Billing responses are used by the customer to inform the supplier of the status of the handling of an invoice or credit note.

Response flow

The status of an invoice must advance in the following sequence, but any status may be the first one used or may be omitted.

• AB – Message acknowledgement
• IP – In process
• UQ – Under query (may be repeated before moving forward)
• CA – Conditionally accepted
• RE – Rejected
• AP – Accepted
• PD – Paid, can be in steps, partially paid and then paid.

In some cases, depending on the agreement between the seller and the buyer, an Accept or Reject can be considered final states, whereas in other scenarios, the Paid status can be considered final.

flowchart LR
    S1@{ shape: start } --> AB
    AB --> IP
    IP --> UQ
    UQ --> CA
    CA --> RE
    RE --> S4@{ shape: stop }
    RE --> AP
    AP --> S4@{ shape: stop }
    AP --> PPD
    PPD --> PD
    PD --> S4@{ shape: stop }

Response elements

In billing responses there are three types of codes that need to be specified. These are:

• Status, such as UnderQuery, Accepted, Paid.
• Reason, such as ReceiverUnknown, ItemQualityInsufficient, QuantityIncorrect.
• Action, such as ProvideInformation, IssueNewInvoice, CreditFully.

Here you can find more information about the values accepted for each element.

Status

The status element is validated against the Invoice status code (UNCL4343 Subset) list.

You need to use one of the following values:

Value	Description
MessageAcknowledgement	The buyer confirms that they have received an invoice or a credit note that they can further process.
Accepted	The buyer has accepted the offer and the seller can expect payment from the buyer.
Rejected	The buyer has rejected the offer because they cannot process the invoice further. Rejecting an invoice does not necessarily mean that the transaction is rejected as well, even though that might be the case.
InProcess	The buyer's system is processing the invoice.
UnderQuery	The invoice processing has been suspended until the buyer receives additional information from the seller. This typically means that the document contains incorrect information or is missing key details.
ConditionallyAccepted	The buyer accepts the invoice provided that the conditions stated in the billing response are met. The buyer indicates these conditions in the reasonDescription property. If the seller does not dispute the terms, the invoice can be paid.
Paid	The buyer has paid the invoice.

Reason

The reason element accepts the values defined in the Status Clarification Reason (OpenPEPPOL) list.

The values are as follows:

Value	Description
NoIssue	The document can be processed correctly and there are no issues encountered.
ReferencesIncorrect	The document is missing the references that the buyer requested for successful document handling.
LegalInformationIncorrect	The information contained in the document does not meet the necessary legal requirements.
ReceiverUnknown	The receiving party could not be found.
ItemQualityInsufficient	The quality of the items does not fulfill the expected standards.
DeliveryIssues	The receiver does not agree with the delivery conditions or takes issue with the delivery that has already been carried out.
PricesIncorrect	The prices stated in the document differ from the prices previously agreed.
QuantityIncorrect	The quantity does not correspond to the prior agreement.
ItemsIncorrect	The items are missing or incorrectly specified.
PaymentTermsIncorrect	The payment terms do not conform to the agreed transaction terms.
NotRecognized	The transaction is not recognized as valid.
FinanceIncorrect	The finance terms are not stated correctly according to the agreement made between the seller and the buyer.
Other	Any other reason that does not fit the given categories.

Action

To specify which actions the buyer expects from the seller in order to resolve the reported issues, use the actions array.

The actions element comprises two properties, type and description. The type property must be provided according to the Status Clarification Action (OpenPEPPOL) list, as described in the following table:

Value	Description
NoActionRequired	No further action is necessary.
ProvideInformation	The buyer requests the seller to provide the missing or erroneous information.
IssueNewInvoice	The buyer requests the seller to issue a new invoice after correcting the issues.
CreditFully	The invoice needs to be cancelled using a credit note.
CreditPartially	The seller needs to issue a credit note covering one portion of the total costs that the buyer paid.
CreditTheAmount	The total amount on the invoice needs to be refunded without issuing a credit note.
Other	Any other action that is not determined by the given action categories.