Mandatory electronic invoicing with the Public Administration in Croatia

Croatia is one of the countries that will add the compulsory nature of electronic invoicing with the Public Administration this 2019. As of 1st July, the law obliges the authorities and central entities to receive and issue all invoices structured in electronic format through the eRačun platform. The objective is to improve efficiency in public procurement processes and support the implementation of electronic invoicing in all EU member countries. For this, a set of specifications and standards (PEPPOL) has been created that allows the electronic exchange of .xml files among all European public entities.

Legislation about electronic invoicing

Also known as eInvoincing, the electronic invoicing for public entities is mandatory in Croatia since the publication of decision 94/2018 on October 17, 2018. This law, which obliges public bodies to make the electronic invoice (or eInvoince), has gradually entered into force by establishing the following timelines:

  • From 1st December 2018: the normative obliges all public purchasers / procures as public procurement entities to receive structured electronic invoices
  • From 1st July 2019: all suppliers to contracting authorities are obliged to issue only electronic invoicese

In this way, Croatia is one of the first countries to adapt to the EU directive 2014/55 before the stipulated deadline (April 2019), a common rule for all member states that allows the standardization of the invoicing process.

eInvoicing platform: how does it work?

Servis eRačun za državu is a national platform for the exchange of electronic invoices operated by the financial agency FINA that controls the conformity of each document with the European standard EN 16931-1.

The direct connection to the platform is made through a PEPPOL access point, a European format that allows interoperability between disparate systems throughout Europe thanks to a series of standards.

The eRačun platform, which connects buyers, public authorities and other information intermediaries, allows the exchange of electronic invoices in a fully automated or semi-automated mode, among many other advantages:

  • Standardization of the exchange protocol thanks to a unique connection to the PEPPOl access point
  • One record and one statistical analysis of all messages / invoices received
  • A simple registration in Servis eRačun za državu is enough to exchange electronic invoices with other registered users4

PEPPOL: quality technology at European level

In accordance with the European Union initiative, many companies have integrated the PEPPOL format into their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).

One of them is Microsoft that proposes Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations. The last update of this ERP allows the importation of invoices from suppliers from the electronic format “PEPPOL BIS 3”.

On the other hand, B2Brouter is an electronic invoicing service in the public sector that has participated in the development of PEPPOL projects. Today B2Brouter is one of the providers of this technology in Spain allowing the exchange of eInvoices between different ERP (SAP, Microsoft…).

The benefits of working with the PEPPOL standards are multiple, so B2Brouter guarantees a software that allow you to save time and costs in the invoicing process with the public administration (especially when it comes to companies with a high number of suppliers and invoices received) increasing the productivity of your company.