Patent ID: 8655756

Claim:
A tangible computer readable medium including program code for providing a message-based interface for exchanging invoices between an invoicing party and an invoice recipient, the medium comprising: program code for receiving via a message-based interface derived from a common business object model, where the common business object model includes business objects having relationships that enable derivation of message-based interfaces and message packages, the message-based interface exposing at least one service as defined in a service registry and from a heterogeneous application executing in an environment of computer systems providing message-based services, a first message for providing a notification of claims or liabilities for delivered goods and rendered services that includes a first message package derived from the common business object model and hierarchically organized in memory as: an invoice message entity; and an invoice package comprising an invoice entity, a party package, a price information package, and an item package, where the invoice entity includes an invoice entity ID, an invoice entity type code, and a date time, where the party package includes a bill-to-party entity and a bill-from-party entity, where the price information package includes a price entity, where the price entity further includes a gross amount and a net amount, and where the item package includes at least one item entity, where each item entity further includes an item entity ID and an item entity type code; program code for processing the first message according to the hierarchical organization of the first message package, where processing the first message includes unpacking the first message package based on the common business object model; and program code for sending a second message to the heterogeneous application responsive to the first message, where the second message includes a second message package derived from the common business object model to provide consistent semantics with the first message package.