blog/_Electronic__paper_invoices___using_vCard_in_a_QR_code.html

   1 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
   2           "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
   3 <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" dir="ltr">
   4   <head>
   5     <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
   6     <title>Petter Reinholdtsen: "Electronic" paper invoices - using vCard in a QR code</title>
   7     <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/style.css" />
   8     <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/vim.css" />
   9
  10
  11   </head>
  12   <body>
  13     <div class="title">
  14  <h1>
  15      <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen</a>
  16
  17  </h1>
  18
  19 </div>
  20
  21
  22     <div class="entry">
  23       <div class="title">"Electronic" paper invoices - using vCard in a QR code</div>
  24       <div class="date">12th February 2013</div>
  25       <div class="body">Here in Norway, electronic invoices are spreading, and the
  26 <a href="http://www.anskaffelser.no/e-handel/faktura">solution promoted
  27 by the Norwegian government</a> require that invoices are sent through
  28 one of the approved facilitators, and it is not possible to send
  29 electronic invoices without an agreement with one of these
  30 facilitators.  This seem like a needless limitation to be able to
  31 transfer invoice information between buyers and sellers.  My preferred
  32 solution would be to just transfer the invoice information directly
  33 between seller and buyer, for example using SMTP, or some HTTP based
  34 protocol like REST or SOAP.  But this might also be overkill, as the
  35 "electronic" information can be transferred using paper invoices too,
  36 using a simple bar code.  My bar code encoding of choice would be QR
  37 codes, as this encoding can be read by any smart phone out there.  The
  38 content of the code could be anything, but I would go with
  39 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VCard">the vCard format</a>, as
  40 it too is supported by a lot of computer equipment these days.</p>
  41
  42 <p>The vCard format support extentions, and the invoice specific
  43 information can be included using such extentions.  For example an
  44 invoice from SLX Debian Labs (picked because we
  45 <a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">ask
  46 for donations to the Debian Edu project</a> and thus have bank account
  47 information publicly available) for NOK 1000.00 could have these extra
  48 fields:</p>
  49
  50 <p><pre>
  51 X-INVOICE-NUMBER:1
  52 X-INVOICE-AMOUNT:NOK1000.00
  53 X-BANK-ACCOUNT-NUMBER:16040884339
  54 X-BANK-IBAN-NUMBER:NO8516040884339
  55 X-BANK-SWIFT-NUMBER:DNBANOKKXXX
  56 </pre></p>
  57
  58 <p>The X-BANK-ACCOUNT-NUMBER field was proposed in a stackoverflow
  59 answer regarding
  60 <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10045664/storing-bank-account-in-vcard-file">how
  61 to put bank account information into a vCard</a>.</p>
  62
  63 The complete vCard could look like this:
  64
  65 <p><pre>
  66 BEGIN:VCARD
  67 VERSION:2.1
  68 ORG:SLX Debian Labs Foundation
  69 ADR;WORK:;;Gunnar Schjelderups vei 29D;OSLO;;0485;Norway
  70 URL;WORK:http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/
  71 EMAIL;PREF;INTERNET:sdl-styret@rt.nuug.no
  72 REV:20130212T095000Z
  73 X-INVOICE-NUMBER:1
  74 X-INVOICE-AMOUNT:NOK1000.00
  75 X-BANK-ACCOUNT-NUMBER:16040884339
  76 X-BANK-IBAN-NUMBER:NO8516040884339
  77 X-BANK-SWIFT-NUMBER:DNBANOKKXXX
  78 END:VCARD
  79 </pre></p>
  80
  81 <p>The resulting QR code created using
  82 <a href="http://fukuchi.org/works/qrencode/">qrencode</a> would look
  83 like this, and should be readable (and thus checkable) by any smart
  84 phone, or for example the <a href="http://zbar.sourceforge.net/">zbar
  85 bar code reader</a> and feed right into the approval and accounting
  86 system.</p>
  87
  88 <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-02-12-qr-invoice.png"></p>
  89
  90 <p>The extension fields will most likely not show up in any normal
  91 vCard reader, so those parts would have to go directly into a system
  92 handling invoices.  I am a bit unsure how vCards without name parts
  93 are handled, but a simple test indicate that this work just fine.</p>
  94 </div>
  95
  96       <div class="tags">Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.</div>
  97
  98
  99     </div>
 100
 101
 102
 103
 104     <div id="sidebar">
 105
 106
 107
 108 <h2>Archive</h2>
 109 <ul>
 110
 111 <li>2013
 112 <ul>
 113
 114 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
 115
 116 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (6)</a></li>
 117
 118 </ul></li>
 119
 120 <li>2012
 121 <ul>
 122
 123 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
 124
 125 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
 126
 127 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
 128
 129 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
 130
 131 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
 132
 133 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
 134
 135 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
 136
 137 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
 138
 139 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
 140
 141 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
 142
 143 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
 144
 145 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
 146
 147 </ul></li>
 148
 149 <li>2011
 150 <ul>
 151
 152 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
 153
 154 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
 155
 156 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
 157
 158 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
 159
 160 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
 161
 162 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
 163
 164 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
 165
 166 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
 167
 168 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
 169
 170 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
 171
 172 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
 173
 174 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
 175
 176 </ul></li>
 177
 178 <li>2010
 179 <ul>
 180
 181 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
 182
 183 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
 184
 185 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
 186
 187 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
 188
 189 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
 190
 191 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
 192
 193 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
 194
 195 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
 196
 197 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
 198
 199 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
 200
 201 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
 202
 203 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
 204
 205 </ul></li>
 206
 207 <li>2009
 208 <ul>
 209
 210 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
 211
 212 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
 213
 214 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
 215
 216 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
 217
 218 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
 219
 220 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
 221
 222 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
 223
 224 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
 225
 226 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
 227
 228 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
 229
 230 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
 231
 232 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
 233
 234 </ul></li>
 235
 236 <li>2008
 237 <ul>
 238
 239 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
 240
 241 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
 242
 243 </ul></li>
 244
 245 </ul>
 246
 247
 248
 249 <h2>Tags</h2>
 250 <ul>
 251
 252  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
 253
 254  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
 255
 256  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
 257
 258  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
 259
 260  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (6)</a></li>
 261
 262  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (12)</a></li>
 263
 264  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
 265
 266  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (70)</a></li>
 267
 268  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (118)</a></li>
 269
 270  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (9)</a></li>
 271
 272  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (7)</a></li>
 273
 274  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
 275
 276  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (178)</a></li>
 277
 278  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (21)</a></li>
 279
 280  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
 281
 282  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (10)</a></li>
 283
 284  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (9)</a></li>
 285
 286  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (32)</a></li>
 287
 288  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (5)</a></li>
 289
 290  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (17)</a></li>
 291
 292  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (8)</a></li>
 293
 294  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (6)</a></li>
 295
 296  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
 297
 298  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (25)</a></li>
 299
 300  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (222)</a></li>
 301
 302  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (149)</a></li>
 303
 304  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (7)</a></li>
 305
 306  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
 307
 308  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (41)</a></li>
 309
 310  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (63)</a></li>
 311
 312  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
 313
 314  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
 315
 316  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (2)</a></li>
 317
 318  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (6)</a></li>
 319
 320  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
 321
 322  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (4)</a></li>
 323
 324  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
 325
 326  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (28)</a></li>
 327
 328  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
 329
 330  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (4)</a></li>
 331
 332  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (40)</a></li>
 333
 334  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (3)</a></li>
 335
 336  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (6)</a></li>
 337
 338  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (14)</a></li>
 339
 340  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (1)</a></li>
 341
 342  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (7)</a></li>
 343
 344  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (35)</a></li>
 345
 346  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
 347
 348  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (26)</a></li>
 349
 350 </ul>
 351
 352
 353     </div>
 354     <p style="text-align: right">
 355  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
 356 </p>
 357
 358   </body>
 359 </html>