Send invoices
Send invoices and credit notes from your system through Sovos to buyers and the Federal Tax Authority (FTA) using the four-step outbound flow.
The outbound flow covers invoices and credit notes you send from your system to your buyers through Sovos Compliance Network and the Pan-European Public Procurement On-Line (PEPPOL) network. This full flow applies to domestic B2B/B2G transactions where both you (the sender) and the buyer (the receiver) are registered in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) PEPPOL network.
Two variations apply in specific cases:
- Deemed supply or international buyer not on PEPPOL
- The invoice doesn't flow to the buyer's Accredited Service Provider (ASP). Sovos reports the Tax Data Document (TDD) to the FTA directly without exchange.
- International buyer registered on PEPPOL
- The invoice is delivered to the buyer's ASP, but their ASP doesn't validate it against UAE's mandate rules.
Key terms
- Message Disposition Notification (MDN)
- A confirmation message sent over the UAE e-invoicing network to acknowledge receipt of a document. The buyer's ASP sends an MDN to the Sovos (supplier) ASP after receiving the invoice. The FTA sends an MDN to the Sovos or the buyer's ASP after receiving the business document.
- Message Level Status (MLS)
- A confirmation message sent over the UAE e-invoicing network to acknowledge receipt and validation of a document. The buyer's ASP sends an MLS to Sovos (supplier ASP) after validating the invoice. The FTA sends an MLS to the Sovos or the buyer's ASP after validating the business document.
- PINT-AE
- PEPPOL International Invoice for UAE.
Flow steps
- Step 1 - Submit to Sovos
Send your invoice to the Sovos Compliance Network in Sovos Canonical Invoice (SCI) or PINT-AE format. Sovos validates the document and passes it to the ASP.
The following table shows the possible outcomes and the action to take for each one:
Outcome Status Error code Action Validated UPLOADED106Proceed. Sovos transmits the invoice to the ASP. Validation failure FAILED401Correct the document and resubmit. - Step 2 - Sovos passes to ASP
Sovos converts the document to PINT-AE XML and sends it to the Sovos ASP. The ASP acknowledges the request with a message ID that includes the UUID, then begins processing.
The following table shows the possible outcomes and the action to take for each one:
Outcome Status Error code Action Validation success PROCESSING- Continue SMP lookup failure FAILEDSMP_LOOKUP_FAILEDRetry - Step 3 - Sovos ASP sends the invoice to the buyer's ASP
The Sovos ASP sends the invoice to the buyer ASP over the PEPPOL AS4 protocol.
The following table shows the possible outcomes and the action to take for each one:
Outcome Status Error code Action Positive MDN from buyer ASP DELIVERED- Proceed to TDD reporting.
Negative MDN FAILEDTRANSMISSION_FAILEDRetry.
Positive MLS from buyer ASP DELIVERED- Complete.
Negative MLS, validation failure FAILEDFAILEDCorrect the document.
Resubmit to Sovos. This needs a new UUID.
Sovos ASP withdraws the TDD from the FTA's ASP
Negative MLS, buyer not reachable FAILEDREJECTED_BY_MLSRetry.
Sovos ASP withdraws the TDD from the FTA's ASP
No MLS received DELIVERED- ASP retries.
When the ASP gets a positive MLS from the buyer ASP, the PEPPOL transmission is complete.
- Step 4 - Sovos ASP reports TDD to FTA
After receiving an MDN from the buyer ASP, Sovos's ASP prepares and submits the TDD to FTA's ASP. The FTA confirms the submission against the UAE mandate.
The following table shows the possible outcomes and the action to take for each one:
Outcome Status Error code Action Positive MDN REPORTED- - Positive MLS from FTA ASP DELIVERED- Complete. Negative MDN FAILEDTRANSMISSION_FAILEDRetry. Negative MLS from FTA ASP FAILEDVALIDATION_ERRORCorrect the document.
Resubmit to Sovos. This needs a new UUID.
No MLS from FTA ASP DELIVERED- Retry. When the FTA confirms receipt, Sovos marks the tax authority reporting status as successful.