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Do you supply goods or provide services to the Lithuanian public sector? Get ready to transition to electronic invoice submission from the 1st of July 2024.
From the 1st of July Lithuanian Register Center (RC) system "E. Sąskaita" is being replaced by the new platform SABIS. This means that companies who have commercial transactions with state institutions, and also submit electronic invoices (e-invoices), must prepare for the change. As of from July, all invoices issued to the public sector will be sent through the SABIS platform.
What is changing and how can you take advantage of the changes?
According to the new procedure there will be three ways to submit invoices:
Entering your invoices manually through the SABIS website. This method is suitable if you only submit a few invoices to the public sector.
Transferring data from your accounting system to SABIS via an API. This method is best when invoices are submitted to purchasing organisations in larger quantities or with frequent periodicity.
Through the Peppol network. This option solves even the submission of invoices to SABIS, but can be used in a much wider scope - sending invoices to business partners and receiving invoices from suppliers. This will especially be relevant in the near future, as the EU plans to introduce mandatory e-invoicing for cross-border transactions. And neighbouring countries, such as Latvia, will make the exchange of business-to-business (B2B) invoices mandatory in the near future.
The bad news is that businesses who have direct integration from their accounting systems to RC will have to redo their integration.
The changes will affect not only the invoicing channel, but also the invoice format. SABIS has decided to use European standard electronic invoices (UBL XML), which will lead to several fundamental changes. The most important of them is the defined logic of VAT calculation. Until now, there was no clear rule on how VAT should be calculated on invoices. Some calculated from account lines, others from total amounts. The latter option is becoming the new standard.
There is not much time left before the new rules come into force, so until the 1st of July it is likely that many billers will try to adapt their existing RC integration to SABIS. However, a rare company has information about an alternative and better way - the European network of Peppol.
The Peppol channel has several key advantages:
"Peppol" includes not only the requirement to submit invoices to the Lithuanian business-to-government (B2G), but can be used for sending invoices both to local business partners and international trade - the volumes will increase due to future requirements from the European Commission. There is already a draft EU directive aimed at improving VAT collection. Companies trading with international partners will have to exchange e-invoices through the Peppol network.
The company becomes not only a sender of invoices, but also has the opportunity to receive e-invoices from suppliers. This significantly streamlines accounting processes: these invoices do not need to be entered manually, they are free of human errors, and they cannot be lost.
The good news for suppliers who are already using Peppol to submit their invoices to RC is that they will avoid the upcoming changes and additional work.
What to do next?
The Peppol network is accessible through access points (operators) that ensure all requirements: perform the "know your customer" function, ensure the authenticity of invoices and compliance with technical standards.
One of the easiest ways to become part of the Peppol network is to integrate the accounting system with the solutions of the accounting operator. Last year, the Government of Lithuania allocated funds to Unifiedpost Group (now Banqup Group) to create the Euroconnector tool, which significantly facilitates the integration of the accounting system and the Peppol network. The company only needs to contact the provider of the accounting system with the need to become part of the Peppol network.
Another way is to contact Banqup Group, who will select the most suitable data exchange solution and share their experience on how to meet current and future e-invoicing requirements. Download our latest guide and fill out the contact form and we will contact you shortly.
Additional information
From 2018 the Government of Lithuania presented the requirements that companies participating in public procurement must submit invoices to purchasing organisations through the platform "E. Sąskaita". This is how the EU directive was implemented, which defined that all state institutions must be able to accept e-invoices. The state is trying to make its operational processes more efficient and sees that in 2014 the launched RC platform "E. Sąskaita" is outdated and no longer meets today's standards, so it is not possible to use all the benefits of receiving electronic invoices.