weoEDI
Electronic Invoicing - What you need to know!
What is it?
 
Electronic Invoicing essentially emerges as a means of simplifying and automating business processes between companies, particularly in terms of invoice transfer and accounting, and improving payment deadlines, resulting in savings and cost reduction.
 
Electronic Invoicing should be an integral part of companies’ digital transformation strategy across all segments in which they operate: B2B, B2G, or B2C. Beyond the obvious process savings and improvement of relationships between suppliers and buyers, with current technology available, it is no longer acceptable to continue using paper for company invoicing.
 
In practice, this data transmission, known as EDI (Electronic Data Interchange), allows the supplier to send an invoice through their billing system, which is then automatically integrated into the recipient’s (client’s) system as a purchase.
 
Legal Framework
 
Ordinance No. 289/2019, of 5 September, defines the semantic data model proposed for the Portuguese Standard (CIUS-PT), as well as the list of syntaxes that must be followed for the communication of electronic invoicing documents.
 
Therefore, sending an invoice in PDF format by email will no longer be considered an electronic invoice (as it does not comply with European standards).
 
Additionally, the following documents will also not be considered electronic invoices, initially within the context of public contracts and later extended to the private sector:
 
  • Unstructured invoices (e.g. in PDF or Word format),
  • Scanned invoice images (e.g. jpg, tiff, etc.),
  • Unstructured invoices in HTML (web page or email),
  • OCR – Optical Character Recognition (scanned paper invoices).
 
Electronic Invoicing in Public Administration
 
With the publication of Decree-Law No. 123/2018, of 28 December (amended by Decree-Law No. 14-A/2020, of 7 April), which defines the governance model for the implementation of electronic invoicing in public contracts and introduces the first amendment to Decree-Law No. 111-B/2017, of 31 August, a new adoption calendar has been established based on the size and nature of Public Entities and Economic Operators that must be integrated into the new invoicing system.
It applies to large companies from 1 January 2021, with the final deadline for small, medium, and micro enterprises set as 1 July 2022.
 
Adoption of electronic invoicing is mandatory for suppliers of public entities under public contracts.
 
Companies must adapt their invoicing systems to issue electronic invoices to any public entity by the legal deadline according to the company’s size and turnover.


 

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