Legislation and amendments · October 7, 2026 · 8 min read
E-invoicing does not change the rules of accounting. It changes how invoice data travels
If you are worried that electronic invoicing will force you to rebuild your whole accounting, we can put your mind at rest. It will not. The Slovak Financial Administration says so plainly: electronic invoicing will not change the basic principles of accounting or invoicing — it will only change the way invoice data is transferred and processed between companies. An invoice will carry the same particulars as today, VAT will be calculated the same way, and the deadlines for issuing an invoice are not rewritten by this change.
What changes is the form. Today most companies send an invoice as a PDF or on paper, and at the other end somebody retypes or scans the data. Once e-invoicing takes over, a structured data file that a computer understands will travel between systems. In practice that means less retyping, fewer typos and more room for automation for you.
At the same time this is a statutory duty, not an optional upgrade. The date is confirmed: 1 January 2027. So it is worth knowing what applies to you and what to prepare before the date catches up with you.
What really changes and what stays the same
The content of the invoice stays. Customer, supplier, date of supply, tax base, rate, amount. Your responsibility for the correctness of your accounting and tax returns stays — that always rests with the entrepreneur, whoever processes the documents. The rules on when a tax liability arises and when you are entitled to deduct stay as well.
What changes is the route the data takes. An invoice stops being a picture and becomes data in an agreed format that systems exchange without human intervention. That also changes how the document is created in your invoicing software and how it reaches your accountant.
A side effect of the change, according to the Financial Administration, is more uniform and more accurate processes and fewer manual steps. That is exactly the part an owner cares about most — less administration for the same volume of work.
Deadlines: from 1 January 2027
The Financial Administration has confirmed the date. From 1 January 2027, VAT payers in Slovakia must issue invoices in an electronic format and every entrepreneur must be able to receive them.
The second half of that sentence matters more than it first appears. The duty to issue is tied to VAT payers, but the duty to receive applies to every entrepreneur — including a non-payer who will never issue an e-invoice at all. So if you are telling yourself this does not concern you, first check whether you are even able to accept an electronic invoice from a supplier.
2026 is for preparation. The Financial Administration publishes rollout dates as they are set and runs free regional conferences on the practicalities of the transition; the current list and the details are on its website and on the info-efaktura.sk portal.
What we can say with certainty already: the sooner you tidy up your invoicing, the less the transition will cost you in nerves. Companies invoicing today from a spreadsheet or a word processor will have the most work.
Who is affected
The duty to issue an e-invoice is tied to VAT payers for domestic supplies between businesses. The duty to receive one, however, falls on every entrepreneur, regardless of VAT status or how many invoices they issue a month.
In practice that means you will not stay out of it even if you invoice only end customers through a cash register — your suppliers will be invoicing you electronically. Simplified invoices, chiefly cash-register receipts, do not count as e-invoices.
The scope of the duty does not depend on whether you are a large or a small company. That is exactly why it does not pay to put it off on the grounds that "this is for the big players". Smaller companies usually have simpler processes, so their transition tends to be quicker — provided it does not start at the last minute.
What to prepare now — practically
First, find out what you invoice in and whether your software supplier plans to adapt it. One e-mail, one question. If no answer comes, or the answer is evasive, you have your answer anyway and it is time to look elsewhere.
Second, tidy up your master data. Company numbers, tax numbers, VAT numbers, exact billing addresses of customers, correct labelling of items and VAT rates. With structured data, an error is not forgiven as easily as in a PDF, where a person reads it correctly even with a typo. This is work you can do today and lose nothing by.
Third, map out how documents reach your accountant. If you carry them over in an envelope once a quarter, that will stop making sense with electronic invoicing. The ideal state is that a document is created, goes to the customer, and by the same movement reaches your accounting — without anyone retyping it anywhere.
Fourth, agree with your accountant who is responsible for what. There is nothing worse than finding out just before the deadline that both sides were waiting for the other.
Where the real opportunity lies
Electronic invoicing will not improve your business by itself. What will improve it is what you do with the data it creates. When invoices travel in machine-readable form, you stop waiting for somebody to retype something — and your numbers can be current continuously, not three weeks after month end.
That is precisely what we built our client application for. You issue invoices in it, documents arrive in it automatically by e-mail, you see receivables and payables in real time, and you can reach the archive at any moment. Accounting is presented there from a business owner's point of view rather than an accountant's — including indicators such as margin, return on sales, EBITDA and return on investment. And you have a direct contact to your own accountant in it, not an anonymous inbox.
We are also in the process of certification as an e-Poštár and e-invoice intermediary. It is not finished yet, but we are preparing for it so that our clients do not have to handle the transition on their own.
How we can help
We are in our fifth year on the market, we look after more than 850 clients across Slovakia and there are more than 60 of us. We do not do data entry. We solve what troubles the client — and with e-invoicing that is usually one simple question: "What do I have to do so this does not become a problem for me?"
When you move to us, at the start you get a report on the real state of your accounting as soon as we have the handover materials from your previous accountant. During the first month to quarter we set up the cooperation and deal with anything urgent — registrations, missing tax obligations, unfinished documents. Your own work on it is minimal: you introduce us to your previous accountant and supply the materials from a list we give you. Documents then arrive automatically by e-mail straight into the application. We need your input on one thing only — when we find errors and somebody has to decide what gets corrected.
Write to us and tell us what troubles you most about your accounting. You will find us at bilvao.com or on +421 917 444 327.
Frequently asked questions
From when is it mandatory?
From 1 January 2027. VAT payers will have to issue invoices in an electronic format and every entrepreneur must be able to receive them. 2026 is for preparation and testing.
Will e-invoicing force me to change my accounting?
No. The Financial Administration states that electronic invoicing does not change the basic principles of accounting or invoicing. What changes is the way invoice data is transferred and processed. The particulars of an invoice and the VAT rules stay the same.
Is it enough if I send invoices as PDFs?
No, that is not the same thing. A PDF is a picture for a human; an e-invoice is a structured data file a computer understands. That difference is what makes it possible to do away with manual retyping.
I am not a VAT payer. Does this apply to me?
Yes, but differently. VAT payers will have to issue e-invoices; every entrepreneur must be able to receive one. So at the very least, check whether an electronic invoice from a supplier will actually reach you where it should.
Who is responsible if something goes wrong — me or my accountant?
Responsibility for accounting and tax returns always rests with the entrepreneur. An accountant does not take it over from you, but they can substantially reduce the risk of an error arising in the first place. That is why it matters who keeps your accounts and whether they warn you in time.
Sources: Financial Administration of the Slovak Republic — information portal on electronic invoicing (info-efaktura.sk), financnasprava.sk. Position as at 30 September 2026.
This article is for information only and does not replace tax or legal advice.
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