Send Electronic XML Invoices

Description of process

The Send Electronic XML Invoices process in IFS Cloud is used to send electronic invoices which use the E-INVOICE media code to customers. The option to send invoices is enabled when outbound message information has been defined in the  Customer/Message Setup with INVOIC message class and E-INVOICE media code.

The process begins with the creation of a customer invoice (instant invoice, project invoice or customer order invoice). The created invoices can be sent using any of the following windows:

The e-invoices are sent as XML messages, one invoice per message. When sending an invoice using this process, an invoice image is always included with the e-invoice message. You can also enclose other attachments directly on the invoice or the customer order, or enclose them manually at the time of sending an invoice. The attachments can be included even when the customer order flow automatically sends invoices. The invoice image and attachments sent with the e-invoice message are automatically checked into IFS/Document Management at the time of sending. The invoice image and any connected attachments can be viewed from the actual invoice.

A report for the invoice image is created in the report archives when an invoice with E-INVOICE media code is sent. You can specify whether you want this report printed or not at the time the invoice is sent.

E-invoices with the invoice image and other attachments connected to the invoice message can be sent even if IFS/Document Management is not installed.

When an invoice is sent, an IFS XML is generated. The invoice image and any attachments will be embedded to the XML message, encoded in base64 format. The IFS XML is then transformed into an IFS Einvoice XML. The XML message will be sent from IFS Cloud using IFS/Connect.

Once an invoice is sent, it is also possible to resend the invoice. When re-sending from the Sent Invoices page, a new XML message is created together with a new invoice image that will be attached to the message. Any previously sent attachments are also resent automatically. When resending from the Customer Invoice page, a new XML message is created together with a new invoice image that will be attached to the message, but any already sent attachments will not be sent automatically. You can manually enclose the attachments if you want them to be resent as well.

If an invoice is stopped during the send process, the invoice can either be found in the Customer Invoices with Errors page, the Background Jobs page or in IFS/Solution Manager.

Before you start the process of sending invoices, make sure that the basic data required (BDR) has been set up as per the instructions in Basic Data Set Up for the Send Electronic XML Invoices Process in Topics in IFS Cloud.