Summary:
April 18, 2020 is the final deadline to comply with EU Directive 2014/55/EU.
The Directive (2014/55 / EU) obliges all European public contracting authorities to receive and process electronic invoices if they are sent in accordance with a European standard (EN).
The law does not prohibit anyone from receiving invoices of different formats, but it does give the buyer the right to reject electronic invoices that do not contain the data fields specified in the directive.
“A key objective of the European standard on eInvoicing is to make it possible for sellers to send invoices to many customers by using a single eInvoicing format and thus not having to adjust their sending and/or receiving to connect with individual trading parties.”
What is the change about?
Directive (2014/55/EU) creates a standard for electronic invoicing in public procurement. The European standard specifies the core elements of an electronic invoice. The semantic model for invoice is described in EN 16931-1: 2017
Identify tags for key data elements in the invoice (BT-112 = Invoice total amount with VAT).
A set of mandatory information for all invoices (BT-151: Invoiced item VAT category code).
A set of common rules for all invoices (BR-21: Each Invoice line shall have an invoice line identifier.).
Calculate formulas for key amounts of money (BR-CO-13: BT-109 = Σ BT-131 to BT-107 + BT-108).
Decimal numbers and rounding rules for key invoice amounts (BT-131: Invoice line net amount = max. 2 decimals).
Instructions:
The sender must together with their software vendor consider the following two things:
Certain country-based differences in legislation must also be taken into account.
So, if you are a supplier to the public sector it is recommended that you have a look at the countries you are active in and see if national legislation differs from country to country. As an example, in the Nordic countries, the public sector has been active for long time in demanding e-invoices from suppliers.
Sometimes messages are sent from suppliers and buyers about changes they have made in their receiving systems.
For Finland:
Invoice formats are Finvoice and TEAPPSXML version 3.0, however as stated previously recipients can also accept other formats. The exchanges of e-Invoices are ensured by the e-invoice operators.
Finland B2G is a standard part of Basware e-invoicing Services.
PEPPOL:
For countries that don’t have national standards yet, PEPPOL is a strong option. It provides the support and compliance to the European Norm already. Examples of countries that already have adopted PEPPOL and are available for B2G e-invoicing via Basware: Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. Often countries have their own specifications, CIUS, e.g. restrictions or mandatory or conditional elements to the invoice content.
Basware is a certified PEPPOL access point which handles and routes documents to whole PEPPOL network. By sending all invoices to Basware via one single access point, Supplier can reach all the other access points and their customers regardless of destination country.
See the PEPPOL BIS 3.0 content requirements here: http://docs.peppol.eu/poacc/billing/3.0/
For further information regarding E-invoicing documentation see the following link: https://ec.europa.eu/cefdigital/wiki/display/CEFDIGITAL/Compliance+with+eInvoicing+standard