Electronic Invoice NF-e

The Electronic Invoice brings a series of advantages for business owners, mainly in terms of savings, speed, and ease of transactions. And it is not just the business owner who benefits from using the NF-e, but also the customer, tax authorities, the accountant, and even the environment. Some of these benefits are:

Lower printing costs:

Because of its digital format, the NF-e removes the need to print invoices on paper, which saves on all printing costs — such as the need for specific equipment, ink, paper, and time spent.

Lower storage costs:

Invoices must be kept for 5 years, and when on paper, they require specific physical space to store that volume. The NF-e, again due to its digital nature, removes the need for physical space to store tax documents, since the files are stored digitally. This not only reduces costs but also makes access to documents faster and easier, and increases the security of keeping them.

Less time spent stopped at tax checkpoints:

The NF-e contains a barcode that lets the access key of the Electronic Invoice be captured so it can be looked up online when an Electronic Invoice is issued — in other words, tax authorities across the country already have the information available, waiting only for the access key to look it up, making the process much faster.

Lower labor costs:

The NF-e eliminates the need to manually enter invoices when receiving goods, since systems can be adapted to extract the already-digital information from the electronic document received. This can mean lower labor costs for data entry, as well as fewer data-entry errors.

Faster services:

There is also a reduction in time for services, since the invoice can be automatically sent by email — the moment your business is registered with the city, an alert is sent to your email every time any business issues an invoice in your name.

Better financial management:

Using the Electronic Invoice simplifies bureaucracy in the finance department, making storage, organization, and data-management processes more comfortable and efficient, and making it much easier to exchange and retrieve information.

With the NF-e, it also becomes much easier to control your accounting bookkeeping, based on invoices sent and received, keeping the DANFEs by email and sending a copy directly to your accounting team.

Simplified ancillary obligations:

To start with, the NF-e provides an exemption from the Authorization to Print Tax Documents – AIDF. In the future, other ancillary obligations may be simplified or eliminated with NF-e adoption.

Errors are eliminated:

The Electronic Invoice itself already prevents data-entry errors and brings a level of transparency that matters for errors common in paper invoices (especially in bookkeeping).

Greater efficiency:

Processes become much simpler, and all information is centralized so that, whenever you need it, it is all there. All of this creates major savings and efficiency. Extracting information on the part of the Treasury Department is also faster, since invoices are stored right in the system, making the whole process much more efficient.

Citizenship and sustainability:

The State and citizens also benefit from using the Electronic Invoice, since it allows for greater tax oversight. With more detailed planning and greater engagement from businesses and accountants, and the ability to quickly cross-reference information about goods control and services rendered with the Treasury, oversight becomes easier — another point in favor of using the NF-e.

The NF-e also promotes sustainability. To give an idea, since 2006, Brazil has avoided issuing more than 8.5 million paper invoices thanks to the Electronic Invoice. Considering each physical invoice was made up of 4 copies, that means 34 thousand sheets of paper were never printed.

Trade, economic, and social relations:

On top of that, there is also an incentive to use electronic relationships with suppliers (B2B), an incentive for e-commerce and the use of new technologies, standardization of electronic relationships between businesses, and the emergence of business and job opportunities in services related to the NF-e.

Yes.

The savings for businesses that issue electronic invoices (NF-e) today are certain. And the savings are not just on paper — consider the time employees spend on the process, the handling, and the space needed to store invoices.

This new technology guarantees security in online transactions, speeds up processes, reduces costs, and is also good for the environment. These and many other benefits explain the growing adoption of the solution. Businesses, individuals, and public agencies already use the electronic document.

On top of the fact that your paper spending will drop a lot (since the process is done entirely electronically), there are lower administrative costs, less time spent printing tax documents, lower spending on filing paper documents, and lower expenses from simplifying ancillary obligations, among other gains.

In addition, in electronic form, errors can be minimized and even corrected faster thanks to the convenience of this format, where all your invoices are organized automatically, and any invoice can be found with a quick, simple search — saving your team's time and avoiding human error. The NF-e also saves time in the sense that, once your invoices reach the NF-e vault, they are immediately available to your accounting team, who can import them for bookkeeping. Not to mention less tax evasion and easier communication with SPED (Public Digital Bookkeeping System). Many Brazilian e-commerce stores have adopted sending the invoice by email to the customer to make the most of the technology and the savings.

Brazilian law currently only allows the NF-e to replace the so-called invoice model 1 / 1A, which is generally used to document commercial transactions involving goods between businesses. It is not meant to replace other tax document models that exist under the law, such as the Consumer Invoice (model 2) or the Cupom Fiscal (retail receipt). Documents that have not been replaced by the NF-e must continue to be issued according to current law.

Issuing the NF-e is free, but there are management costs.

There is free NF-e issuance software offered by the Treasury Department, but this software does not offer secure storage or effective management tools for invoices, which, in a way, undermines the success of a business implementing the NF-e. So, for the business to succeed and avoid errors, it is necessary to invest in specialized software that offers electronic invoice management tools, custom app deployment, integration with other company systems, staff training, and storage of electronic invoices (mandatory for at least five years), among other features.

Even though it is necessary to invest in specific software for the NF-e, the cost-benefit of Electronic Invoices is greater than the expenses they generate, and NF-e is also much cheaper than using the old paper invoices.

The cost reduction from the NF-e is extensive, ranging from lower spending on paper and electricity to lower labor costs and time spent on various tasks — which, once again, reinforces that even though there are costs to manage the NF-e, the expenses are lower and the benefits are much better than other options. As for tax expenses, they exist just as with any other type of invoice, so there is no change in spending on that front.

Depending on your needs, this kind of software can mean saved time, more secure information, and integrated work processes.

NF-e issuance software automates organization and integrates processes and routines. Good invoice management starts with running processes routinely, so they get done whenever needed. Some features of an NF-e issuance system are:

Invoices are issued much faster.

The system is easy and quick to use: the service provider registers and requests accreditation, and once accredited, gets access to several system functions, such as issuing and looking up invoices, bookkeeping, real-time data generation, reports, among others.

You no longer have to manually fill in every field on the form. Calculations are also done automatically, greatly speeding up the process.

Process integration

Some systems also let you integrate other business processes with invoice issuance, reducing work and increasing speed and security.

The shift to electronic tax documents is a reality for a large share of Brazilian businesses, and against this backdrop, new needs have started to emerge. One of them is managing these documents within the business — whether Electronic Invoices (NF-e), Electronic Service Invoices (NFS-e), or others — but the technological conveniences have brought less bureaucracy and lower costs. However, only well-prepared businesses will benefit from these changes, since the entire flow of electronic tax documents between businesses is electronically monitored by tax administrations at every level.

Cloud data storage

When properly stored digitally, this data can also be fully indexed — a feature that, through preset filters, lets you find an invoice or any other electronic document in record time.

The same applies to XML files (the format NF-e are saved in). By indexing them, the software makes it easier to locate them whenever they need to be validated as intact, according to the rules of the Brazilian Federal Revenue Service.

With cloud data storage, also known as "Cloud Computing", the very least a business will achieve is saving time and physical space, and will certainly see its revenue and profit increase.

Remote storage also means a security gain. Data is kept on an external server, with constant backups, which guarantees the integrity of the information. You no longer run the risk of simply losing paper receipts or data stored on the company computer's hard drive.

Taxes that apply to any invoice:

Most vary according to the tax regime chosen (Simples, presumed profit, or actual profit) and the business sector.

• IRPJ: Corporate income tax (calculated based on profit — actual, presumed, or arbitrated — with a 15% rate on the calculated profit, plus an additional 10% on the portion of profit that exceeds R$ 20,000.00 per month);
• Cofins: Contribution for financing social security (paid only by businesses and varies according to each company's revenue);
• PIS: Social integration program (funds unemployment insurance);
• CSLL: Social contribution on net profit (a federal tax on net profit for the period, owed by businesses, with a rate that varies between 10% and 12%);
• ISSQN: Tax on services of any kind. It is municipal and varies between 2% and 5%;

Taxes on products:

• ICMS: Tax on the circulation of goods and services (a state tax, where rates depend on the state of origin and destination);
• IPI: Tax on industrialized products;
• II: Import tax (if applicable);
• IE: Export tax (if applicable);
• IOF: Tax on credit, foreign-exchange, and insurance transactions (if applicable);