XML invoicing

This page is intended for XML (eXtensible Markup Language) developers and e-commerce specialists

Salford City Council cXML invoices include detailed line item information. This means that the VAT for each item must be recorded at line item level in order to post successfully to our financial system.

The standard schema that Salford City Council uses for invoices is cXML 1.2.014.

DTDs, sample files and guidance is available from www.cXML.org. We recommend the user guide which should provide all the guidance necessary to create a cXML invoice.

Salford City Council is always interested in learning about different XML flavours. Please contact e-trading@salford.gov.uk with any queries or suggestions.

The guidance below provides information on Salford City Council's requirements which expands on the guidance given in the cXML user guide. This is not intended to replace that document.

We would recommend that any newcomers to XML visit the following useful websites.

Salford City Council eInvoice Document Type Definition (DTD)

A DTD provides a set of rules against which XMl documents can be validated for example which elements are mandatory and which are optional. Salford City Council has created a DTD for inbound CXML invoices which is available at the following URL: http://services.salford.gov.uk/einvoices/InvoiceDetail.dtd.

This should appear in the second line of the XML document as:


<!DOCTYPE cXML SYSTEM "http://services.salford.gov.uk/einvoices/InvoiceDetail.dtd">

For example:


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE cXML SYSTEM "http://services.salford.gov.uk/einvoices/InvoiceDetail.dtd">
<cXML payloadID="cXML-VAT-100" timestamp="2001-04-20T23:59:45-07:00" xml:lang="en-US">