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Getting ready for e-invoicing: what a distributor needs in place

For owners and finance managers of distribution companies facing an e-invoicing deadline. You will be able to tell what your scheme asks of you, prepare your data and devices, and keep invoicing from the office, the till and the van once it starts.

E-invoicing4 min read

The short answer

You need to know whether your invoices are cleared or reported, clean buyer tax numbers, and every issuing unit registered with a certificate that has not expired. Each channel, from the office to the till and the van, must print a compliant invoice with its QR code, including invoices made offline. Staff must correct issued invoices with credit or debit notes, never edits.

Key takeaways

  • Read the rules for your own country and wave, note your deadline, and work back from it.
  • Start cleaning customer tax numbers months before the deadline, and stop business customers being saved without one.
  • Keep a register of every device and its certificate expiry, with a reminder a month ahead and a named deputy.
  • Test an offline van sale from sale to sync where your reps actually lose signal.
  • After go-live, have someone watch rejections daily, and make sure a retry never sends the same invoice twice.

What changes when invoices go electronic

Under e-invoicing, an invoice is no longer just a document you print. It is built in a set electronic format, signed with a certificate that identifies you, given a QR code, and shared with the tax authority. Once issued, it cannot be edited or deleted; a mistake is corrected with a credit or debit note.

Most schemes roll out in waves, by company size or turnover. Read the rules for your own country and wave, note your deadline, and work back from it. The preparation below applies to almost every scheme.

Clearance or reporting: know which you face

Schemes use one of two models, and many use both. Under clearance, the invoice is sent to the authority before it is issued, and it is valid only once the authority accepts it. Under reporting, you issue the invoice yourself and send it to the authority within a set time afterwards.

Often the model depends on the buyer: invoices to businesses are cleared, while simplified invoices to consumers are reported. Clearance means your system must reach the authority at the moment of posting, so plan what happens when it cannot.

  • Clearance: no valid invoice until the authority accepts it
  • Reporting: issue now, send within the deadline
  • Either way, a rejected invoice must be fixed and sent again
  • Either way, a retried send must never create a second invoice

Clean the customer data first

Buyer tax numbers decide which kind of invoice you issue and whether it is accepted. A missing or mistyped number turns a business invoice into the wrong type, or gets it rejected. Start cleaning customer records months before the deadline, not the week before.

  1. Check your own registration details: legal name, tax number and address.
  2. Export every active business customer with its tax number and address.
  3. Check the format of each tax number and fill the gaps.
  4. Ask customers to confirm their numbers on their next order or visit.
  5. Stop new business customers being saved without a tax number.

TipGive one person ownership of customer tax numbers, so corrections go through one desk instead of every rep.

Signing devices and certificates

Each unit that issues invoices, whether a branch, a till or a server, usually has to be registered with the authority and given a certificate to sign with. Registration often includes a compliance test, where sample invoices, credit notes and debit notes must pass before real ones are accepted.

Certificates expire. When one lapses, that unit cannot sign, and invoicing stops. Keep a register of every device, who owns it and when its certificate ends, and renew well before the date.

TipPut every certificate’s expiry date in a shared calendar with a reminder a month ahead, and name a deputy for when the owner is away.

Every channel, including the van

Invoices leave a distributor from more places than the finance office: the sales desk, a showroom till and the reps’ vans. Each must produce a compliant invoice with its QR code on the printed copy, and each prints on different paper and printers.

Vans are the hard case, because they often sell without signal. Find out how your scheme treats an invoice made offline, and how your system gives it a QR code and sends it once the van reconnects. Test it where your reps actually lose signal.

  • Test that office invoices show the QR code on the PDF
  • Test that till receipts print it at the counter
  • Test that van invoices print it on the rep’s mobile printer
  • Test an invoice made offline, from sale to sync

Corrections: credit and debit notes

With e-invoicing you cannot cancel or edit an invoice after it is issued. A return, a price correction or a missed discount is handled by a credit note, and an undercharge by a debit note. Each note refers to the invoice it corrects, and is signed and shared like the invoice itself.

This changes habits. Staff who used to void and reissue an invoice must learn to raise a note instead, while the original invoice stays on record.

Test, train and watch

Run real scenarios before the deadline: an invoice to a business, a sale to a consumer, a return, an offline van sale and an invoice the authority rejects. Check what the authority answered each time and what your staff saw on screen.

After go-live, someone must watch rejections and warnings every day. A rejected invoice is not valid, so it must be corrected and sent again quickly, and a retry must never send the same invoice twice.

Checklist: E-invoicing readiness checklist

  • Confirm your scheme, wave and deadline
  • Find out which invoices are cleared and which reported
  • Check your own registration details
  • Check every business customer’s tax number
  • Register each issuing unit and pass its compliance test
  • Record every certificate’s expiry date and owner
  • Test the QR code on office, till and van prints
  • Test an offline van sale end to end
  • Train staff to correct with credit notes, never edits
  • Name who watches rejections every day

In Axon Suite

How Axon Suite handles it

Axon Suite signs each invoice as it posts and prints its QR code on the office PDF, the till receipt and the rep’s Bluetooth printer; an invoice raised offline gets its QR once the van syncs. An invoice to a buyer with a tax number is cleared inside its posting and does not post if the authority refuses it, one to a buyer without is signed and reported afterwards, and a credit note is signed and declared against the invoice it corrects. Each subsidiary onboards its signing devices from a wizard, passes a six-document compliance check before activating one, and is warned 30 days before a primary device’s certificate expires.

Feature

Cleared at posting, sent once

An invoice to a business is cleared with the tax authority inside its posting, and if the authority refuses it, the invoice does not post. Every attempt is recorded, and a retried post replays the first answer instead of sending again.

Open: Cleared at posting, sent once
Feature

Signed invoices with their QR

Axon Suite signs each invoice as it posts and prints its QR, on the office PDF and on the rep’s Bluetooth printer. An invoice the rep raised offline gets its QR once the van syncs.

Open: Signed invoices with their QR
Feature

Onboard and renew signing devices

Each subsidiary signs its invoices with a device registered with the tax authority. Your team onboards it from a wizard, runs the compliance check, activates it, and is warned before its certificate expires.

Open: Onboard and renew signing devices
Feature

VAT-inclusive price lists

Mark a price list as VAT-inclusive and every line priced from it carries the VAT inside the price. Axon Suite takes the VAT out at each line’s own rate, and the document keeps its price terms from quote to order to invoice.

Open: VAT-inclusive price lists

Before you go

Questions owners ask

Can we keep printing paper invoices?

You can still print, and customers often want a copy, but the paper is no longer the invoice; the signed electronic version is. The printed copy must carry the QR code.

What happens if the authority’s system is down?

It depends on the model: a reported invoice can usually be issued and sent later, while a cleared one is not valid until it is accepted. In Axon Suite a standard invoice cannot post until it is cleared, so the post fails and can be retried, while a simplified one posts and is reported later.

Do invoices from vans count?

Yes. Every invoice you issue counts, wherever it was raised, so the van must produce the same compliant invoice as the office.

Glossary

Terms in this guide

Open the glossary

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