There is a lot of confusion in the marketplace for solutions for Mexico CFDI. To make matters worse, the timeline for implementing CFDI is looming just around the corner on December 31, 2013.  In conversations with many companies, we are seeing a wide variety of solutions. Here are the five mission critical questions you need to ask your potential providers beyond the Timbre.

Important note: the Mexico government is the first government to outsource their electronic signing to third parties. Unlike the Brazil SEFAZ, Argentina AFIP or Chile SII, Mexico has taken the approach of utilizing certified third party signers on their behalf.  There is often confusion in the market place that these are end to end solution providers. All a PAC is – from the true meaning of the certification, is a provider capable of producing the Timbre Fiscal. In other words, signing on behalf of the government.

From a solution standpoint, the Timbre Fiscal is 10% of the solution. In simpler terms, it is like the physical stamp you use to mail a letter home to your relatives.  Someone still has to get the paper, the pen, write the letter, put the letter in the envelope, write the sending address, the return address, then place the stamp on the envelope and finally take it to a mailbox which is picked up by someone. If I told you I was a certified letter writing service and all I did was put a stamp on the envelope – you would still be left with 90% of the work.  This is the confusion with a PAC.

Ask your provider these five questions to ensure you are purchasing an end to end solution – otherwise you will be left with 90% of the implementation, monitoring and maintenance going forward. 

1. My ability to ship is directly connected to you getting me the Timbre Fiscal on time. If you are not working, what is your back up plan for contingency? How do you ensure that a bottleneck or service interruption doesn’t affect my ability to ship?
2. Who is responsible for extracting the data out of the ERP system? Do you write the extraction code and maintain it through government changes or customer addenda requests?
3. Who is managing the printers? Do you automatically send to the printers based on distribution rules or do I have to go to your portal and physically print an invoice?
4. Who manages the distribution of the invoice to my end customers?
5. If the government or a customer has a change, is this covered under your support contract or do I have to contract with you each time there is an update?  What is covered by your support contract – does this include all of the ERP extraction, printing rules, distribution rules, addenda, or does this just cover the Timbre?

I will explore these concepts in more detail in future blogs.