Guide to e-invoicing | Support (2024)

E-invoicing is getting more popular and it is more common that companies wish to get their invoice as an e-invoice.

Isolta has made e-invoicing as easy as possible, but there are still some points you should know about sending e-invoices.

This article explains how to send an e-invoice, what is e-invoice address, how much does sending an e-invoice cost and what are the most common mistakes while sending an e-invoice.
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In this article we go through all you need to know about e-invoicing.

E-invoice journey from you to your customer

We promise that with the help of Isolta, everyone knows how to send e-invoices. You don’t need any separate agreement with the e-invoice operator, because Isolta has made it sure that every Isolta user has the possibility to send e-invoices.

When sending the invoice as an e-invoice, we will check it automatically, so that everything meets the necessary requirements. After that, our partner Basware or Unifiedpost, will send it to your customer. In general, an e-invoice will be received directly into the recipient’s accounts payable software.

Sending an e-invoice is similar to sending a traditional invoice. The only extra information you need is the recipient’s e-invoice address and operator code, which you can add directly to the customers contact card or while invoicing.

In order to send an e-invoice to an Estonian company, you first need to send us a request. You can do that from Settings - Invoice settings - E-invoice settings (if your company is registered to Estonia). Alternatively, you can send the request if your client's country is Estonia and you are trying to send them an e-invoice.

Activating e-invoicing in Estonia might take up to 2 bank days. We will let you know, to your email, when it's activated.

After activation, you can send the e-invoice by taking following steps:

Note! If you want to send an e-invoice to some other country, than Finland or Estonia, please contact us and we will give you further instructions.

You can check the current e-invoice pricing in Finland here.

E-invoicing to an Estonian company is free.

We will send an invoice to your email after you have reached a certain amount (usually from 2€ - 10€). Alternatively, we will include it to the annual invoice.

E-invoicing address is invoice sender’s or recipient’s address, which enables companies to receive e-invoices. E-invoice address can be in a form of OVT-number, IBAN or Verkkopalvelutunnus.

The most common forms of e-invoice addresses are:

Note! Check the spelling of a e-invoice address and operator code before you send the invoice! Misspelled e-invoice address or operator code are the most common reasons why e-invoice won’t find it’s way to the recipient.

E-invoice needs to have recipient’s address (street address, postal code, city), your bank information (IBAN and BIC), because they are mandatory requirements set by the tax authorities. In addition, e-invoice must contain e-invoice address and operator code. Find more information about invoice requirements here.

Open customers contact card from Show Contacts or add a new contact if you haven't saved that contact before from New Contact:

Then click on the +E-invoice address button and fill in the necessary fields (E-invoice address and Operator Code). If you don't have this information, then you can check it from verkklaskuosoite.fi (in Finland) or by asking your client.
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Make sure you've also added your customers other information - Address, Postal code. etc. And remember to click Save. Now you can move on and send the e-invoice.

If you're saved your customers e-invoice address to their contact card, the service will set the invoicing method as e-invoice automatically so you only need to click the Send button.

Ps. You can also insert e-invoice address and operator code while choosing the invoicing method. The software will ask you if you want to save them to the customers contact card.

E-invoices are sent as a standard e-invoice form. The standard dictates the amount of information that can be send in an e-invoice. For example, the maximum amount of characters in a field. The standard ensures that all of the information in the invoice can be correctly transferred to the customer.

A few examples of the limitations:

So e-invoices have certain limitations as to how many characters certain fields can have. Isolta will not allow you to send an e-invoice unless all the requirements of the standard are met.

If you're sending an e-invoice to a Finnish company, you can attach the following file formats to e-invoices: pdf, jpg, png, doc, docx, xls, xlsx, odt, ods. You can attach up to 10 files to a single invoice. The maximum size of the attached files is 5 Mb.

The previous limitations are set by Isolta but other invoicing systems and e-invoice operators might have their own limitations. It is recommended to check from the receiver, what types of files they can receive as an attachment. The most commonly supported file type is .pdf so you should use it whenever possible.

Note! When sending an e-invoice to an Estonian company, attachments can't be added. This is a restriction by Estonian government.

We will inform you via email if there are problems with the delivery as soon as possible. If you don't hear from us, you can expect the invoice to be delivered. In the future we will add the possibility to follow the sending-process yourself.

It is not possible to cancel the sending of an e-invoice, because the invoice is forwarded to the recipient immediately after sending.

If you sent an incorrect invoice to a customer, the best way to correct the situation is to refund the invoice and send the credit note to the customer. You can then submit a completely new invoice.