How to digitize and control your record of received invoices?

Certified digitalization of invoices allows you to organize all the invoices received on paper in a more practical and orderly way in order to have greater control over them. And although the use of electronic invoicing is strongly recommended, many suppliers in Spain still send paper invoices.

Although the digitalization of invoices may seem something as simple as taking all the ones we already have, scanning them and having them in digital format, we must remember that if we want to destroy the paper, then it is not such a simple process.

More and more companies are seeking to carry out their registration of received invoices in digital format, with the aim of having them in a more structured and clear manner, in the same place, thus avoiding possible losses. In order to carry out a certified digitalization process of received invoices, it is necessary to follow an established procedure, and Article 7 of Order EHA/962/2007 of April 10should be taken into account, which mainly states that:

1. Scanning must ensure that a true and complete image of each scanned document is maintained; this image must be signed electronically by the taxable entity or by a third party supplier of the digitalization service.
2. It is mandatory that for each document that is digitized, a record of the data is kept, with all the fields necessary to maintain the record books.
3. A scanning software will be used, which must be previously certified by the administration.. This software must allow the signature of the database once the settlement period is closed and complete access to it. But what is meant by complete access? It is one that allows online consultation of the data; in other words, a visualization of all available documents and with all the detail of their content.

However, for a digital invoice to be valid in the face of any requirement, it must meet certain minimum standards:

• Use an approved format. The ones permitted are: ISO 19005 PDF/A, PNG, JPEG 200, PDF or TIFF.
• Incorporate a digital signature of the document.
• Use an AEAT approved software.
• The invoice must be scanned with a minimum resolution of 200 pixels.

Steps to follow to carry out digitalization in the register of received invoices:

Once we have a software approved by the Tax Agency, we have to follow some steps to implement the digitalization and registration of received invoices:

1. Using the application or software, you must take a photograph with a cell phone camera or scan the invoice.
2. Once in the software, it should be able to automatically perform actions such as ensuring the image is readable, inserting the points that are obligatory on each invoice (time stamp, identification reference of the homologation and the name and number of the homologated technological solution) and add the electronic signature.
3. The indexing process is carried out by manually relating the invoice data to the image obtained.
4. Once the fiscal period has been closed, it is mandatory to generate a document database that includes an electronic signature.

It must be taken into account that once the documents are digitized following this process through an approved software, the original received in paper could be destroyed. At that instant, the digital invoice will have the same value as the paper one.

Thus, document digitalization not only has advantages for each organization, such as easy location and access to all invoices or cost and material savings, but also helps the environment by reducing the ecological footprint, thus complying with the ISO 14001 environmental management standard.

In Brait we are specialists in the digitalization and control of all invoices received in paper with the OpenText™ solution approved by AEAT, which allows us to give the best results to our customers; if you need help with the digitalization of your invoices, do not hesitate to contact us.