Still have doubts about electronic accounting archives? The complete guide to electronic voucher reimbursement, booking, and archiving!

Bookkeeping vouchers are fully electronic. Although fully digitalized e-invoices are more convenient, finance staff feel increasingly uncertain. For example: What exactly are the differences between the various formats of e-invoices? How should e-vouchers be reimbursed, posted, and archived? Let's find out together!

1.Notice of the Accounting Department of the Ministry of Finance on Standardizing the Reimbursement, Booking and Archiving of Electronic Accounting Vouchers

I. Electronic accounting vouchers referred to in this Notice mean various types of accounting vouchers in electronic form received by a unit from outside, including electronic invoices, electronic fiscal bills, electronic passenger tickets, electronic itineraries, electronic special customs payment statements, bank electronic receipts, and other electronic accounting vouchers.

II. Legally sourced and authentic electronic accounting vouchers have the same legal effect as paper accounting vouchers.

III. Unless otherwise provided by laws and administrative regulations, an entity may use only electronic accounting vouchers for reimbursement, accounting, and archiving if the following conditions are met simultaneously:

(1) The received electronic accounting vouchers have been verified as lawful and authentic;

(II) The transmission and storage of electronic accounting vouchers are secure and reliable, and any tampering with electronic accounting vouchers can be promptly detected;

(3) The accounting system used can accurately, completely, and effectively receive and read electronic accounting vouchers and their metadata, can complete accounting business in accordance with the unified national accounting system, can output electronic accounting vouchers and their metadata in the format prescribed by the national archives administrative department, has established necessary review and approval procedures such as handling, review, and approval, and can effectively prevent duplicate entry of electronic accounting vouchers;

(4) The archiving and management of electronic accounting vouchers comply with the requirements of the "Measures for the Management of Accounting Archives" (Order No. 79 of the Ministry of Finance and the National Archives Administration) and other requirements.

IV. If a unit uses a paper printout of an electronic accounting voucher as the basis for reimbursement, bookkeeping, and archiving, it must also retain the electronic accounting voucher from which the paper copy was printed.

V. Electronic accounting archives meeting archive management requirements have the same legal effect as paper archives. Unless otherwise provided by laws and administrative regulations, electronic accounting archives may no longer be kept in paper form.

VI. If units and individuals violate the provisions of this Notice in the reimbursement, booking, and archiving of electronic accounting vouchers, the finance department of the people's government at or above the county level and the archives administration department shall handle and penalize according to the Accounting Law of the People's Republic of China, the Archives Law of the People's Republic of China, and other relevant laws and administrative regulations.

Seven, this notice shall be interpreted by the Ministry of Finance and the National Archives Administration and shall take effect from the date of issuance.

　　Ministry of Finance

　　National Archives Administration

March 23, 2020

2. Full-process electronicization! Which formats can be archived?

As early as 2022, the State Council issued the "Opinions on Further Optimizing the Business Environment and Reducing Institutional Transaction Costs for Market Entities."

The Opinions mentioned the need to fully realize paperless reimbursement, booking, archiving, and storage of electronic invoices.

In 2023, the "Guidelines for the Full-Process Electronic Management of Electronic Invoices" was issued. Except for Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, the nationwide pilot of fully digitalized e-invoices has achieved full coverage, and full-process electronification has officially become a trend. What exactly are the provisions? According to Article 3 of the "Notice of the Ministry of Finance and the National Archives Administration on Standardizing the Reimbursement, Booking and Archiving of Electronic Accounting Vouchers" (Cai Kuai [2020] No. 6):

Archiving format

For fully digitalized e-invoices to be recorded and archived, what formats are available? Under current policies, fully digitalized e-invoices have three formats: OFD, PDF, and XML.

▪ PDF

PDF files are the format we receive most often. In fact, PDF is a preview for taxpayers; taxpayers can print PDF files and use paper printouts as vouchers for reimbursement and posting, but PDF is not a source file! Moreover, PDF does not support verification of the validity of the invoice supervision seal and electronic signature.

▪ OFD

OFD is the electronic voucher for reimbursement, posting, and archiving, and its appearance is no different from PDF. The biggest difference between the two is that OFD allows verification of the validity of the invoice supervision seal and electronic signature in the "VAT Electronic Invoice Format File Reader."

▪ XML

Unlike PDF and OFD, XML is formally just a string of code that records all metadata of an invoice, as shown below: So how do fully digitalized e-invoices undergo correct reimbursement, bookkeeping, and archiving? Read on!

3. Correct reimbursement, recording, and archiving of fully digitalized e-invoices

How do you correctly reimburse, book, and archive fully digitalized e-invoices?

Let's go straight to the flowchart:

1. Acquisition and storage of electronic invoices and electronic vouchers:Enterprises obtain XML data files with digital signatures of fully digitalized e-invoices through channels such as email download and tax bureau website download.

2. Document storage:Store the obtained fully digitalized e-invoices in the invoice pool. For enterprises and institutions without reimbursement systems (such as reimbursement systems or invoice pools) to support file acquisition and storage, it is recommended that employees manually download to local storage.

3. File signature verification and invoice authenticity verification:Before reimbursement and booking, enterprises need to verify the received fully digitalized e-invoices in XML format with digital signatures in accordance with existing tax administration requirements to ensure invoice authenticity. Only invoices that pass verification can be reimbursed and booked, and enterprises record the verification and signature validation information of invoices.

4. Parse XML documents:Parse received XML files independently or by calling the free electronic voucher toolkit provided by the Ministry of Finance, and store them in the invoice pool.

5. Depending on whether the fully digitalized e-invoice is a special VAT invoice, if it is a special invoice, process it according to 5.1 and 5.2.

5.1. Invoice deduction:After the business associated with fully digitalized e-invoices is booked, deduction processing is carried out per the requirements of the State Taxation Administration. After deduction confirmation, it is saved to the invoice pool, recording the invoice's deduction information.

5.2. Input transfer-out: After invoices are deducted, the enterprise handles input transfer-out according to changes in invoice use, and records the invoice transfer-out information in the invoice pool.

6. Fund payment:For businesses requiring payment, the fund system can complete fund payment after business processing approval. Enterprises with better informatization write back the payment status bit information of electronic vouchers according to bank receipts in accordance with the requirements of the "Fully Digitalized E-Invoice Standard."

7. Accounting bookkeeping:The accounting system writes back the electronic voucher status bit information according to the reimbursement business information and the electronic voucher information of fully digitalized e-invoices, and in accordance with the requirements of the Fully Digitalized E-Invoice Standard.

8. FilingArchive preparation: The enterprise can set the timing for preparing file generation before archiving, and generate the structured data file of electronic voucher-accounting information itself or with the help of the Ministry of Finance's free toolkit. It also packages accounting vouchers, reimbursement forms, XML-format electronic files of fully digitalized e-invoices containing digital signatures, and structured data files of electronic voucher accounting information into electronic accounting voucher files.

9. Accounting materials archiving:Entities need to, in accordance with the regulatory requirements of the Ministry of Finance, and in accordance with the relevant requirements of the Ministry of Finance and the National Archives Administration's "Measures for the Management of Accounting Archives" (Ministry of Finance and National Archives Administration Order No. 79) and the "Notice on Standardizing the Reimbursement, Bookkeeping, and Archiving of Electronic Accounting Vouchers" (Cai Kuai [2020] No. 6), and with reference to the "Specification for Electronic Accounting Archive Management" (DA/T 94—2022) and the "Technical Specification for the Management of Electronic Accounting Voucher Archives for Financial Reimbursement of General Public Budget Expenditures of Administrative and Public Institutions" (DA/T 95—2022), archive the above electronic accounting voucher files for inspection by relevant regulatory authorities of the Ministry of Finance.

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