On November 30th, 2004 the content standard for electronic cross industry invoices was approved by the participating companies (leading service providers and large invoice receivers) and published.
On April 20th, 2005, the extended version 1.1 was approved which supported the mapping of collective invoices and credit notes.
On May 15th, 2007, version 2.0 was approved. The change was due to administrative requirements for the application as eCH E-Government Standard. The contents of the data fields were not changed, however.

The Core Standard defines the mandatory data for electronic invoices. In addition, all optional data fields are listed which can be required depending on the invoice recipient's processes and needs or for the mapping of collective invoices and credit notes.

A free manual (published in German) introduces e-invoicing and the swissDIGIN Content Standard to interested decision makers in companies. order

swissDIGIN Content Standard for E-Invoice, Version 2.0 (German)

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The excel-document helps you to create your own views and compilations of the data fields. Unneeded elements can be hidden.

Sample invoices (German)
These documents show the relevant and possible swissDIGIN invoice content in a clearly structured way - like on the paper invoice. This should help you to identify the data fields of the swissDIGIN Content Standard more easily.
- single invoice with reference to a purchase order (minimal content according to core standard) (28kb)
- single invoice without reference to a purchase order (minimal content according to core standard) (28kb)
- single invoice with exemplified extended use of data fields (32kb)

Focus of use of the swissDIGIN Content Standard
The standard is meant to support and help the involved parties to map the contents of the electronic invoice from a business and process perspective. This matching can be carried out by operating departments (procurement/sales). In many projects the role of this basic work is underestimated but is a key factor for successful e-invoicing projects. The subsequent specification of the technical document format is usually excecuted by IT specialists and is based on independent or vendor-specific standards. In some sectors industry-specific document standards for the e-invoice are available.
Once the contents based on swissDIGIN have been agreed on, the mapping to an existing technical document format (e.g. xCBL, cXML, EANCOM) should be easily possible. Subsequently, the transmission of the e-invoice has to be defined. The following chart shows the interplay of the mapping on different layers.



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