When organizations first hear the term electronic invoicing, they often immediately think of accounts payable solutions. However, the real issue at hand for global companies is compliance - which encompasses not only supplier invoices, but also outbound invoices to customers (accounts receivables).  This one word, compliance, will be the dominating meaning of electronic invoicing for the foreseeable future, especially for corporations looking to expand their business into Latin America.  It all started in Brazil. But over the past 3 years,  Mexico has also adopted a more intricate series of legislation and regulations around electronic invoicing. Mexico’s Servicio de Aministracion Tributaria (SAT) has just released a new set of requirements that organizations will currently have to adopt by July 2012.  These new mandates appear to be more similar to the Brazilian Nota Fiscal processes. In this first blog, we will cover some of the new changes and in future blogs will cover them in more detail.Key Changes in 2012:

• Shipping Requirement: New requirement that all deliveries within Mexico must have the Comprobante (and UUID) as part of the documentation accompanying the truck for delivery.  Otherwise the truck and its goods can be impounded with fines demanded before release. This is a significant change for customers that do not have their logistics and invoicing processes linked together today. 

• Account Number:  Emisor  are expected to know and report the last 4 digits of the account numbers that their customers use for payment. 

• Fiscal Address: the street and address will no longer be required, but the country, state and postal code still will.

• Installment Payments:  For installment payments, the emisor must send an invoice for each payment, plus an “informational” invoice to document the entire amount.

Latin American countries are operating the most sophisticated electronic invoicing solutions in the world. And as each month passes, more countries are following the trail of Brazil. Argentina's AFIP announced compulsory mandates, and there are more countries to follow in 2012. These real-time web service validations go far beyond a digital signature and archive which is often associated with European e-Invoicing. Don't under estimate the ERP configurations and changes that you will need to install or have a solution provider manage, and most of all get started early as July 2012 will approach quickly.