Our Mexico tax invoicing add-on has been helping customers for quite some time to receive, validate, and automate the Mexican invoice process according to the local regulations.

In simple words, this solution allows suppliers to easily upload their CFDI (Comprobante Fiscal Digital por Internet) tax documents (invoices  and payment receipts) to the Network and receive prompt feedback on the status of the document  after legal, business, and customer validations are performed.

However, from to time to time, customers had expressed their need to have an alternate channel to post invoices that they receive from some vendors, such as utilities and tail suppliers. This gave birth to our new email channel that allows vendors to send an email with their tax documents attached to a generic mailbox created specifically for this purpose.

The solution now receives emails, a common practice in Mexico, from any vendor. Then, it extracts only CFDI files, ignoring other formats. Although this solution supports multiple files, our recommendation is to attach no more than 10 valid documents, or not surpass 10 MB size, in order to avoid performance issues. Every CFDI file is then sent to a certified provider for fiscal validations before it is converted to cXML standard and inserted into the Network database as a valid transaction.

Diagram of new email channel

Although this is a great feature, it should not be seen as a one-size-fits-all tool. In other words, customers should choose the best approach for each segment of suppliers.

• Small- and medium-sized suppliers can take ownership of their Network account to manually upload, search for, and track the status of each of their CFDI documents, and be able to take proper actions.
• Tail end suppliers such as utility companies, one-time or sporadic services, independent professionals, among others, may not want to take ownership or training courses regarding their Network account. So, an alternate option for their documents to be delivered via email can be quite convenient for them.
• On the other hand, large suppliers with high volume of transactions may want to automate their process through a secure connection with the Network, permitting them to acquire technical acknowledgement for each document.

This email option should be only addressed to tail suppliers who will not access the Network interface to deliver, or even track these documents. Email is not a safe form and can fail. At the same time, invoices could be rejected due to fiscal or business rules, and these vendors might not see the corresponding error message which may delay actions, jeopardizing buyer-supplier relationships, as well as requiring further support from the buyer to provide information.

Could we also use this option to manage non-registered vendors?

Technically speaking, yes, it could be used to receive and process invoices coming from vendor not yet registered on the Network. However, it requires an assessment by every buyer, as turning on a quick enablement feature triggers the creation of a private account for an unknown vendor and only contains basic information in the invoice, such as company name and tax ID (aka RFC in Mexico), but the vendor ID is missing. So, if the latter ID is needed by the buyer’s ERP system, then this option is not feasible for this customer, and all vendors must be pre-uploaded and configured accordingly.

In conclusion, we should use this tool properly and still encourage vendors to access the Network interface so they can better manage their documents and information, limiting this email channel to a delivery mean that requires further tracking and monitoring.

There is no doubt that this is another step towards covering 100% of the supply base and increasing levels of automation for our customers.  Of course, this story will be continued with new tools coming up and being focused on large suppliers to guarantee delivery of their invoices.