> a common metadata format for bills and invoices Such a format does exist: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EDIFACT https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EDIFACT It's j

> a common metadata format for bills and invoices Such a format does exist: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EDIFACT https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EDIFACT It's just hardly anyone uses it. It's got some adoption with large companies such as auto manufacturers that mandate their suppliers to use it but it's far from wide-spread (and certainly not with SMBs or consumer-oriented offerings). There also is MT940 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MT940 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MT940 ) which in theory can be used for exchanging and scripting bank accounting data. The format is a terrible mess though with each bank implementing it slightly differently (if they do offer it at all). Then there is the Incoterms ruleset (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incoterms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incoterms ), which is commonly used in supply chain management.