Czech Republic (2017 eInvoicing Country Sheet)

Legislation

Act no. 134/2016 Coll. on Public Procurement transposes EU legislation related to public procurement, including the Directive 2014/55/EU on electronic invoicing in public procurement, into national legislation.

Section 221 of the Act stipulates that contracting authorities shall not reject any electronic invoice issued by an economic operator if it is issued in a format compatible with the European standard on electronic invoicing. The Act became effective on 1 October 2016.

eInvoicing platform and management solutions

Launched in 2015, the Národní elektronický nástroj (NEN) platform enables central, regional and local contracting authorities to process the entire eProcurement lifecycle. Developed by the Ministry of Regional Development, the platform replaces the Public Procurement and Concessions Portal (Portál VZ) as foreseen in the Public Procurement Strategy 2016-2020. When fully deployed by the end of 2017, NEN will be the mandatory eProcurement tool for all contracting authorities, unless they have an authorisation to use their own procurement tool. 

Approach for receiving and processing

The approach for receiving and processing eInvoices is decentralised; contracting authorities differ in their use of automated and integrated systems, semi-automated processes or even manual processing. By the end of 2017, the NEN platform will allow the connection from contracting authorities' internal systems for receiving and processing eInvoices.

Additional information

On 16 October 2008, 14 major Czech economic operators signed a Declaration on a common approach to electronic invoicing solutions in Czech Republic, which contained a commitment to build and implement a common standard for eInvoicing within one year. The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Interior also signed this document. This initiative lead to the launch of the national eInvoicing standard, ISDOC, on 19 March 2009.

The Ministry of Regional Development, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of the Interior developed the Public Procurement Strategy for the period 2016-2020. This strategy foresees the timely and effective compliance with the legislative and technological requirements arising from the adoption of the eInvoicing Directive 2014/55/EU.

The Ministry of Finance developed the project called e-Fa I, which had the following goals:

• Collect comments on the eInvoicing Directive 2014/55/EU from public and private sector entities;
• Ensure readiness of the Ministry of Finance's ERP to receive eInvoices; and
• Conduct feasibility study on the implementation of eInvoicing in the Czech Republic.

The Ministry of Finance is current working on a follow-up project named e-Fa II. This project aims to develop the ICT infrastructure that will allow contracting authorities to receive and process eInvoices compliant with the Directive 2014/55/EU.

European standard translation

The translation of a new European standard EN 16931 into Czech language and integration into the system of national technical standards (ČSN) is currently under way. This activity is led by Czech Office for Standards, Metrology and Testing (ÚNMZ) in cooperation with the National eInvoicing Forum, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Interior.

VALIDATED BY THE EMSFEI MEMBER

Last updated:  Nov 29, 2017 17:07