Digital invoices, and what actually changes
Moving from a paper book or a Word file to a system is not just a change of medium. It shifts responsibility for numbering, correctness and retention from a person to a system, and it changes what is required of you before the first document goes out.
- 001
Issuing closes the document
On paper you could tear out a page and write it again. A computerized document is signed at the moment of issue and locked from then on. A correction is made with a cancelling document, not by editing.
- 002
Numbering stops being your job
The sequence is held by the system, separately per document type. That removes the most common failure in a paper book: a number that was skipped, repeated, or broken between two books.
- 003
Sending is part of issuing
The document reaches the customer in the same action that created it, with no scanning and no post. What is needed beforehand is the customer's consent to receive computerized documents, and notice to the assessing officer before the first one.
- 004
Reporting follows from the documents
The periodic VAT report is computed from the same documents and expenses that were recorded, not from a spreadsheet someone types up at period end. The same source produces the Open Format file.
- 005
The customer can verify it themselves
A signed document usually carries a QR code or a verification link, and whoever receives it can check in seconds that it matches what was issued. On paper there was no way to do that at all.
- 006
The archive stops being a binder
The seven-year duty stays, but it is met inside the system rather than in a storage room. What you do have to confirm is that everything can be exported, including on the day you move to another system.
A scanned PDF is not a digital invoice
A file produced from Word or Excel, or a scan of a printed document, can be edited without leaving a trace. The law speaks of a computerized document, and requires a digital signature bound to the exact content at the moment of issue. That is the difference between a document that looks right and one that can be proven unchanged.
What is needed before the first emailed invoice
Two things that sound like formalities and are not: notice to your assessing officer by registered mail before the first computerized document goes out, and the customer's consent, written or computerized, before they receive their first one from you. The consent is kept as part of the accounting system.
What happens to the old archive
Documents issued in a paper book or a previous system stay valid and are not converted. They are kept as they are until the seven years are up, and the new numbering starts alongside them rather than continuing them. The exact order of a migration is in theswitching guide, and the retention rules are in the retention guide.
Online invoicing in Slate
The document is issued in the browser, signed at the moment of issue, numbered from a sequence held on the server, and sent to the customer from the same screen. A tax invoice above ILS 5,000 before VAT picks up an allocation number in the background, and there is nothing to install on any machine. You canissue a first document for free and see how it reaches the customer.