Mandatory electronic invoicing between businesses: what the Crea y Crece Law requires
What the Crea y Crece Law requires for mandatory B2B electronic invoicing, who it affects, implementation deadlines, invoice status reporting and how businesses can prepare.
TL;DR
Law 18/2022, known as the Crea y Crece Law, establishes the obligation to issue and send electronic invoices in all transactions between businesses and professionals, and not only for large companies: it also applies to self-employed professionals and microenterprises. Its stated purpose is not tax collection but the monitoring of late payments: by making the issuance, acceptance and actual payment of each invoice traceable, it makes it possible to measure the real payment periods across the business sector.
The obligation does not take effect on its own: its enforceability is subject to implementing regulations, and the deadlines are calculated from the approval of those regulations, with a shorter period for companies with higher turnover and a longer one for everyone else. It is also important not to confuse it with three other separate obligations that coexist with it: electronic invoicing to public authorities, which has been in force for years; the requirements for invoicing software systems; and the Immediate Supply of VAT Information.
What exactly does the Crea y Crece Law establish?
Law 18/2022 on the creation and growth of companies introduced a set of measures aimed at making it easier to set up companies and combating late payment in commercial transactions. Among them, and of particular relevance here, it amended the legislation promoting the information society to establish that all businesses and professionals must issue, send and receive electronic invoices in their commercial dealings with other businesses and professionals.
It is important to emphasise the scope, because this is where most of the confusion lies. Mandatory electronic invoicing is universal in the B2B sphere: it does not distinguish by size, sector or turnover. It affects a company with hundreds of employees in the same way as a self-employed professional who issues ten invoices a month, with the only difference being the implementation deadline.
The legislation does not merely require electronic invoices to be issued. It introduces three additional obligations that are the ones that really change how companies operate:
Interoperability. The formats and platforms used must allow issuers and recipients to exchange invoices even if they use solutions from different providers. Simply sending a file is not enough: it must be possible for the recipient's system to receive and process it.
Information on invoice statuses. The recipient must inform the issuer of the status of each invoice, particularly whether it has been accepted or rejected and, especially importantly, the date on which payment was actually made. This is the element that turns the legislation into a tool for monitoring late payments.
Recipient access to invoices. The recipient has the right to access invoices received for a period of years after the commercial relationship has ended, even if they are no longer a customer of the issuer or if the issuer changes technology provider.
The consolidated text of the law can be consulted in the Boletín Oficial del Estado, and it should be reviewed together with its implementing regulations, which specify many of the technical aspects.
The fundamental change is not moving from paper to PDF. It is moving from a document that is sent to structured data that is processed, whose journey —issued, received, accepted, paid— is recorded and verifiable.
From when is mandatory electronic invoicing enforceable?
This is the most frequently asked question about mandatory electronic invoicing and deserves a precise answer, because the confusion has generated a great deal of noise.
Mandatory electronic invoicing between businesses did not become enforceable immediately. Its effectiveness was made subject to implementing regulations specifying the technical requirements: accepted formats, operation of the public solution, interoperability requirements and status reporting.
The timetable established in the law itself is staggered and is calculated from the approval of those implementing regulations, not from the publication of the law:
| Obliged party | Deadline from approval of the regulations |
|---|---|
| Businesses and professionals with annual turnover exceeding eight million euros | One year |
| All other businesses and professionals, including self-employed professionals and microenterprises | Two years |
There is also an additional provision relevant to those in the second group: during a transitional period, businesses with higher turnover must accompany their electronic invoices with a document that makes them easier to read for recipients who are not yet subject to the obligation.
The regulatory process has taken considerably longer than initially expected, which has pushed back the effective timetable. The practical recommendation is therefore twofold: do not assume any specific date without checking it against up-to-date official sources, while at the same time not waiting until the deadline to start preparing, because adapting systems and processes cannot be completed in a matter of weeks.
Official information on electronic invoicing and the associated tax obligations is available through the electronic office of the Spanish Tax Agency, which is the reference source for checking the regulatory status at any given time.
How is it different from FACe, Verifactu and the SII?
This is the source of most of the confusion surrounding electronic invoicing, because these are four different obligations, with different legislation and different timetables, which overlap in time and are often mentioned together.
Electronic invoicing to public authorities (B2G). This is the oldest of the four and has been fully operational for years. It requires invoices addressed to public authorities to be submitted electronically through general entry points such as FACe. It has nothing to do with transactions between private businesses, although it shares the same name.
Electronic invoicing between businesses (B2B). This is the mandatory electronic invoicing introduced by the Crea y Crece Law and the subject analysed here. Its main purpose is to monitor late payment in commercial transactions, and its scope covers relationships between businesses and professionals.
Requirements for invoicing software systems. This is a tax-related obligation with its own regulations and timetable, requiring invoicing software to meet certain requirements regarding the integrity, retention, traceability and immutability of records, with the possibility of sending those records to the tax authorities. It affects the software being used, not the format used to exchange invoices with customers.
Immediate Supply of VAT Information. This is the system for maintaining VAT ledgers through the electronic office and applies to certain categories of taxpayers, such as large companies, VAT groups and businesses registered under the monthly VAT refund scheme.
| Obligation | Scope | What it regulates |
|---|---|---|
| B2G electronic invoicing | Business to public authority | Format and submission to the public authority |
| B2B electronic invoicing | Business to business | Format, interoperability and statuses |
| Invoicing software systems | Company's own software | Integrity and traceability of records |
| SII | Certain categories of taxpayers | Maintenance of VAT ledgers |
The practical consequence of this distinction is important: complying with one does not exempt a company from complying with the others. A company may be correctly issuing invoices to public authorities and using compliant software, while still needing to make changes in order to comply with mandatory electronic invoicing between businesses.
What format must an electronic invoice use?
It is worth clarifying a widespread misunderstanding from the outset: a PDF sent by email is not an electronic invoice for the purposes of this legislation.
The difference lies in the structure. A PDF is an image of the document: readable by a person, but opaque to a system. An electronic invoice in the regulatory sense is a file containing structured data that the recipient's system can read, validate and automatically integrate into its accounting system without manual intervention or transcription.
That distinction is what makes everything else in electronic invoicing possible: automatic validation, status recording, reconciliation with purchase orders and delivery notes, and measurement of payment periods.
As regards specific formats, the legislation refers to the syntax and standards established by the implementing regulations, in line with European electronic invoicing standards. In Spain, the format used for invoicing public authorities has become particularly established, while at European level, syntaxes based on international document-exchange standards are used.
What matters for a company is not memorising the names of electronic invoice formats, but checking three things with its software provider:
- That the software issues invoices in an accepted structured format.
- That the software receives and processes structured invoices from third parties, which is the area that many solutions have addressed less effectively.
- That the software manages status reporting, including the date of actual payment.
As regards channels, the legislation provides for the coexistence of private exchange platforms and a public electronic invoicing solution managed by the public authorities, designed particularly for those that do not have their own resources or whose volume does not justify a commercial solution. Private platforms must guarantee interoperability with each other and with the public solution.
What are invoice statuses and why do they matter?
This is the aspect of mandatory electronic invoicing with the greatest operational impact and the one most often underestimated when the legislation is read only superficially.
In addition to issuing and receiving invoices, the recipient of an invoice is required to inform the issuer of certain statuses. The statuses highlighted by the law are acceptance or rejection of the invoice, together with the relevant date, and the actual payment and its date, understood as full payment.
The implementing regulations may provide for additional voluntary statuses, such as partial acceptance or rejection or partial payment, providing greater detail in the traceability process.
The purpose of this mechanism is directly linked to combating late payment. Until now, measuring the real payment periods of the business sector depended on surveys and declarations. With status records, those periods become verifiable using real data, allowing both reliable statistics to be produced and, potentially, access to that information as part of public support policies.
For a company, this has two implications. The first is an administrative burden: statuses have to be reported, which requires a process and a system capable of supporting it rather than manual invoice-by-invoice management. The second is an opportunity: for the first time there is an objective record of when payment actually takes place, strengthening the position of anyone pursuing an overdue payment and making the behaviour of businesses that systematically pay late more visible.
It is therefore advisable to review two internal processes before the obligation becomes enforceable: who reports the statuses of invoices received and within what timeframe, and how the statuses of invoices issued are recorded so that collection can be monitored.
What penalties does mandatory electronic invoicing provide for?
The law establishes a specific penalty regime for mandatory electronic invoicing that businesses should be aware of, although its specific application depends on the implementing regulations and on when each obligation becomes enforceable.
The provision expressly included in the legislation penalises companies that do not offer users the possibility of receiving electronic invoices or do not allow former customers to access them, with a fine of up to ten thousand euros. It is classified as a minor infringement and is handled by the competent authority.
This is in addition to the consequences of failing to comply with tax-related invoicing obligations, which have their own regime under tax legislation and may be considerably more severe.
Beyond the risk of penalties, there is a more immediate practical consideration: pressure from the supply chain. Once companies with higher turnover become subject to the obligation, they will require their suppliers to be able to issue and receive structured invoices, regardless of whether those suppliers' own legal deadline falls later. In practice, many SMEs will be required to adapt earlier by their customers than by the regulatory timetable.
This knock-on effect is the main reason to prepare in advance: not because of fear of penalties, but because being unable to invoice in the format required by an important customer is an immediate commercial problem.
How should you prepare for mandatory electronic invoicing?
A structured roadmap for mandatory electronic invoicing, starting with the steps that do not depend on the implementing regulations having been approved.
Review your invoicing software. This is the first step and the one that takes the longest. Ask the provider, in writing, whether the solution will issue and receive electronic invoices in a structured format, whether it will manage statuses and when that functionality will be available. If the answer is vague, it is worth considering alternatives in good time.
Clean up master data. This is the least visible task and the one that prevents the greatest number of problems. Correct company names, validated tax identification numbers, complete addresses and up-to-date customer and supplier contact details. A structured invoice containing incorrect information is automatically rejected, whereas the same error in a PDF might previously have gone unnoticed.
Review the catalogue and coding. Standardised descriptions of products and services, consistent units of measurement and correctly assigned tax rates.
Define the invoice-receipt process. This is the aspect most companies neglect because they focus only on issuing invoices. You need to decide who validates invoices received, the criteria used to accept or reject them, within what timeframe, and who reports the status.
Define the payment-status reporting process, which requires coordination between administration and treasury, because actual payment status depends on when the payment is made, not when it is approved.
Train the administrative team, as they are the people who will deal with the change every day.
Speak to key customers and suppliers to understand their timetables and platforms and avoid interoperability surprises.
Retain and archive invoices for the required periods, while also guaranteeing recipient access throughout the stipulated period.
What benefits does it offer beyond compliance?
It is worth pointing this out because it changes the way the electronic invoicing project is approached: treating it solely as an obligation leads to the minimum solution, while this is one of those rules where well-planned compliance can deliver real benefits.
Fewer errors. Manual transcription of invoices received is a constant source of errors in amounts, dates and codes. Structured data is integrated without being re-entered.
Administrative time savings. Accounting entries for supplier invoices, reconciliation with purchase orders and delivery notes, and filing cease to be manual tasks.
Lower document-management costs, with no printing, postal delivery or physical filing.
Better control of the approval process, with traceability of who approved what and when.
Real information on collection and payment periods, a treasury metric that many companies currently manage only approximately and which becomes available with precision.
A stronger position in relation to late payments, with an objective record of dates supporting any claim.
That last point connects directly with the purpose of the legislation. Mandatory electronic invoicing between businesses was conceived as a tool to combat late payment in commercial transactions, a problem that affects SMEs particularly severely, as systematic delays in collection translate into cash-flow pressure and a need for financing.
How does mandatory electronic invoicing affect self-employed professionals?
This deserves its own section because self-employed professionals are the group with the most questions about mandatory electronic invoicing and the fewest resources with which to manage the change.
The obligation also applies to self-employed professionals and microenterprises, with no exemption based on turnover. What changes is the deadline: they are the last group to be brought within the system, with the longest period following approval of the implementing regulations.
For someone who issues only a small number of invoices each month, cost is a reasonable concern. This is where the planned public electronic invoicing solution becomes particularly relevant, as it is specifically designed for those without their own resources and will allow users to issue, receive and consult invoices without having to purchase a commercial platform.
That said, for a self-employed professional with ongoing activity, a solution that integrates invoicing and accounting will generally be worthwhile because the administrative time saved exceeds the cost of the tool.
There is another point worth clarifying: the obligation applies to transactions with other businesses and professionals. Transactions with end consumers have their own regime and are not subject to this structured exchange obligation, without prejudice to general invoicing obligations and the requirements applicable to the software systems used.
For anyone currently setting up a business or changing its structure, this is a good time to consider the whole picture: registering the activity with an invoicing system that is already adapted avoids having to migrate later. In this context, dealing at the same time with the professional address and mail handling through a business address service can considerably simplify the start-up process, particularly for someone working without a physical office who needs a professional address at which to receive notifications.
What mistakes should be avoided?
A review of the mistakes most commonly repeated in projects to adapt to electronic invoicing.
Waiting until the deadline. Adaptation is not only technological: it involves cleaning up data, reviewing processes and training the team. Companies that start with enough time can do so in an orderly way; those that wait tend to encounter problems.
Thinking only about issuing invoices. Receiving and processing electronic invoices from suppliers is, in many organisations, the most complex part and the one most often neglected during planning.
Confusing B2B electronic invoicing with the other obligations. Complying with invoicing requirements for public authorities or having software that meets tax requirements does not mean a company is ready for B2B invoicing.
Assuming the software provider will solve everything automatically. It is advisable to obtain written confirmation of when the necessary functionalities will be available.
Failing to clean up master data, which is the leading cause of automatic rejections during the first few months.
Ignoring the status-reporting process, which is where the legislation introduces new workload and where a technical solution alone is not enough without someone being assigned responsibility.
Failing to coordinate with large customers, which may require structured invoicing capability before your own legal deadline arrives.
Frequently asked questions about mandatory electronic invoicing
Is a PDF sent by email an electronic invoice? No, not for the purposes of this legislation. An electronic invoice is a file containing structured data that the recipient's system can read, validate and integrate automatically. A PDF is an image of the document: readable by a person but not automatically processable, and it does not allow the status recording or interoperability required.
Does it also apply to self-employed professionals? Yes. The obligation applies to all businesses and professionals in their transactions with other businesses and professionals, with no exemption based on turnover. What varies is the deadline: self-employed professionals and microenterprises have the longest period following approval of the implementing regulations.
Exactly when does it become enforceable? The deadlines are calculated from the approval of the implementing regulations: one year for those with annual turnover exceeding eight million euros and two years for everyone else. As the regulatory process has taken longer than expected, it is advisable to check the latest position in official sources before setting an internal timetable.
Is it the same as Verifactu or the SII? No. They are different obligations with their own legislation and timetables. The requirements for invoicing software systems affect the software being used; the SII governs the maintenance of VAT ledgers for certain categories of taxpayers; and B2B electronic invoicing regulates the format, interoperability and statuses in relationships between businesses.
What is the penalty for non-compliance? The law provides for a fine of up to ten thousand euros for companies that do not offer the possibility of receiving electronic invoices or do not allow access to former customers. This is in addition to the consequences of failing to comply with associated tax obligations, which have their own penalty regime.
Do I have to report when I pay an invoice? Yes. The recipient is required to communicate certain statuses to the issuer, including acceptance or rejection and the date of actual payment. This is the element that turns the legislation into a tool for measuring late payments and requires the company to define internally who reports those statuses and within what timeframe.
