There is currently a new law enforcement for all Greek companies to use a IRS service called myDATA (my Digital Accounting and Tax Application).
With this service all companies are expected to update the IRS directly with their invoicing, and get all their expenses (from other companies that are updating their incomes), making the tax process automated.
This is implemented with a REST API. Here is the API documentation.
I know that manager has an API. Can this auto process be done with manager? I want a general direction so that i hire a programmer do it. Does manager’s API have documentation?
In my opinion using the report transformation type facility would provide a better solution. Have a look at
But to answer your question, documentation of the API is scattered on the forum in combination with self documentation. See Search results for 'api' - Manager Forum
@AntonisV, I am not sure if a programmer can help you intergrate the API key to the code of Manager, you cant provide access to the actuall database or code.
Do you propose to use Report transformations for what i want to achieve? Have you ever used them?
Can i extract with them the fields of an invoice? What can i exactly accomplish using report transformations? For what i read, @lubos wrote that they are only for reporting… in 2014’. Is there anywhere a documentation that i can read to use them?
For the time being, I will be creating all report transformations myself.
Report transformation (or whatever that will be called in the future) is a mechanism to get country-specific features into Manager in a way that will work across all editions and operating systems.
Report transformations currently do not work with invoices but that is being addressed. Montenegro, Italy and other countries need this urgently. Greece requirements are very similar to what other countries require as well.
I will get back on this topic next week with something to show in this direction.
Well Greece needs it fast also. From 01/01/2021 all that should be applied to ALL businesses in Greece. I think it’s the same date. This will be a thing in all of Europe i suppose, like the fellow from Montenegro said.
If I can make a suggestion find an online platform for e invoicing and import them inside Manager. This would leave the burden of the legal storage and of keeping xml compliant to law to the service provider.
I can talk only for italy, but being an european standard I don’t think it will be so much different.
The invoices are in an xml format fixed by each state. The format is always updated, ie, based on my experience, it slightly changes at least once every year.
The invoices have to be sent through an authorized channel to the tax authority.
You have to grant a so called permanent repository that grants that they cannot be changed anymore and they will be not deleted for 5(?) Years
You must have a permanent repository to receive purchase invoice with a receiving ID.
All these services, that are completely a different world from an accounting software, are granted by paying a few euro and you don’t have to think of anything. Than some einvoice service providers offer some accounting functionalities but nothing comparable to Manager.
About interfacing Manager with the services you have two ways based on your skills/budget.
Simple and “homemade”. You create and receive the invoice in the service portal. You export them in xls and with a report transformation you convert them into manager batch create format.
More complex and needs a programmer. Most of those service providers offers API. With a specific transformation program you can create the invoices inside Manager and the transformation program will instruct the service provider to create the invoice and send them.
I’ve been working with solution 1 for two years without an issue. One of my business issues more than 1.500 invoices each year. Now that everything is more clear and we find the perfect service provider I think that we will spend some money for solution 2.
Thank you for the advice, my initial purpose was that I will program the solution, but to do that i need the manager API to work and be documented.
Now I am waiting for any update from @lubos about “Report transformations”. I think the best solution is for manager to be able to produce the XMLs that each of the govs are requiring.
Then it will be our duty to upload them to the IRS’s API. This way is like the reverse proccess of your’s 1st. And this way we can operate only running Manager for our invoicing (whitch in my opinion is the 1st selling point of manager after all).
Keep in mind that service provider don’t send XML produced by external software, ie you have to instruct the creation of the invoice through the API. So producing XML inside Manager is almost useless.
Why? As said the service provider is the responsible of the compliance of every step towards the law and so it cannot trust an XML file generated by an external software (which sod also be digitally signed) but it needs to be generated internally through its web interface, its API or through a specific file which can be an XML but it is not the one of the invoice, it is one of the service provider.
Yeah, this is something I’m working on. Being able to use report transformations to produce alternative outputs for invoices and other documents as required (e.g. specific XML format).
This will cover requirements, or at least will be the first step towards local compliance in a few countries where this is required.
As a proof of concept, I can implement this for Italy first since I consider it more mature having this the longest.
@Davide is there a documentation in English I can use?
first of all thanks for your availability. I try first of all to make a small introduction to “Fattura Elettronica” which is the Italian implementation of the European e-invoice. As always in Europe what we have is a Directive, ie a guideline, which sets the minimum requirements and every country is free to implement the directive in its own way respecting those requirements.
As said it was introduced in Italy as the first country of Europe on 1/1/2019, ie we have been the tester for the whole european community for two years before its complete implementation in the rest of the countries due to the high VAT evasion that we had here.
How does it work in Italy?
The sales invoices (and credit notes) are generated in a standard XML, which evolves during the time. We are currently at version 1.3.
The XML should be digitaly signed by yourself or by a Delegate (I will explain the role of the delegate later).
The signed XML should be sent by the issuing company or by the Delegate to the Tax Authority Repository via a encrypted channel with acknowledgment of receipt. When you send the file you identify your client via VAT Code and its Delegate via a SDI Code.
You or you Delegate must grant the so called “Conservazione Sostitutiva”, ie a digitaly repository which should grant the conservation and inalterability of the documents for a duration of 8 years (which can be less in some particular case)
The Tax Authority Repository send you the invoice to your email (to a PEC which is certified email) addess if there is no SDI Code, ie you don’t have a Delegate, or to your Delegate repository.
You can view the XML of the invoice or through a reader or directly in the Delegate Website connected to its repository (you can also look inside your tax authority folder and download the XML but it is something very rought, more or less like, looking directly inside database tables).
Let’s talk a little bit of the Delegate
There are several one in Italy. 99,9% of those that uses e-invoice in Italy have a Delegate since it:
grants that the XML file template is update and compliant to law
grants that the encrypted channel is working, updated and compliant to law
takes care of the digital repository for the whole period 8 years with redundant server etc etc.
All this for a small fee each year. As you can understand it solves you a lot of headache, give also that point 3 is almost impossible to manage by yourself…
As I already said no Delegate will accept an XML generated directly by a third party but you can:
visually generate the invoice on its website
import, if possible, a group of in invoices you have externally generated via a file (which can be an XLS file or an XML file which is not the one I was talking before but one on its standard), ie something very similar to Batch Create under Manager
connect, if possible, your software to the Delegate website through APIs, ie something very similar to Manager’s API
What I send you it is the XML of one the biggest Delegate in Italy, ie Danea which operates through Fatture in Cloud (“fatture” means invoices) which accepts all three way of invoice generation.
Sadly there is not a document in english. I created a link with google translate and I can help you if you don’t understand some passage.
First of all an introduction to the XML format:
with the automatic translation:
Secondly the structure of the XML:
with the automatic translation:
The structure is quite easy: Company > Document > Raw > Raw Data
@Davide what is the range of approaches taken by other accounting packages in Italy? Do they all use the same approach or take a variety of approaches. What user interfaces are used?
Since the other european countries started 1/1/2021 I sincerelly have no idea. As said there is a EU Directive which states the minimum requirements but each country than can implement it in its own way.
+1 here. I am using Manager server edition to run 2 SMEs in Greece. I am also no accounant (operations manager). It would be of great importance if @lubos come with a solution, because I have invested a lot of time in Manager to setup both companies to run smoothly, and I don’t want to use another online programm from the local market to do the work of the e-invoiving and myData transfer. In addition we have to pay a significant amount of money to monthly subscribe to their services and from what I have already seen none of them have the versality and the freedom of operation that Manager has!