Supplier invoices
Supplier invoices reach a contractor’s or a client’s accounts team in two very different shapes. A PDF is a picture of an invoice: easy for a person to read, but every figure on it has to be read again, by eye or by software, before it can be checked. An e-invoice in UBL or CII is the invoice as data, with each amount, VAT category and reference in a labelled field, and it often travels over the PEPPOL network. This page compares the two from the receiving side: what each format gives the QS or accounts person who checks it, what still has to be checked by hand, and how Fidrel reads both.
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When totals, VAT and order references are keyed in from a PDF, a transposed digit or a misread VAT rate travels straight into the cost report. It is found, if at all, at month end, when the supplier’s statement and the ledger no longer agree.
A mechanical subcontractor’s invoice may list ductwork, pipework and controls separately. Once only its total is keyed in, the QS can no longer see which estimate line each part belongs to, and the whole amount lands as one lump against one package.
Some suppliers send a UBL file, some a PDF, and some both for the same invoice. Without one route for all of them, an invoice gets entered twice, or the XML is saved to a shared drive and never opened because nobody on the team can read it.
A PDF invoice is a document laid out for a person. Its figures are text on a page, or only pixels if it was scanned, and software has to find them before anything can be checked. An e-invoice in UBL or UN/CEFACT CII is the same invoice as structured XML: the supplier, VAT number, invoice number, dates, references, every line and every total sit in named fields. A PEPPOL BIS Billing invoice is a UBL or CII file of this kind, and when it travels over the PEPPOL network it arrives wrapped in a business document envelope. Many people also call an emailed PDF an e-invoice; on this page the word means the structured file.
Supplier invoices
Because nothing has to be read off a page, the values of an e-invoice are exact, and Fidrel marks them so. The invoice lines come across one by one with quantity, unit and unit price, and unit codes such as MTR, MTK and MTQ are shown as m, m² and m³. The order, contract and project references arrive in fields of their own, ready to be matched. The VAT treatment is taken from the invoice’s own tax category codes as standard VAT, reverse charge or VAT exempt. The supplier’s IBAN is read from the payment details and kept only if its check digit holds, and on a credit note the reference to the invoice it credits is read as well.
Step 1
Drag supplier invoices onto Drop invoices here: PDFs, photos, scanned TIFFs or XML e-invoices of up to 25 MB each. Fidrel recognises a UBL or CII invoice, also inside a PEPPOL envelope, and reads it from the data rather than from a page.
Step 2
An e-invoice is marked E-invoice: the values are exact, a PDF Read from the PDF text, and a scan Read with text recognition: check carefully. Compare the details with the invoice and confirm them with Looks right, continue.
Step 3
Put the whole invoice on one estimate line, or go line by line, where an e-invoice’s own lines arrive with quantity, unit and unit price. Suggestions draw on the description, cost codes and the supplier’s earlier invoices, including those on the same order or contract.
Step 4
Once the whole amount is allocated, approve the invoice or submit it for review by the person who approves. Where the project uses the four-eyes principle, whoever verified the invoice cannot approve it as well.
A PDF has one thing an XML file lacks: a page that looks like the supplier’s invoice, with its letterhead, notes and layout. Fidrel shows that original beside the values read from it, and the Read button next to a value shows where on the page it was found, so checking means comparing rather than retyping. A PDF with selectable text is read from that text. A scan or a photo is read with text recognition and marked for a careful check. A PDF that carries the XML invoice inside it, as ZUGFeRD and Factur-X files do, is read from that XML, exactly.
Some checks do not depend on how the invoice arrived. Fidrel tests that net plus VAT equals the invoice total and that the lines add up to the totals. If the supplier already has an invoice with the same number, Fidrel says so, and the check cannot be passed without a short reason of at least ten characters. An IBAN whose check digit fails is flagged for comparison with the invoice. An invoice in another currency, sterling from a supplier in Northern Ireland or Britain for instance, is offered the ECB reference rate for its invoice date and converted to the budget currency, and its original amounts are kept.
Raw XML is unreadable to most people, so Fidrel does not show it that way. It lays the invoice out like a document from the exact values in the file: the supplier and VAT number, invoice number and dates, the order, contract and project references, each line with quantity, unit price and net amount, and the net, VAT and total at the foot. Whoever checks the invoice reads it as they would read a PDF, without a separate viewer for XML.
Invoices are uploaded to Fidrel; Fidrel has no PEPPOL access point and receives nothing by email or over an invoice network. Fidrel sends no invoices of its own and has no connection to a tax authority or to an accounting system. Fidrel reads the values in the file but does not validate the file against the PEPPOL rules. The VAT treatment shown is the one the invoice states; whether it is right for the supply is for you and your accountant to decide. Marking an invoice paid records a payment already made; Fidrel makes no bank transfer. When your business has to send or accept e-invoices is not something this page or Fidrel answers.
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Anything else on your mind? We are happy to help.
Talk to usNo. Fidrel is not an access point and takes in nothing from an invoice network or from email. Whatever receives the file for you, such as your access point provider or accounting system, keeps doing so, and someone uploads the XML to Fidrel, where it is read line by line.
People often call it one, but a PDF shows the invoice to a person and its figures still have to be read. An e-invoice in UBL or CII carries them as labelled data that software reads exactly.
Yes, but the check changes. The values are read exactly, so you no longer check the reading; you check the content: the right supplier, the right order and amounts that match the work done.
Upload the XML, because its values are exact. If both end up in Fidrel, whichever is checked second is flagged, because the supplier already has an invoice with that number.
UBL and UN/CEFACT CII, including files in a PEPPOL envelope, as well as Finvoice, FatturaPA and Facturae, and PDFs that carry an XML invoice inside them.
It checks the arithmetic: that net plus VAT equals the total and that the lines add up. It shows the VAT treatment the invoice states but does not judge whether that treatment is right.
