This applies to all companies based in Italy that have a corresponding UID number, as well as service providers and suppliers registered in Italy that invoice their business partners there …

Press Release

Italy acts – e-invoices are mandatory from 01.01.2019!

Vienna, 25.10.2018

B&IT’s solution FatturaPA helps companies to adapt to legal requirements at short notice

According to the regulation of the Italian law no. 633, 1972, article 21, paragraph 1), all invoices in the B2B and B2C sector must be sent electronically via the official exchange system Sistema di Interscambio (SdI).

Challenges regarding FatturaPA in Italy:

  • In Italy, invoices must be created in the one predefined invoice format. Invoices that are not sent via the central platform will in future be deemed not to have been issued and will be subject to sanctions.
  • The new regulation affects all domestic companies and all suppliers and service providers registered in Italy who send invoices to Italian customers. Ultimately, every company from Germany, Switzerland and Austria that has a branch in Italy must meet the SdI requirements. Otherwise there is a risk of fines.
  • For automatic communication with the SdI, the partner must register for one of the predefined communication channels and set it up.
  • The handling of status feedback from the invoice recipient or from the SdI’s automatic checks must be mastered.
  • The invoices must be signed electronically.
  • The invoices must be archived electronically. For this purpose, Italy has relatively complex requirements with the grouping of archived invoices into a package, the signing of the package and the creation of a time stamp. – The background is that the sent invoices are stored for at least 10 years. It must be ensured that these cannot be changed during the storage period.
  • In addition to the automatic electronic transfer of invoice data, transmission by certified e-mail (PEC) or entry of invoice data via a web form is also permitted. However, these channels are only suitable for small invoice volumes.

Further information can be found on the website http://www.fatturapa.gov.it/. The implementation of e-invoicing in Italy is mandatory from 01 January 2019.

Solution approach for companies that create customer invoices with their SAP system:

The required invoice data are automatically generated in the SAP system and transmitted to ecosio via IDoc. The invoice data transmitted by the SAP system is read by ecosio and translated into the target format FatturaPA. The data is then transmitted via web service to the System di Interscambio (SdI).

After transmission to SdI, the web service returns the confirmation of receipt from SdI. The receipt of the message can be confirmed positively or negatively. For example, incomplete invoice data or a wrong identification ID for the recipient can lead to a negative confirmation. The positive acknowledgement of receipt on the part of SdI at this point merely means that the technical receipt of the invoice has been confirmed. Only a separate message confirms that the invoice has been accepted and processed by SdI as the recipient.

 

B&IT provides a complete FatturaPA solution for SAP customers:

B&IT and ecosio have put together a flexible and cost-effective complete solution for SAP customers. The solution consists of the following components:

Integration of the ecosio.MessagingHub

Communication between the company’s SAP system and the ecosio.MessagingHub takes place via the ecosio.ERPEL interface (REST API) for SAP.

Connecting EDI partners

ecosio supports all common communication protocols such as AS2, OFTP2, HTTPS, SFTP, X.400 etc. when connecting the company’s EDI partners. Business partners to whom no classical EDI connection can be established can be reached via ecosio.Web. ecosio takes over the coordination as well as the setup of the transmission channel with further EDI partners. The setup of the mapping FatturaPA – invoice and the connection to SDI is done by ecosio.

Ecosio services for a successful EDI project and for operation

In addition, ecosio takes over all activities related to a successful EDI project. For this purpose ecosio provides Project related services – setup of EDI partner connections, mappings, tests etc. – and ongoing services – routing, data conversion, monitoring and support.

SAP integration via EPO Connector for ecosio.ERPEL

The solution component EPO Connector is used to establish the technical connection from the SAP system to the ecosio.MessagingHub using the standard protocol HTTPS. Outgoing and incoming messages are processed via SAP IDocs. The delivery status of the message is clearly traceable at any time directly in the SAP GUI. It is also possible to print inbound IDocs as PDF forms.

Convenient monitoring of IDoc processing in the SAP system

The EPO IDoc Monitor is a user-friendly SAP transaction for processing IDocs with an integrated HTML5 app for displaying and editing IDOCs. The prerequisite for using the IDoc Monitor is SAP ECC 6.0, independent of the release and enhancement package (EHP) status, or SAP S/4HANA. The use of the EPO IDOC Monitor is optional, but offers numerous advantages.

B&IT Brochure EPO IDoc Monitor

Archiving

An appropriate program is available for archiving, with the help of which original documents can be retrieved using the ecosio.archive API and stored in an archive connected to SAP.

EDI Operation and Support

The user gets access to the ecosio.monitor, detailed monitoring information and technical support from ecosio.

Key benefits:

  • The complete FatturaPA package is based on proven software components and enables short project durations with low resource requirements.
  • During operation, the routing, conversion, archiving and monitoring of data exchange are carried out by ecosio (outtasking).
  • Secure transmission of IDocs to ecosio with immediate acknowledgement of receipt by ecosio (HTTPS response).
  • The acknowledgement of receipt of the final recipient (SdI) is forwarded directly into the company’s SAP system.
  • The ecosio Monitor can be viewed directly in SAP (can be called up as a separate transaction). This allows continuous monitoring of the EDI data exchange directly in SAP: The delivery status of the message is clearly traceable within SAP at any time.
  • The SAP integration is independent of the current SAP release or patch level.
  • The required SAP certifications are available for both SAP ECC and SAP S/4HANA.
  • With the EPO IDoc Monitor, a state-of-the-art tool is provided to business departments, for example sales or accounting. As a result the relevant users can make full use of the advantages of electronic communication. The IT department is relieved of this task, allowing the electronic data exchange to finally deliver real benefits.

B&IT:

B&IT has positioned itself as a specialized, independent and owner-operated IT consulting company that serves industrial and commercial customers from the mill/metals sector, mechanical and plant engineering and the manufacturing industry. We are a professional IT service provider in process and application management with a strong focus on SAP S/4HANA, OpenText and shop-floor applications, and have at our disposal a wide variety of relevant customer references.

B&IT’s expertise is based on numerous successful customer projects and on the many years of experience of its approximately 25 consultants. In addition, it has established an international network of partners with project experience. B&IT is headquartered in Salzburg, Austria and has offices in Vienna and Waidhofen (Austria), Munich (Germany) and Zürich (Switzerland).

For further information, contact:

B&IT Business & IT Consulting GmbH
Erwin Prodinger
CEO
Naumanngasse 38a
5020 Salzburg / Austria
Phone: +43 (0) 664 884 38 625
E-mail: erwin.prodinger@businessandit.com