Digitise your invoices without the AEAT knocking them back

Step 01: Tell an electronic original from a paper original

This is the decision that conditions everything else. If the invoice reached you by email as a PDF (or you downloaded it from the supplier's portal), that file IS the original: keep it as it is, without printing it or scanning it again. If it was handed to you on paper, the photo or scan you make is a useful working copy, but the original is still the paper and you must keep it for the whole period.

• PDF by email or supplier portal → electronic original, you keep the file.
• Paper handed over or posted → the photo is a copy; you keep the paper.
• Structured electronic invoice (Facturae, XML) → the original is the file, not its courtesy PDF.

Step 02: Upload the invoice to Expenses

In Expenses → New, drag the PDF or take the photo from your phone. Lucía, Cofactu's assistant, reads the document and fills in supplier, NIF, number, date, base, VAT rate, VAT amount and total. If you have many piled up, Expenses → Import accepts up to 200 invoices at once and processes them in a batch.

Step 03: Check what the OCR read before saving

The OCR is an assistant, not a notary. Before saving, check three things: that the supplier's NIF matches the printed one, that the date is the issue date (not the payment date) and that the VAT amounts add up by rate. Cofactu marks the lower-confidence fields in amber so you start there.

• Supplier NIF: a misread digit ends up in a Modelo 347 (annual operations return) that does not match theirs.
• Issue date: it fixes the quarter in which you deduct the VAT.
• Base and VAT amount by rate (21%, 10%, 4%): the Modelo 303 (quarterly VAT return) is aggregated from here.

Step 04: Check that the expense is deductible

Digitising well does not make deductible what is not. To deduct VAT you need a full invoice in your name, the expense must be linked to the activity and you must record it in the received-invoices book. For the expense in personal income tax (IRPF) or corporate tax it is also required to be booked and justified. Cofactu classifies the expense and takes it to the VAT book and to the Modelo 303 of the corresponding quarter.

Step 05: Keep the original for as long as required

The general tax period is 4 years from the end of the filing deadline of the tax (limitation period, article 66 of the General Tax Law); the commercial one, 6 years from the last entry (article 30 of the Commercial Code). For capital goods that you adjust over several years, the period is longer. Cofactu keeps the PDF or photo you uploaded attached to the expense, in European storage, and includes it in the full export and in the quarterly package for your accountant.

• 4 years: tax limitation period, counted from the end of the voluntary filing period of the return.
• 6 years: commercial obligation to keep books and supporting documents.
• Capital goods: for as long as the adjustment lasts (up to 9 years for real estate) plus the limitation period.

Step 06: If you want to throw the paper away: certified digitisation

Only certified digitisation lets you do without paper originals. It requires software approved by the AEAT (its portal publishes the list of approved ones), each image to be electronically signed at the time of digitising and kept in a document database with the required metadata. Cofactu is not approved for this. If your volume of paper justifies it, contract a certified digitisation service and upload the resulting PDF to Cofactu: the expense is recorded the same and the paper stops being your problem.