Do you e-mail invoices, debit notes or credit notes to your customers?

If so, do you meet SARS’ requirements for electronic documents?

If you transact with electronic documents rather than the traditional hard copy paper version, like most businesses do these days, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) requires that all of your electronic invoices, credit notes and debit notes meet certain requirements. As with most SARS requirements, non-compliance can come with hefty penalties.

The most important requirement is that documents must be sent in a format with at least 128 bit encryption – a standard PDF won’t do. In addition, the customer must agree to receive electronic documents from the vendor under the conditions set out by SARS.

Problem solved with Pastel Accounting

The newly released Pastel Partner and Xpress Version 11 meets the SARS requirements for the issuing of electronic documents. Because Pastel is a South African business we’ve been able to consult with the experts in South African tax law so you can rest assured that an upgrade to Version 11 will keep you requirement-compliant.

How it works

Not all PDFs are encrypted by default, but the latest version of Pastel will do it automatically for you. Encrypted PDFs are denoted with a lock at the top left side of the document. Encryption is enabled through PDF at the time of issuing the document so there’s no need to change settings in the new version of Pastel software.

And what else?

The transmitted electronic document will be considered as the original document and must bear the words “Computer Generated Tax Invoice”. Any copies generated by the system thereafter, whether e-mailed or printed, must bear the words “Computer Generated Copy Tax Invoice”. It’s important to remember that if the electronic version is the main document, a hard copy version cannot be sent as mere good measure. If the client wants a hard copy version, they must request to receive a copy of the original.

When it comes to record keeping, both you and your client must retain the documents in readable and encrypted form for a period of five years from the date of the supply. This holds true for your accountant too.