On November 22, 2013, the Portugese Ministry of Finance published Ordinance Nº 340/2013. The ordinance includes modifications to the certification process for electronic billing software and solutions.
As of now all e-invoicing software must be audited and certified by the Portugese Tax Authority: the Direcção Geral de Contribuições e Impostos (the DGCI). That said, all proprietary software will no longer be considered valid without proper certification. Even if it follows the XML file construction criteria with inclusion of the mandatory fields proposed by the tax authorities!
Invoiceware International extends their native SAP ERP electronic invoicing applications for Mexico to support inbound invoice processing and commercial compliance, also known as three way matching. With some 500,000 companies transitioning to electronic invoicing by January 1, 2014, multinationals need to adapt their inbound receiving and invoice approval processes to handle XML. Companies should expect upwards of 80 to 90 percent of supplier invoices to transition to electronic formats due to this legislation.
Read MoreNota Fiscal Version 3.10 mandates that all companies operating in Brazil to transition from NFe 2.0 to NFe 3.1 by December 2014. To comply with these changes, Invoiceware International has extended their SAP® electronic invoicing applications and On Demand Latin America E-Invoicing Network to comply with the latest version of Nota Fiscal. Key features are: Turn-key E-Invoicing Platform & SAP extensions, Multilingual Project Management, and Guaranteed Compliance.
Read MoreBrazilian NF-e legislation prescribes that electronic invoice NF-e receivers have to perform process updates towards the tax authorities on the e-invoices received. The Receiver Response has already been made mandatory for fuel distributors, service stations, carriers and retail fuel resellers. And it is expected to be extended the next few years.
The first aim of the mandatory use of “receiver responses’ is to provide greater security in combatting company fiscal transactions. It also provides the receiver with legal security. For example, an Invoice for which the confirmation event is issued can no longer be cancelled by the issuer.
The Secretaría de Fazenda has published technical note NT2013.005. It announces the rollout of version 3 of the Nota Fiscal Electronica (NF-e) digital invoice in Brazil. This version changes the structure of the XML file, the validation process and webservice communications with the Public Administration.
In its technical note, the Secretaría de Fazenda has also set the dates for the implementation of NF-e version 3. On 02/12/2013 a test framework will be started-up. On 10/03/2014 the Production framework (coexisting with version NF-e version 2) will be live. And in December 2014 the coexistence period comes to an end, and usage of NF-e version 3 becomes mandatory.
Scott Lewin mentioned in this post that when on the phone with Fortune 500 companies to discuss Latin America electronic invoicing, they are in panic mode. Why? Because their local team had told them it was not a big deal; but once they started understanding the requirements, the impact to their ERP, and the frequency of changes to the legislation, they realized it was a big deal. A very big deal.
When it comes to the inbound Buyer side requirements in Mexico several aspects are often overlooked by the local teams of the Fortune 500’s First of al they don’t think the mandates exist for AP validatio. Second, their suppliers are still sending paper today. And finally, they just don’t think the mandates are real because the government has not had a history of enforcing CFDI.
OpenPEPPOL has published their opinion on the proposal for a Directive on electronic invoicing in public procurement. In essence OpenPEPPOL welcomes the European Commission’s proposal for a Directive on electronic invoicing in public procurement1, and the focus on shifting towards a paperless public administration, particularly its crossborder dimension.
However, OpenPEPPOL also have suggestions and recommendations regarding this directive. We’ve made a summary from their 12 page opinion paper.
Until recently, there was some divergence in Ireland between service providers who provide consumers with paper bills and those who have migrated their customers onto electronic bills (e-bills or online bills). This led to different levels of consumer protection.
However, new conditions were introduced by ComReg on 6 June 2013 (ComReg Document 13/52). All providers offering pre-paid and/or post-paid services will need to familiarise themselves with the new requirements and ensure they can comply by the end of the transitional period. The conditions came into effect at the beginning of August 2013.
Ebilling is finding its ways accross society. And more and more examples brake the surface, showing that consumer demand protection against all to drastic onboarding schemes. Ireland is most probably the first in the world to impose ebilling consumer protection legislation. But if we may believe the rumours Canada may follow within short notice.
It took several years, but the Canadian government is on the case. The banks, which also charge for paper bills, could be next to feel customers’ rage. And it is expected that the CRTC will come with regulation.
SAP teams are realizing the true cost of operating electronic invoicing in Latin America, as over 500,000 organizations look to install the new CFDI mandates for electronic invoicing in Mexico. There are hundreds of thousands of dollars which cannot be spent annually on process improvements as they are hidden costs applied to maintaining SAP in countries like Mexico.
The key lesson from Invoiceware on hidden costs is: Don’t let a $10,000 dollar local/point solution create a $300K a year support problem.
