Countries regulate e-invoices in three broad ways. Which one applies changes how your systems must work.
Post-audit
Invoices go directly from seller to buyer (often over Peppol). The tax authority does not see each invoice when it is issued; it checks later during audits. Example: Belgium's B2B mandate.
Post-audit B2B regimes in our data today: Belgium, Estonia, Germany, Norway.
Clearance
An invoice must pass through, or be registered on, a government platform as part of issuing it. Italy's Sistema di Interscambio (SDI), which validates and forwards every e-invoice, is the classic example; Poland's KSeF and Romania's RO e-Factura also require submission to a state platform.
Clearance regimes in our data: Italy, Poland, Romania.
Continuous transaction controls / real-time reporting
Invoices may still go directly between the parties, but invoice data must also be reported to the tax authority in real time or near real time, directly or through accredited platforms. Hungary's real-time invoice reporting to NAV and France's reform, where accredited platforms transmit invoice data to the tax administration, are examples.
CTC / reporting regimes in our data: Croatia, France, Greece, Hungary, Portugal, Spain.
What it means for your ERP
- Post-audit: you need to produce a compliant structured invoice and deliver it (usually via an access point).
- Clearance: you also need a live integration with the government platform, and an invoice may be rejected before it is legally issued.
- Reporting: you need to send data on time and keep it consistent with what the customer receives.
Model labels are our classification of each official description; see the methodology.