E-invoicing is the most sufficient way of sending (and receiving) an invoice. Sometimes though, the e-invoice sending is restricted or the e-invoice doesn't find its way to your customer.
In this article we will go through the most common issues of sending e-invoices and how you can fix them so that your e-invoice goes to your customer.
If Isolta stops you from sending an e-invoice
Check your customer's information:
Recipient's address information (street address, postal code and city/county).
Recipient's e-invoice address and operator code.
Check your company information:
Your company information must include bank account information (IBAN and BIC) as these are mandatory invoicing requirements by the tax authority.
Make sure you have no empty spaces before, between and after your bank details.
Check the invoice:
The maximum amount of characters in an invoice row is 100 characters.
Invoice date must be current date. If the date is in the past, the program won't let you send the e-invoice.
If the e-invoice could not be delivered to the recipient
It is possible that sometimes sending an e-invoice is unsuccessful. In that case, you will receive an email message from us about the delivery issue and what are the next steps you should take.
First, remember these few things:
The invoice has not been delivered to the recipient.
In order to send the e-invoice successfully, it requires actions from you (as the invoice sender).
If you receive a message like this from us, it usually says what the problem is about. From that, you will know what to do to send the e-invoice successfully. Next, we will go through the most common errors in e-invoicing.
The e-invoice address is incorrect
The invoice can only be delivered if the e-invoice address is completely correct. Any missing or extra character (i.e. extra space, number) in the e-invoice address prevents sending the e-invoice.
The correct e-invoice address can always be checked from the invoice recipient. They should have the latest information about the company's e-invoice address.
Also, note that an e-invoice address may change over time. This means that even if you have previously invoiced your customer using that e-invoice address, it doesn't guarantee that it is correct anymore.
Another place where you can find an e-invoice address (Finnish) is here: www.verkkolaskuosoite.fi
This is what you should do:
Fix it in your customer's contact card
If you realized that the e-invoice address you used was incorrect, correct it on your customer's contact card so that future invoices would go to the correct address.
Please note that simply changing the contact card information does not change the information of previously sent invoices.
2. Fix it in the invoice
This requires you to open the invoice and start modifying it. After that, you can change the e-invoice address that you have previously used.
3. Resend the invoice
Once the e-invoice information has been corrected, you can resend it.
The operator code is incorrect
If you are notified of an incorrect operator code, there may be a couple of reasons.
Your customer has changed their e-invoicing operator, which means that the operator code has also changed.
Your customer's contact card has previously had an incorrect operator code, but the invoices have been delivered to the customer nonetheless because previously e-invoice operators didn't check the operator code so thoroughly. However, this has changed now and your customer's e-invoicing operator will no longer accept invoices with an invalid operator code.
In either case, it is worth checking what is the correct operator code. You can find out by asking your customer or checking if from the Finnish e-invoice address book.
The e-invoice doesn't have enough payment time
In most cases, the e-invoice operator rejects an e-invoice if it doesn't have enough payment time. Make sure that the invoice has at least couple of business days payment, even if you have agreed with the recipient that the invoice will be paid immediately.
The e-invoice attachment's file format is incorrect
Isolta's e-invoicing service supports most commonly used file formats. However, sometimes the recipients e-invoice operator is more selective in this matter, and the invoice is rejected due to a incorrect file format.
In this case, the safest way is to use a PDF file format. It is generally suitable for all operators.
The e-invoice is missing a reference number
The e-invoice operator may reject the e-invoice due to a missing or incorrect reference number. Isolta generates reference numbers automatically for your invoices, that are suitable for e-invoice operators. Therefore, reference numbers made by the program should not be changed or deleted.
Your bank account number is entered incorrectly
Many e-invoicing operators check incoming e-invoices. Sometimes an invoice is declined because of an incorrect bank account number.
Make sure you have no empty spaces before, between and after your bank details.
Also, make sure that your IBAN is written correctly, with the country code in capital letters.
The invoice could not be delivered due to a routing error
Sometimes an intermediate operator uses outdated routing information and the e-invoice is forwarded to a wrong operator and therefore gets rejected. In such situation we will fix the routing information and send you an email about it.
You will need to resend the e-invoice after we have fixed the routing.
If you have checked these points and the software still doesn't let you send the -invoice, please contact us. We are happy to help!