Ministry of Finance Strongly Promotes Full Digitalization of Accounting Vouchers | Key Points and Operation Guide for Full-Process Management of Fully Digitalized E-Invoices (Including XML Archiving Requirements and Authenticity Verification Methods)

I. Ministry of Finance Notice! Accounting Vouchers Will Be Fully Digitalized!

On May 19, the Ministry of Finance, the State Taxation Administration, and 9 other departments issued the Notice on Promoting the Application of Accounting Data Standards for Electronic Vouchers.

To thoroughly implement the relevant decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council and promote the resolution of problems such as the difficulty of receiving, reimbursing, and booking various electronic vouchers, it is decided that from the date of issuance of this notice, the electronic voucher accounting data standards shall be promoted and applied nationwide.

Key extraction:

1. The accounting software equipped by units and the accounting software provided by accounting software service providers shall complete upgrades within 3 years from the date of implementation of the two specifications，Meets relevant requirements for adapting to the electronic voucher accounting data standard, supporting units in fully applying the electronic voucher accounting data standard.

2. For those with a relatively high level of accounting informatization,Those that already have an information system foundation such as a reimbursement system, accounting system, and electronic accounting archives system, and have a relatively high degree of system integrationLarge and medium-sized enterprises, electronic vouchers can be obtained through direct connection with electronic voucher issuance and distribution platforms or through scattered acquisition, and free toolkits released by the Ministry of Finance or self-developed toolkits can be used to adapt and transform the accounting information system in accordance with the electronic voucher accounting data standards, completing standardized, paperless, and automated full-process processing of electronic vouchers that meet the standards.

3. For those with a relatively high level of accounting informatization,Those that already have an information system foundation such as a reimbursement system, accounting system, and electronic accounting archives systemAdministrative Public Institutions, electronic vouchers can be obtained through direct connection with electronic voucher issuance and distribution platforms or through scattered acquisition, and free toolkits released by the Ministry of Finance or self-developed toolkits can be used to adapt and transform the accounting information system in accordance with the electronic voucher accounting data standards, completing standardized and paperless full-process processing of electronic vouchers that meet the standards; for units that use an integrated budget management system for accounting, relevant service platforms that can provide requirements meeting the electronic voucher accounting data standards can be used and connected with the integrated budget management system to carry out intensive and batch collection of electronic vouchers, completing standardized and paperless full-process processing of electronic vouchers that meet the standards.

4. For small and micro enterprises with a low overall level of accounting informatization or a small volume of invoice processing,One or more electronic voucher processing steps may be entrusted to relevant service platforms that meet the accounting data standards for electronic vouchers; units that entrust agency bookkeeping institutions to organize accounting work may entrust agency bookkeeping institutions that provide relevant services meeting the accounting data standards for electronic vouchers to complete full-process standardized and paperless processing.

5. For private non-profit organizations, trade union organizations, rural collective economic organizations, and other units,According to the overall level of accounting informatization and accounting work needs of the unit, referring to the application paths of enterprises or administrative public institutions, actively and steadily carry out the application of electronic voucher accounting data standards, and gradually realize paperless processing of the entire electronic voucher process.

The full-process electronization of accounting vouchers is finally coming!

II. Full-process electronicization! Paperless reimbursement, booking, archiving, and storage

On March 22, 2023, the Ministry of Finance, the State Taxation Administration, and two other departments issued the "Guide to Full-Process Electronic Management of Electronic Invoices," marking the coming era of full-process electronicization.

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

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 (Caikuai [2020] No. 6):

Unless otherwise provided by laws and administrative regulations,For those that simultaneously meet the following conditions,An entity may use only electronic accounting vouchers for reimbursement, bookkeeping, and archiving:

(1）After the received electronic accounting voucher is verifiedLawful and authentic;

（II）The transmission and storage of electronic accounting vouchers are secure and reliable; anyAny tampering can be discovered in a timely manner;

（Three）UsedAccounting systemAble to accurately, completely, and effectively receive and read electronic accounting vouchers and their metadata, able to complete accounting operations in accordance with the unified national accounting system, able to output electronic accounting vouchers and their metadata in the format prescribed by the national archival administration department, has set necessary review and approval procedures such as handling, review, and approval, and can effectively prevent duplicate entry of electronic accounting vouchers;

（IV）Of electronic accounting vouchersArchiving and managementComplies with the Accounting Archives Management Measures（Ministry of Finance and National Archives Administration Order No. 79）and other requirements.

As fully digitalized e-invoices continue to advance, it is believed that in the near future, the era of paper vouchers will eventually end! And with the arrival of the "electronic" era,E-invoice risk prevention and control must be put on the agenda!

III. Bookkeeping and archiving formats of fully digitalized e-invoices

According to current policy, fully digitalized e-invoices have a total of 3 formats: OFD, PDF, and XML.

1、 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.

2、 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."

3、 XML

Unlike PDF and OFD, XML is formally just a string of code that records all metadata of an invoice, as shown below:

On May 17, 2023, the Accounting Department of the Ministry of Finance published the notice on accounting data standards for electronic vouchers, which clarified the preservation method for the reimbursement and archiving of fully digitalized e-invoices:

Notice highlights:

Where the recipient obtains a fully digitalized e-invoice for reimbursement, bookkeeping, and archiving,

First, the recipient may, in accordance with Articles 3 and 5 of the Notice, use only the XML file of a fully digitalized e-invoice containing a digital signature for reimbursement, accounting, and archiving, and may no longer keep it separately in paper form.

Second, if the recipient needs to use a paper printout of the PDF or OFD format file of a fully digitalized e-invoice as the basis for reimbursement, accounting, and archiving, it shall, in accordance with Article 4 of the Notice, also retain the XML format electronic file of the fully digitalized e-invoice containing the digital signature.

✪ Summary as follows:

1. After the recipient receives the fully digitalized e-invoice, there is no need to print it; it can be directly reimbursed, recorded and archived using the XML file.

2. If the recipient really needs to print a fully digitalized e-invoice, in addition to saving the paper invoice, it must also save the XML-format electronic file.

Therefore, finance personnel should pay attention: after receiving a fully digitalized e-invoice, whether or not it is printed, the XML-format electronic file of the fully digitalized e-invoice containing the digital signature must be saved!

Besides fully digitalized e-invoices, the Ministry of Finance has also released data standards for electronic vouchers of other invoices (such as railway electronic tickets), which can be downloaded from the Ministry of Finance official website.

It is recommended that finance professionals print it out and study it anytime!

IV. How do I obtain electronic files in XML format?

Taxpayers can use the local "Electronic Tax Bureau", enter "I Want to Handle Taxes - Tax Digital Account Module", and through filtering, query and receive invoices issued through the electronic invoice service platform.

Below, Uncle Cai takes Shenzhen as an example to provide the specific operating process (specific operating methods may differ by region; follow local requirements).

In addition, it is also possible to obtain fully digitalized e-invoices delivered by the seller via email, QR code, and other means.

After entering, select the fully digitalized e-invoice in XML format containing a digital signature and export it.

After downloading, go to Batch Import/Export Progress Query to check the progress; once processing is complete, just download.

After downloading, it is a compressed file; simply save this compressed file. You can save it monthly according to actual management needs.

V. Methods for judging the authenticity of paper/fully digitalized e-invoices

How can the authenticity of invoices be determined? Let's look at paper invoices, paper e-invoices, and fully digitalized e-invoices separately:

Paper invoice verification

Paper invoices can be verified through the State Taxation AdministrationNational VAT Invoice Verification Platformand the electronic invoice service platform for verification.

1. National VAT Invoice Verification Platform

You can use the National VAT Invoice Verification Platform of the State Taxation Administration。

If you are using this website for verification for the first time, please install the root certificate first. After installation is complete, you need to re-enter the platform.

During verification, enter the invoice information to be verified in the verification area on the right. The amount here is the "issued amount (excluding tax)".

Note: The invoice code must currently be filled in; otherwise, a prompt will appear saying "Please enter the correct invoice number."

If the verification is correct, the number of verifications, verification time, and invoice information will be displayed.

If there is a problem, it will prompt "Result: Inconsistent".

2. E-invoice Service Platform

If the invoice recipient is a taxpayer in a region included in the fully digitalized e-invoice pilot scope, single or batch verification can be carried out through the electronic invoice service platform. The steps are as follows:

Step 1:Log in to the Shanghai Municipal Electronic Tax Bureau of the State Taxation Administration, and click [I Want to Handle Taxes] — [Tax Digital Account].

Step 2:Click [Invoice Verification] to enter the invoice verification interface. You can perform [Single Verification] or [Batch Verification] (the platform supports verification of up to 500 entries at a time).

Taking [single verification] as an example, if [manual verification] is selected, [invoice source] is set to "VAT invoice management system", and [invoice code], [invoice number], and [issuance date] are required fields. After manually entering the information, click [verify] to view the [verification result].

You can click [View Purpose Tag] in the operation column to view information such as the invoice's "accounting status" and "VAT selection period."

In addition, a [Print Verification Result] service is also provided. This page will display the invoice's basic information as well as the number of verifications, verification time, and verification result.

3. Kailing Technology·Lingshuitong Smart Invoice Management Platform

Intelligent verification of all invoice face information

Supports parsing of all invoice types including fully digitalized e-invoices (special/general), VAT electronic invoices, and blockchain invoices. Core fields such as invoice code, number, amount, and tax rate are automatically extracted via OCR recognition technology, with an accuracy rate of 99.9%.

Connect to the tax digital account for real-time verification of invoice authenticity, status (normal/voided/red-reversed), and issuer qualifications during entry, preventing fake invoice risks.

Multi-dimensional risk early warning mechanism

Blacklist monitoring: automatically screens whether product names or sellers involve sensitive industries such as gambling and tobacco, or are listed in the tax abnormality directory.

Compliance Verification: Intelligently detects invoice header, tax ID, and tax rate matching to prevent "wrong-number invoices," "duplicate invoices," and "abnormal tax rate invoices" from being recorded.

Status tracking: Real-time monitoring of in-transit invoice status, warning of abnormal operations such as invoice voiding and red-letter reversal, avoiding deduction losses.

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