What e-Factura changed for B2B invoices
RO e-Factura is Romania's national electronic invoicing system, run by the Ministry of Finance and the tax authority, ANAF. Since 1 January 2024, invoices between taxable persons established in Romania must be reported through it, and since 1 July 2024 only an invoice that goes through the system counts as an invoice for those transactions (Ministry of Finance, e-Factura guide, 2024). The invoice is an XML file built on the European standard EN 16931 with Romanian rules (RO_CIUS). The legal original is the XML carrying the Ministry of Finance electronic seal. The PDF most people open is only a rendering of it.
| Rule | What it says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| B2B scope | Invoices between taxable persons established in Romania, for supplies whose place of supply is Romania. Exceptions include intra-community supplies and fiscal receipts that qualify as simplified invoices. | OUG 120/2021, art. 10(1) |
| Deadline | 5 working days from the invoice date, and no later than 5 working days after the legal deadline for issuing it. In force since 1 January 2026; the earlier rule counted calendar days. | OUG 120/2021, art. 10(7), as amended by OUG 89/2025 |
| B2C | Invoices to consumers must also be transmitted since 1 January 2025, except fiscal receipts that qualify as simplified invoices. | OUG 120/2021, art. 10^1(2) |
| Invoice outside the system | A fine equal to 15% of the invoice total, for the issuer and also for the recipient that receives and books a B2B invoice that did not go through the system. | OUG 120/2021, art. 13^2 |
| Late transmission | 1,000 to 2,500 lei for most companies, 2,500 to 5,000 lei for medium taxpayers and 5,000 to 10,000 lei for large taxpayers. | OUG 120/2021, art. 13^2(3) |
| Access | Through the company's SPV account (Spațiul Privat Virtual) or through the system's API. Files stay downloadable for 60 days, then they are archived and released on request. | Ministry of Finance guide, 2024 |
The rules have been amended many times since 2021, including in 2026. Read the table as a summary checked on 29 September 2026, not as legal advice, and confirm the current text with your accountant.
The practical consequence is simple. In Romania, a supplier invoice is no longer a document someone types in. It is structured data waiting in a government system. That changes what is worth automating, and what is not.
The rest of the EU is heading the same way
Romania is early, not alone. The EU's VAT in the Digital Age package (ViDA, Council Directive (EU) 2025/516) was adopted on 11 March 2025 and entered into force on 14 April 2025. Since then, Member States can introduce mandatory domestic e-invoicing under specific conditions. Digital reporting requirements for cross-border B2B transactions apply from 1 July 2030, and national real-time reporting systems must be aligned by 1 January 2035 (European Commission). If your company invoices anywhere in the EU, the Romanian process below is a preview of your own.
The invoice process, end to end
Before deciding what to automate, write the process down as it runs today. In most companies it has seven steps, split across two flows: invoices you receive and invoices you issue.
- Receive. Supplier invoices arrive in e-Factura. Someone, or something, has to download them before the 60-day window closes.
- Extract. The XML already holds the supplier, the lines, VAT and totals. Documents outside e-Factura, such as invoices from foreign suppliers, receipts, delivery notes and contracts, still arrive as PDFs or scans.
- Match. Each invoice is checked against the order, the delivery note or the contract: right supplier, right quantities, right prices.
- Approve. The person who owns the budget confirms the cost is real and belongs to them.
- Book. The invoice is recorded in the accounting or ERP software with the right account, cost center and VAT treatment.
- Issue and transmit. Your own invoices are generated from the order or contract, converted to XML, transmitted within the deadline, and the system's response is checked for errors.
- Reconcile. Payments in the bank statement are matched to invoices in both directions, and open items are followed up.
What is worth automating, step by step
| Step | Automate? | With what | Where a person stays |
|---|---|---|---|
| Receive | Yes, fully | Integration: scheduled download through the API and an archive of the XML files | Only when the connection fails |
| Extract | Yes for e-Factura, partly for the rest | e-Factura XML: a parser, no AI needed. Scans and non-standard documents: AI extraction | Reviews extractions the system is unsure about |
| Match | Mostly | Rules on order number, supplier and amounts; AI for lines described in different words | Resolves mismatches |
| Approve | Route it, do not remove it | Workflow: the right approver, reminders, thresholds | Approves anything above the threshold or outside a contract |
| Book | Mostly | Rules per supplier and category, plus suggestions based on past bookings | Checks new suppliers, unusual VAT and period-end entries |
| Issue and transmit | Yes | Integration between the order or contract system and the invoicing software, plus a check of the system response | Fixes rejected invoices and credit notes |
| Reconcile | Mostly | Bank statement import and rules on amount, reference and date | Partial payments, one payment for many invoices, disputes |
An illustrative example, not a client result: a distributor receives invoices from forty suppliers. Thirty-five of them always quote an order number. For those, a rule matches invoice to order, and the only human step left is approval above a threshold. The other five send invoices with free-text lines. That is where AI extraction and matching earn their cost, with a person reviewing whatever the model is unsure about.
Where a person must stay in the loop
- Money leaving the company. Approval above an agreed threshold stays human, even when matching is perfect.
- Anything that changes a tax result: unusual VAT treatment, reverse charge, corrections and credit notes.
- Rejected invoices. The system returns error messages; someone has to understand them and reissue within the deadline.
- New suppliers and new customers. The first invoice sets the rules the following ones will run on.
- Period end. Closing the month is a judgment the accountant signs, not a batch job.
Where AI helps, and where rules are enough
e-Factura removes the part AI was usually sold for. A structured XML invoice does not need a model to read it. It needs a parser and a connection to the accounting software. Putting AI there adds cost and a new way to fail, without adding value.
AI earns its place where the input is not structured or the decision is not exact: reading scans, receipts and invoices from foreign suppliers; matching invoice lines to order lines written in different words; suggesting the account and cost center for a supplier the rules have not seen yet; explaining why an invoice was flagged. In each case the output is a suggestion with a confidence level, and low confidence goes to a person. It is the same rule we apply in every AI integration project. What that reading costs per page and when it pays back is in how much automatic invoice reading costs.
A process-first sequence
The order matters more than the tools. This is the sequence we follow when we automate finance processes such as e-Factura invoice handling.
- Map the process as it runs, including the workarounds: who downloads, who retypes, who approves by email. Our diagnosis starts here.
- Remove steps before automating them. Printing, scanning and retyping an invoice that already exists as XML is usually the first cut.
- Clean the master data: supplier list, VAT codes, cost centers, order numbering. Matching rules fail on bad master data, whatever runs them.
- Connect the systems: e-Factura to the accounting or ERP software, the order system to invoicing, the bank to reconciliation. Most of the gain sits here, and none of it needs AI. For outgoing invoices this is what e-Factura automation from the ERP covers. Whether an invoicing app is enough or your own integration pays is covered in e-Factura: SaaS app or your own integration?.
- Write the rules and an exceptions queue. Every invoice either passes the rules or lands in a queue with a reason and an owner.
- Add AI only for the exceptions that remain: non-standard documents and fuzzy matching, with human review on low confidence.
- Measure against the baseline from step one: time from receipt to booking, share of invoices handled without a touch, errors found at month end.
If you are unsure whether this is an automation job or a larger systems change, our article on process automation vs digital transformation draws the line.
Summary
- In Romania, B2B invoices are structured XML exchanged through RO e-Factura, with a 5 working day transmission deadline and fines for invoices outside the system.
- The EU is moving the same way through ViDA, adopted in March 2025.
- Receiving, parsing, transmitting and most matching and reconciliation are integration and rules work, not AI work.
- People stay on approvals, tax judgments, rejected invoices, new partners and period end.
- AI belongs on the non-standard documents and fuzzy matches that remain after the process is fixed.
