Cardinality - In XML, cardinality defines the minimum and maximum number of times a specific element or attribute can occur within a document from an XML schema perspective.
Usage - Usage is an implementation guideline that layers business rules and context onto an XML schema's strict cardinality.
The following values are allowed:
| Code | Description | Implementation Rule |
|---|---|---|
M | Mandatory (1 time) | Must be provided exactly once. |
Mn | Mandatory (n times) | Must be provided exactly n times. |
M+ | Mandatory (1 or more) | Must be provided at least once; repetitions allowed. |
O | Optional (1 time) | May be omitted or provided at most once. |
On | Optional (n times) | May be omitted or repeated up to n times. |
O* | Optional (0 or more) | May be omitted or repeated infinitely. |
C | Conditional | Must have a usage description specifying the business rule. |
Usage Description - Description of the business rule in case the usage is conditional.
Mandate Business Term - The original business term code for the element as defined by the mandate. Included only if available.
Final Format XPath - XPath is a query language used to navigate and select specific elements or data from an XML file. In this case, it refers to the representation of the element or group in the final format XML.
Updated 5 days ago