Electronic invoice: ten facts!

Reading tip on the subject of electronic invoicing

Since 1 July 2011, the transmission of an electronic invoice has been optional. The Tax Simplification Act 2011 (in Germany) implements the requirements of the 2010 amended EU- VAT system Directive: The use of a qualified electronic signature or the EDI procedure for the electronic invoice is no longer mandatory.

However, certain requirements must be met. BITKOM e.V. has concisely summarised the most important regulations and questions on electronic invoicing in ten sentences. These include, for example, the retention obligation of ten years, the guarantee of authenticity and integrity or the readability of documents. It is also possible under certain circumstances to store paper invoices in digital form.

The most important facts to remember:

1. all invoices are to be treated equally
2. electronic invoices are technology-neutral
3. authenticity and integrity shall be ensured
4. signature and EDI are still possible
5. each invoice must be legible
6. each invoice must contain the compulsory particulars
7. each invoice must be stored
8. paper invoices may be digitised
9. the processes must be traceable (documentation)
10. electronic invoices shall be subject to the right to data access

With webPDF, an electronic invoice can be provided with a digital signature. Through the qualified use of a digital signature, the criteria of authenticity and integrity are considered to be one of the prerequisites for the deduction of input tax per se.

Scanned documents can be converted into searchable PDF documents with webPDF. Graphics are converted back into resolved documents using OCR and replace the original on paper. The electronic invoice created in this way can then be searched for terms and integrated into the workflow.