E-Invoicing, Digital Signatures and Document Archiving Legislations and solutions EU LaserNet Whitepaper

Transcription

1 E-Invoicing, Digital Signatures and Document Archiving Legislations and solutions EU LaserNet Whitepaper This whitepaper is based on common legislations and sources. These are subject to change. Version 1.2 1

2 Released November 2010 Table of Contents 1. General introduction LaserNet E-INVOICING, WHAT DOES IT MEAN THE TRADE PROCESS DISTRIBUTION OF PHYSICAL INVOICES E-INVOICING SAVINGS WITH E-INVOICING General legislations and issues around digital signatures Which documents are relevant Legislation (EU and Scandinavia) Sending PDF Invoices as s Sending XML/EDI Invoices About the LaserNet XML OUT Module Electronic Archiving

3 1. General introduction With LaserNet Output Management is has come to the standard rather than the exception to communicate your business documents as electronic files in various formats rather than paper bases. Also in terms of archiving, it is now more natural than ever to store the business documents in a electronic format. Although these options are very easy to implement with LaserNet Output Management, there are still some issues and legislations connected to these matters. For a general introduction to the power of LaserNet, please refer to 2. LaserNet Create, transform and manage business documents LaserNet is a suite of document and output management solutions. Each element tightly integrates with your existing IT applications to support the migration from labor and paper intensive systems to cost effective, faster e-enabled document processing. LaserNet captures output and transforms it into professional attractive documents, reports and labels, intelligently routing them for distributed print or electronic delivery by , fax, PDF, XML, EasyTrade etc. to customers and business partners: 3

4 This is achieved without complex and expensive programming via an entirely point & click configurable interface; enabling the user to extend the functionality of core applications without major investment or upheaval. 3. E-INVOICING, WHAT DOES IT MEAN The traditional invoicing process has always been part of a wider set of business processes including the placing and acceptance of an order, fulfillment, delivery and payment. This process is the purchase-to-pay process from a buyer s perspective, and order-to-cash from a seller s perspective. These processes together are called the trade process. From a business process point of view the invoice is consequently never an isolated document but is always the result of, and linked to, other processes. The invoice is traditionally a commercial document used by buyers and sellers of goods and services. It has grown through custom and practice but usually it has a number of legal requirements imposed on it. In Europe, the most significant of these are tax requirements relates to Value Added Tax (VAT). See figures below that gives you a simple overview: 3.1 THE TRADE PROCESS 3.2 DISTRIBUTION OF PHYSICAL INVOICES 4

5 Because there are many senders and receivers, both in the B2B and in the B2C context, the delivery of invoices is a vast logistic operation based on the capabilities of the postal system and courier services. The mail is an open network par excellence. On the receiver s side, everybody can be reached, because they all have a physical mail address or make arrangements for a post office box or similar. The sender can deliver invoices (in an envelope with the correct address format) to any mail service provider of his choosing, confident that every receiver can be reached. 3.3 DRAWBACKS OF THE PHYSICAL INVOICING PROCESS Paper remains stubbornly entrenched in the invoicing process among entities of all sizes. This is perceived by all parties to result in: High operational cost for processing the invoice for both the sender and receiver: Protracted invoice-to-pay cycle time: there is often a lack of integration between all systems interacting with the supply chain, such as accounts payable and receivable, order management, financial systems and inventory management systems. 3.4 E-INVOICING First summarize some of the key aspects of the development of e-invoicing starting with the invoice document itself, then the process of exchanging it and finally the impact on the end-to-end trade process. When it comes to automating the end-to-end trade process, many (but not all) consider the invoice as a good place to start. With e-invoicing, the traditional paper invoice is replaced by an electronic version, which removes many of its disadvantages whilst maintaining the invoice as an intact dataset The following types of the e-invoice exist: Unstructured invoice document (e.g. Text, PDF, JPEG, TIFF, HTML or ): with this type the invoice is created manually or automatically from a system and instead of printing it for submission on the spot or sending out in an envelope, it is compiled into an electronic document. As an alternative, a traditional paper invoice can also become electronic by scanning the invoice into an electronic document. ` Structured invoice document (e.g. XML (UBL XML)or EDIFACT): with this type the invoice creation consists of the compilation of the required data into an agreed e-invoice message with a known structure, format and content such as is the case with XML (UBL AML) and EDIFACT messages. This means that unlike a paper document, where the receiver may well be unfamiliar with the format, the format of a structured invoice message is pre-defined and known to the parties involved. We as part of the European committee in e-invoicing standards, believe in a combination of structured invoices accompanied by unstructured invoices, send by . Both are needed to fulfill the complete process for B2B and B2C. 5

6 3.5 SAVINGS WITH E-INVOICING The complete process of invoice-to-pay can easily cost up to 7 Euro per invoice, in a normal B2B environment. For B2C the complexity is different and the cost is lower up to 4 Euro per invoice. Besides the smaller payment cycle, the handling cost is drastically lower. And last but not the least the environment will be suffer far less with e-invoicing. ( paper invoices will cost approximately 700 trees) 4. General legislations and issues around digital signatures 4.1. Which documents are relevant The business documents that typically are affected by legislation are VAT documents such as: Invoices. Credit notes. In this whitepaper we will discuss issues in regard to: Storing and related demands. Sending electronic business documents in electronic formats. Different levels of security and verification Legislation (EU and Scandinavia) It is mandatory to archive incoming as well as outgoing invoices for a number of years: In Denmark it s 5 years. In Sweden it s 10 years. In Norway it s 10 years. In most EU Member States, the storage period for VAT purposes for items other than purchases of capital goods varies between 5 and 10 years. It is legally approved to send electronic Invoices and credit notes. Typically these documents will be send as PDF or XML/UBL/EDI. Internationally there are different levels of security for handling these documents in terms of sending/transferring the document and the content of the document. 6

7 Europe If you check the EU Directives on VAT-accounting for invoices, you will find that one of the requirement for e-invoices is that they need to be digitally signed with an advanced electronic signature. Many countries also have diligently taken up this requirement in their respective national legislation. However, suffice to say, you will still find different types of behavior across the EU: Some countries - like France and Germany - strictly sign e-invoices. (from July 2011, Germany will change its regulations like the Netherlands) Others like the Nordic countries are frontrunners in e-invoicing but do not digitally sign their e- Invoices. The Netherlands changed its regulations from signing e-invoices to not needing to sign e-invoices in the beginning of On January 28, 2009, the European Commission adopted a proposal to change the VAT Directive (2006/112/EC) in respect to the invoicing rules, and published a Communication on the technological developments in the field of electronic invoicing. Two main conditions must be fulfilled: the customer must accept receipt of invoices by electronic means; and guarantees need to be provided for: o the authenticity of the invoice's origin; and o the integrity of the invoice's contents. Member States cannot impose any other obligations or formalities relating to e-invoicing. For a complete explanation please visit : And the FAQ : Quadira is a member of the European e-invoicing committee to achieve a general accepted legislation for invoicing in and between European countries. The goal of the committee is to create a general acceptation of e-invoices throughout Europe in the same way as for paper invoices. Quadira already has the official mark which guarantees that you will be dealing with a trustworthy partner in e-invoicing. For long term archiving of these documents there are only 3 formats that are generally accepted which are un-editable: TIFF PDF PDF/A, PDF/A is an ISO Standard for using PDF formats for long-term archiving of electronic documents. Paper 7

8 It is NOT illegal to store the invoices in raw text or XML or other editable formats, but it s NOT RECOMMENDED nor usable for law and trial purposes. For more information about PDF/A, please view : Also have a look at PWC s A Study on the Invoicing Directive (2001/115/EC) now incorporated into the VAT Directive (2006/112/EC) at Denmark and Scandinavia In Denmark it is mandatory to send electronic Invoices in XML format to the municipalities and Governmental institutions. No paper is allowed since For business to business exchange the general rules apply, although most electronic invoices are sent without the Digital ID today. LaserNet uses the installed mail program (Exchange or Notes) to send the electronic invoices. These support Digital ID s on a single account. Also LaserNet can encrypt and password protect the content of the PDF Document as created by LaserNet using a 3rd party PDF Converter (e.g. Amyuni) Thirdly LaserNet support not only PDF, but also the PDF/A format as standard. Germany and France It s mandatory to sign the content of the invoice as well as the transfer of the invoice, if you are using as a carrier. For these countries we propose to our customers to use local signing applications or the add-on tool NeeviaPDF. LaserNet generates the PDF output and by using the lasernet process modifier (standard LaserNet modifier) the file can be signed with your digital signature. Digital signatures can be bought and renewed at e.g. verisign.com LaserNet makes use of an external tool from NeeviaPDF.com, which needs to be purchased separately, for signing PDF-files with a digital signature. The customer will need the mandatory licenses for creating and sending s, no extra LaserNet licenses for signing the PDF-files are required. The customer will instead have to buy a license for the NeeviaPDF product itself. When using digital signatures in LaserNet, it is required that the signature file is installed as a personal certificate, so it doesn t prompt for a password when signing PDF-files. The NeeviaPDF solution will be able to sign PDF-files created both by LaserNet and PDF-files received from any other external application. 8

9 4.3. Sending PDF Invoices as s Using the LaserNet Communication module in LaserNet, any existing mail server or client software will be enabled to send the business documents electronically as attachments to an (MAPI, SMTP) Digital IDs help to validate your identity, and they can be used to sign important documents electronically. To find services that issue digital IDs for your use, or services that complement Office and use digital IDs, check out the services listed here. Example of setting up digital Signatures in Outlook 2007: Click on Certificates 9

10 Here s a list of installed certificates This is an example of a certificate from Versign Here s a list of Digital ID providers: Link to acquire Digital ID : Sending XML/EDI Invoices LaserNet is capable of transferring almost any structured print or file format to any XML format. Also a large number of EDI formats can be handled by LaserNet. Normally these files are transferred to the destination using HTTP/s, FTP/s or a mailserver. In some instances there s a need for a transfer program, like the Danish EasyTrade client or the use of a VAN (Value Added Network) operator About the LaserNet XML OUT Module The LaserNet XML Output Module helps you to create advanced XML output files. The user of the software deploys the same intelligent and flexible editing features, compared to working with graphical output such as forms. This is a unique feature, and the preferred choice of many users when converting from any other format to XML. 10

11 The LaserNet XML Output Module contains support for loading pre-defined XML templates, received from customers and partners, in order to achieve significant benefits and saving time when working with the design and setup of the XML files. The XML files can be produced in any necessary encoding, and LaserNet can be configured to remove white spaces and many other useful features. The LaserNet Communication Module is designed to integrate with common mail applications and Microsoft Fax Services. Apart from that, the LaserNet Communication module also offers support for HTTP, HTTP/S, FTP and FTPS as well as MSMQ (Microsoft Message Queuing) Electronic Archiving The LaserNet File module and database module are able to store the business documents in a filedirectory, database, LaserNet Archive or 3rd party Electronic Archive in combination with the Conversion module. File formats usually are PDF or PDF/A. 11