Italy - Smart Receipts Guide
🇮🇹 Issue e-receipts in Italy
Introduction
Invopop’s Smart Receipts provider allows you to generate and issue electronic tickets (documento commerciale/scontrino elettronico) in Italy.
The documento commerciale is a digital fiscal document that records sales transactions and transmits them to the Agenzia delle Entrate (AdE). This digital receipt replaces traditional paper receipts while maintaining full fiscal compliance and serves as official proof of purchase for your customers.
Italian law requires businesses to transmit sales data digitally through either a certified Registratore Telematico (RT) or the AdE’s online portal. Smart Receipts streamlines this process by providing a secure interface to relay your sales data to the AdE through a local provider.
Important distinctions for the Documento Commerciale:
- It is not an invoice (fattura) - invoices require detailed buyer information and follow different tax rules.
- It does not replace transport documents (documento di trasporto).
- It is not a simple internal receipt - it serves an official fiscal function requiring AdE transmission.
- It must include VAT at the time of sale - deferred VAT payment is not permitted.
The AdE portal provides functionality to create tickets, void them entirely, and process refunds at the item level. Invopop’s Smart Receipts implementation supports all these operations, allowing you to manage your electronic tickets programmatically through our API or manually via the Console.
Prerequisites
Before you begin, ensure you have:
- An Italian tax ID (Partita IVA) for the supplier.
- Invoice line items that include:
- quantity,
- name ,
- price (including VAT),
- VAT rate,
- item type (specified in extension).
Setup
There are five key processes to prepare:
- Create a supplier post-registration workflow.
- Connect the Italian Smart Receipts app.
- Configure a supplier registration workflow.
- Prepare an invoicing workflow.
- Prepare a voiding workflow.
These instructions work in both sandbox and live environments. The only differences are in supplier data and registration details when using test environments.
Follow these steps in the Invopop Console.
Create Supplier post-registration workflow
Copy and paste into a new Empty Party workflow code view.
Before starting, review the workflows guide to understand the general setup process.
In Console, create a new workflow and choose Empty Party workflow as the base. Then name the workflow with a descriptive label such as “Smart Receipt Post-registration”.
This worfkow is composed by a single step:
- Set State - To
Registered
.
Though you can customize it to suit your needs (adding a webhook, or an email notification after a supplier has been registered.)
Connect the Italian Smart Receipts app
- Navigate to Configuration → Apps.
- Find Italian Smart Receipts in the app discovery list.
- Click Connect to activate.
Click the Configure button on the app, and choose the “Post-registration workflow” we created in the previous step.
Click the Save button.
Configure the supplier registration workflow
Copy and paste into a new Empty Party workflow code view.
Before starting, review the workflows guide to understand the general setup process.
In Console, create a new workflow and choose Empty Party workflow as the base. Then name the workflow with a descriptive label such as “SDI Register Supplier”.
The new workflow will need to perform three steps:
- Sign the Envelope
- Register the Issuer
- Set State - with configuration set to
processing
.
Add any additional steps you may need, and save the new workflow.
Prepare Invoice Workflow
Copy and paste into a new Empty Invoice workflow code view.
Before starting, review the workflows guide to understand the general setup process.
In Console, create a new workflow and choose Empty Invoice workflow as the base. Then name the workflow with a descriptive label such as “Issue Italian Smart Receipts”.
The new workflow will need to perform three steps:
- Add Sequential Code - with dynamic sequences, and name like “Italian Smart Receipts”.
- Send a receipt to AdE.
- Generate PDF - configured for your environment.
- Set State - to
sent
.
Finally, in the Error Handling area, add the Set State action and select Error
.
Add any additional steps you may need, and save the new workflow.
Prepare Void Workflow
Copy and paste into a new Empty Invoice workflow code view.
Before starting, review the workflows guide to understand the general setup process.
In Console, create a new workflow and choose Empty Invoice workflow as the base. Then name the workflow with a descriptive label such as “Void Italian Smart Receipts”.
The new workflow will need to perform three steps:
- Void a receipt in AdE.
- Set State - to
sent
.
Finally, in the Error Handling area, add the Set State action and select Error
.
Add any additional steps you may need, and save the new workflow.
Running
Each company who will issue e-receipts must first register as a supplier in Invopop. In this section we’ll first explain how to register a supplier using the registration workflow we setup, and then how to issue and void invoices on behalf of that supplier, with the corresponding workflows.
As usual, the recommended approach for running jobs is to perform two steps; first upload the document to the silo, second create a job.
Register a Supplier
You can register suppliers either manually via the Invopop Console or programmatically via the API. The process is essentially the same, so for this guide we’ll demonstrate the manual process.
Suppliers in Italy using this system must generate and provide their AdE credentials so that invoices can be processed on their behalf. This is not an automated service and can only be performed manually by a representative of the supplier.
- Navigate to Contacts → Suppliers in the sidebar
- Click + New Supplier
- In the editor, enter the supplier details
Here’s an example using test data (only valid for sandbox environments):
Tap Build, ensure there are no errors, and click Save.
We should now see the document. Find and click the Select Workflow button. Select the Register Supplier workflow created during setup, and click Run Workflow.
The execution should be successful, and the silo entry will now be in the Processing
state. Tap the Meta tab to see the registration link:
You can access the registration link via the API by fetching the silo
entry and reading the meta
row where
the key
is set to registration-link
.
Tap the registration link and a new browser window will be presented with a form to upload the credentials for the supplier. Note that this form can be shared directly with the supplier if required.
The details from this form are sent securely to local partner who will be responsible for sending them to the AdE. We will update the supplier with the provided codice fiscale for future use but will not store any type of credentials.
These credentials will expire every 90 days. You must first update your credentials on the official AdE web portal, then enter these new credentials in our registration form. You can use the same registration link to update your credentials.
Send an Invoice
Use these GOBL document examples as templates in the Invopop Console or when creating silo entries via the API.
For proper validation and normalization, set these properties in your GOBL Invoices:
- Set
$region
toIT
- Include
it-ticket-v1
in$addons
While Invopop attempts to set these automatically based on other invoice fields, we recommend defining them explicitly.
The example below shows a simple B2C invoice from an Italian supplier. Key points to note:
- The
it-ticket-v1
addon ensures validation using AdE CF V1 rules - Extensions (
ext
) fields specify values that cannot be determined otherwise:- Items have an extension identifying them as goods or services
- VAT exemptions require an Italian exemption code
- The
prices_include
field indicates that item prices include VAT - VAT for “Cleaning Products” automatically sets to the standard rate
- Totals and calculations are generated automatically
The AdE will automatically generate a document number for the invoice. Once the invoice is sent, you will find the document number in a stamp inside the document header.
After the AdE accepts the invoice, they add a reference to each line item. This reference, stored in the it-ticket-line-ref
extension, is essential for processing refunds. The example below shows a complete invoice with these references.
Refund an Invoice
When a customer requests a refund for specific items, you can process it by issuing a corrective invoice. Since this is still considered sending an invoice, you can use the same workflow as before.
To create a corrective invoice take a original GOBL Invoice and:
- Set the
type
field tocorrective
- Add a reference to the original invoice using the
preceeding
object - Include the original document number stamp from the first invoice
- Keep the lines and quantities you want to refund
The example below shows a corrective invoice that refunds two units of “Cleaning Products” from the original invoice. The corrective invoice:
- Preserves the
it-ticket-line-ref
extension from the original invoice - References the original invoice using the
preceeding
object - Maintains the same line item references for accurate tracking
Void an Invoice
You can void an invoice if it was issued in error, such as when a receipt is accidentally sent twice. To void an invoice:
- Locate the silo entry uuid of the invoice
- Run the “Void AdE CF Invoices” workflow with this uuid
You can only void invoices that were originally sent through this app during the same business day.
FAQ
Please contact the Invopop support team if you have any questions that are not listed here.