Electronic Invoices Must Bear Electronic Signature in Portugal

As of January 1st, 2024, electronic and PDF invoices must include a digital signature to be valid. This means that companies that want to invoice electronically must have a system in place by December 31st, 2023, that proves the validity of the document.

According to Directive 2014/55/EU, all European public administrations must receive electronic invoices as of April 2019. This means that businesses must send their invoices to the government electronically instead of on paper. Although this directive is not mandatory for private companies, it provides an opportunity to advance in digitization and use electronic invoicing in business.

To encourage digitalization, the Portuguese government has set up rules for exchanging electronic invoices between private companies. These invoices must have a digital signature to be considered valid.

What are the requirements for the issuance of electronic invoices?

Article 12 of Law No. 28/2019 states that invoices and other tax-relevant documents may be issued electronically, provided they have been accepted by the addressee.

The authenticity of origin and the integrity of the content of documents issued electronically will be guaranteed if any of the following procedures are adopted:

• They include the qualified electronic signature in accordance with the legal terms.
• They include a qualified electronic seal, in accordance with Regulation (EU) No. 910/2014, of the European Parliament and of the Council, of July 23rd, 2014.
• They use an electronic data interchange system, approved by Commission Recommendation No. 1994/820/EC, of October 19th.

This article regulates that companies that send electronic invoices must use an electronic signature or qualified electronic seal.

For this purpose, it is important to work with a trusted eIDAS service provider so that your identity is protected, and your transactions remain safe.

If you have a document that needs to be signed, you can get a qualified certificate from an eIDAS trust service provider. This will give your signature full legal validity, and it will be more secure than a handwritten signature.

EDICOM as a Qualified Trusted Service Provider

In accordance with EU Regulation 910/2014, EDICOM is eligible to operate in all EU countries as a qualified trust service provider.

EDICOM has relevant accreditations and the appropriate technology for:

• Creating, verifying, and validating electronic signatures, electronic seals, electronic time       stamping, certified electronic delivery services, and related certificates.
• Creating, verifying, and validating certificates for website authentication.
• Preserve electronic signatures, seals, or certificates related to these services.

Sending electronic documents to any recipient without EDI solution

EDICOM offers companies the ability to enhance electronic document sending processes by enabling the delivery of electronic invoices in PDF format.

Through the Business@Mail service, it is possible to send all types of electronic documents to all of your trading partners, even if they do not have EDI, regardless if they are customers, suppliers, or collaborators.

Business@Mail is integrated with the company's management system and the sending of all documents is automatically configured.

This system brings high-value benefits to the companies by:

• Optimizing administrative tasks: Automating all repetitive tasks. The automation of repetitive tasks can lead to significant savings in paper, ink, and maintenance costs.
• Effective delivery: It is fast and secure. It arrives in seconds through private and confidential channels.
• Total traceability: All actions are recorded (sending, receiving, viewing), allowing visibility of whether the recipient consults the documents sent.
• Integrates with any management system: The company will continue to operate as usual from their management systems without making any changes.
• Ease of use: Documents are sent to the recipients e-mail address, making the process simple.

This system provides more guarantees, agility and control than sending by conventional e-mail. In addition, it represents a considerable saving of resources, since it is no longer necessary to issue and process invoices, purchase orders or any other transaction by analog means.

It is also important to note that recipients of the documents benefit from the system because it is free of charge for them and provides secure storage for the documents. This is beneficial regardless of the management system they use.

Finally, Business@Mail's intuitive interface provides an optimal user experience. Both senders and recipients can preview and download documents or perform personalized searches and queries in a simple and agile manner.