Before starting an e-invoice, collect the seller and customer identities, the invoice reference and dates, the items supplied, confirmed tax information, payment instructions and the recipient’s output requirements. These inputs come from different records. An accepted quotation can establish prices, while the customer’s billing instructions establish where its order reference belongs. Neither record alone supplies everything you need.
Make a short preparation sheet before typing. Give each value a source and mark unresolved questions explicitly. A value that looks plausible is less useful than a clearly identified gap, because a plausible mistake may survive both visual review and basic field validation. The first-invoice workflow explains where this collection stage fits between confirming the recipient’s requirements and reviewing an exported file.
Identify the two businesses
For the seller, collect the business name, address, country, contact details and any identifiers applicable to the transaction. Use the entity that supplied the work, rather than automatically copying a logo or an email signature. If a trading name differs from the registered name, establish how both should be represented before relying on a single name field.
For the buyer, request the billing entity and its address. The person who ordered the service may work for a different group company or department from the entity receiving the invoice. Record that person’s contact separately from the buyer identity. A customer’s email address is useful for correspondence but does not identify a structured-invoice network endpoint.
Keep identifiers labelled. A company registration number, a VAT number and a procurement reference have different purposes, even when each appears to be a string of digits. Do not copy one into another field simply to remove a validation error. Where the recipient requires additional typed identifiers that the editor cannot represent, preserve the information for supporting software.
Establish the document and the supply
Prepare an invoice number from your own numbering records. The current creator starts with an example reference; it does not know whether that number has already been used elsewhere. Confirm the issue date and payment due date, and retain any distinct supply date or service period needed by the transaction or recipient. Do not change a historical supply date merely to make the document look current.
For each item, collect a description, quantity, unit and agreed unit price. Record whether the agreed price includes or excludes tax. An instruction to bill “the website project” is insufficient if the contract separates a workshop, design work and optional maintenance. Those components may need separate descriptions or different supporting references.
The current creator accepts positive quantities with up to four decimal places and non-negative prices with two decimal places. Discounts and tax rates allow two decimal places. If your source record needs greater price precision, a credit note or document-level charges, flag that requirement before entering an approximation. Preserve the agreed figures in the original record.
Bring confirmed tax and payment information
Tax preparation means gathering a decision already established for the transaction. It does not mean selecting whichever category produces a convenient total. Collect the applicable rate, category and any required reason or reference. If you are uncertain about exemption, reverse charge or cross-border treatment, resolve the question with appropriate advice before entering the final data.
Prepare the payment method, account instructions and payment reference using trusted records. An old invoice can help identify previously used instructions, but it should not automatically override a recent, verified change. If a message requests different bank details, confirm it through a known contact channel. The application neither authenticates that message nor verifies the owner of an account.
Check the recipient’s actual requirement
Ask which document format, profile, version and delivery route the customer accepts. A request for an electronic invoice can mean something more specific than a readable attachment. The recipient format questions help separate an output file requirement from an email address, portal or network requirement.
The present EInvoiceCreator provides a printable invoice, application-owned JSON and line-items CSV. It does not produce a verified standards-based e-invoice. Having all the source information ready remains useful, but a recipient requesting a recognised XML profile will require an appropriate external generator and validator. Do not wait until the final export to discover that limitation.
Use a preparation sheet with evidence
Suppose a fictional consultancy is billing six hours at EUR 80 per hour. Its preparation sheet should show the six approved hours, the hourly unit, the agreed net rate and the customer’s purchase order. The line’s amount before any discount or tax is EUR 480. A confirmed tax decision must still be added separately; the customer’s country alone does not supply it.
If the purchase order contains an abbreviated buyer name, obtain the billing name instead of guessing the expansion. If the agreement mentions a monthly service period, retain those dates even where the initial application has no dedicated service-period field. These are information gaps to resolve or map later, not reasons to discard the source evidence.
Once the sheet is coherent, you can prepare the confirmed details in the invoice creator. Keep the source sheet alongside the draft, review every required field and choose only an available output that suits the next step. A completed form is a preparation result; acceptance by a recipient or tax authority is a separate question.