Let me give you some history. Regulatory compliance laws in Brazil changed earlier this year (2010), mandating the replacement of the traditional hard copy nota fiscal (invoice) with an electronic invoice, the Nota Fiscal Electronica (NF-e).
The first round of regulations, NF-e 1.0, detailed a new real-time compliance process that required companies to send digitally signed original invoices to the Ministry of Finance (SEFAZ) in a specific XML format for review and approval before shipment. If police or Customs Officials stopped a delivery truck and there was any discrepancy between the bill of lading (DANF-e) and the authorization on file in the SEFAZ database, the company could face severe penalties or fines.
Many ERP systems were not designed to support this defined process, and companies faced difficulty simply getting their documents approved, or in staying compliant to the changing NFE regulations that were issued by the SEFAZ.
Today, with the onset of NFE 2.0, the process is changing again. Brazilian companies now face a second wave of regulatory change that adds more real time reporting requirements and increases the chance that an invoice could be rejected and hold up shipment. The new regulations are fully detailed in a 200 page update manual, covering areas such as additional fields, additional codes, additional SEFAZ side validations, and changes to contingency mode operations.
Electronic invoicing expert Scott Lewin, President of Crossgate, a company co-owned by SAP, describes the challenges many companies are facing. "“Many companies are re-evaluating their NF-e solutions in the face of these changes because they don’t want to have to start from scratch to manage compliance every time the rules change.”
Read Part 2
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Kevin R Benedict SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, SAP Blogger
Independent e-Invoicing and EDI Analyst and Consultant
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
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*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.
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