Spain’s 17 autonomous regions still are struggling to provide eInvoicing services, four months after electronic invoicing became mandatory. According to a report by Seres, an ICT service provider, services are limited in some regions, and three do not yet offer eInvoicing. Some regions use an eInvoicing solution (FACe) that is provided by the central government and 11 regions have developed their own eInvoicing software. The solutions are not always interoperable, reports Seres.
The ICT company in March published an overview of the state of eInvoicing services per autonomous region, provincial council and provincial capital. According to the report, most of Spain’s public administrations prefer to use FACe. Most problems are reported at the level of municipalities: just over half of all municipalities provide complete eInvoicing services, and 32 per cent do not.
The company is marketing its own eInvoice solutions as an alternative for FACe.
As of 15 January, companies based in Spain that deal with Spanish public administrations must submit all invoices over EUR 5000 electronically. There are some exceptions possible, and some public administrations continue to allow paper invoices.
Spain hopes to reduce the time spent on invoicing by 80 per cent.
According to Seres, there are also problems with the eInvoicing client software (Gestión de Facturación Electrónica) provided by the central government's Ministry of Industry. The application cannot connect to all eInvoicing systems in use across Spain, it will only work with FACe, complains Seres.
The open source tool is provided for three computer operating systems, two proprietary ones and Linux. According to Seres marketing manager Alberto Redondo Correas, the software is hindered by its dependency on Java, and has to deal with different versions and inconsistent updates per platform. “A web service would perhaps be better”, he says.
FACe, the central solution for electronic invoicing, is developed and maintained by CTT, (Centro de Transferencia de Technologica), the government’s central IT solutions repository. Joinup’s federated repository links to FACe, but the software is available only for public administrations with access to the CTT repository.
More information:
Seres report on eInvoicing in Spain’s autonomous regions (in Spanish)
FACe, central eInvoicing solution service
Introduction to FACe by CTT
Joinup eGovernment factsheet (PDF)
Face entry point for electronic invoices
eInvoicing client software (Gestión de Facturación Electrónica)
El Confidencial news item (in Spanish)