General Information
The project on electronic invoicing kicked off with the national legislation of Act №215/2019 in August 2019 pursuant to the Directive 2014/55/EU of April 16, 2014 which regulates electronic invoicing obligations in public procurement. The new system proposes a central clearance model for electronic invoicing which is already in place in Italy and in progress in several other European countries. The transition to the new system progresses incrementally and the implementation is under the test use of Ministry of Finance itself.
Main Objectives and Legal Basis
The main objective of the project is to implement the requirements of Directive 2014/55/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council, which imposes contracting authorities and contracting entities to receive and process electronic invoices in accordance with the European standard. In line with this directive, the national legislation of Act №215/2019 on Guaranteed Electronic Billing and Central Economic System entered into force in 01 August 2019 that regulates electronic invoicing requirements for public administrations and their suppliers.
The Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic (“Ministry of Finance”), in cooperation with the Financial Administration of the Slovak Republic (“FASR”), has published preliminary information on the draft law on sending data to the Financial Administration from the invoices of tax entities. The legislation envisages unified process of the electronic circulation of invoices and the obligation to provide structured data from invoices to FASR. The introduction of uniform electronic invoicing throughout the European Union will support the cross-border trade. Electronic invoicing will also increase transparency of invoices issued and received by public administrations. Accordingly, all electronic invoices sent to or from a state institution will be open to public inspection through IS EFA.
Project Implementation Timeline
In May 2022, the Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic (MFSR) hosted an online event presenting the technical solution of the new information system of electronic invoicing.
The technical details and the test platform of the new system with demo accounts and procedures to open demo accounts is available online for the public use.
According to the latest public announcements of the FRSR, the planned start of the system implementation for the B2G segments is from 01.01.2023 and for the B2B and B2C segments from 01.01.2025.
Electronic Invoicing Information System (“IS EFA”) and Technical Details
The proposed system is a central clearance model for electronic invoicing which is already in place in Italy and in progress in several other European countries such as Serbia, Romania, France etc. This model ensures the verification of the invoice data sent to the Financial Administration before the final release. The Slovak government central platform is introduced as the Electronic Invoicing Information System (“IS EFA”) — Informačný Systém Elektronickej Fakturácie.
IS EFA presents options for both small entrepreneurs and large corporations. The entrepreneurs have free of charge option to create and manage their e-invoices in a structured format through a web-based online application. This option would not be appropriate for large companies with their own accounting programs.
IS EFA also offers an open program interface to the large companies in order to integrate their own accounting systems. However, the invoices should be transformed into required XML format of UBL 2.1 and CII D16B (EN syntaxes) before sending to IS EFA. Via this interface program, companies will be able to transfer the invoices created in their systems to the IS EFA to be verified. If the invoice is successfully verified, IS EFA will send a QR code to be stated on the invoice. If the company issue large number of invoices, it is possible to apply to be authorized to assign its own signature code in its own software.
Melasoft SAP Add-On
Melasoft e-invoice package has been developed to be easily customized for all European countries. As more information becomes available, the package will also be customized for e-invoice scheme of Slovakian government.
Melasoft FI Team
