UGL (German trade data exchange)

In short

• UGL („Übergabeschnittstelle lang“) is a data exchange format between installer software and wholesalers in the German SHK and electrical trades.

• It covers the document flow of a job, from the price request and offer through the order and the order confirmation to the delivery note and the invoice. Electronic orders are part of it too.

• It works independently of the wholesaler's web shop. The GC-Gruppe, a German wholesale group in the SHK trade, states that it invented the UGL interface at the end of the 1990s. The same group calls UGL 5.0 the newest version.

Example

An installer exports a price request for the positions of an LV from their software as a UGL file. The wholesaler answers with a UGL offer, and the software reads it back with the prices. Later, the order and the invoice go the same way.

UGL is file-based. Each step is a file that the receiving system reads, and the exchange does not depend on the wholesaler's web shop.

The GC-Gruppe describes UGL as the standard of the trade in SHK and electrical.

What to watch for

• Ask the wholesaler which UGL version it supports. Many wholesalers offer UGL, but not all do.

• UGL needs installer software that supports it. Check this before you plan an export.

• Requests and offers contain the wholesaler's article numbers. Match the articles before the export, not after.

• Test one complete job, from the price request to the invoice, before you rely on the exchange.

Not to be confused with

• IDS interface: IDS Connect transfers a shopping cart between the web shop and the installer software. UGL works independently of the web shop.

• Datanorm: article master data and prices for the whole range, not for one job. UGL carries the documents of one job.

• openTRANS: XML order documents between companies of any trade.