Review the invoice’s business facts yourself or assign them to someone authorised to confirm them. A required-field check can tell you that a buyer name is present, but it cannot tell you that the named entity ordered the work. Arithmetic can confirm a total from entered values without confirming that the prices were agreed.
Divide the review into identity, billing evidence, tax decisions, payment instructions and output requirements. Make the owner of each decision clear where several people are involved. The first-invoice workflow includes application checks, but those checks are only one part of preparing a document fit for its intended recipient.
Confirm who is billing whom
Read the seller and buyer details from the source records. Confirm the actual seller entity and the customer’s billing entity, not merely the project contact or delivery location. Similar company names can hide different legal entities, particularly when a group uses one brand across several branches or subsidiaries.
Check addresses and identifiers for their purpose. A tax identifier is not interchangeable with a registration number or a procurement reference. A contact email does not establish a network endpoint. The current application records text and performs limited shape checks on optional emails; it does not verify registrations or authenticate the parties.
If someone else provided the values, resolve discrepancies rather than silently choosing one version. A short confirmation from the correct billing contact is better evidence than an assumption based on an old invoice. Retain the confirmed source in the preparation records for later questions.
Confirm the right to bill each amount
Compare quantities, rates and deliverables with the agreement and any approval evidence. A line reading ten hours at EUR 90 correctly totals EUR 900 before adjustments and tax. If only eight hours were approved, the arithmetic is correct but the charge is not. A field check cannot know the difference.
Review units as carefully as prices. Six packs at a pack price and six individual items at the same numeric price imply different goods. An amount can look familiar while its charging basis is wrong. Check discounts against the actual agreement rather than using a percentage to make the total resemble a target figure.
For milestone work, confirm which event permits billing. For delivered goods, reconcile the billed quantity with the relevant delivery evidence under the agreement. The creator does not maintain project approvals, stock movements or order balances, so those checks remain outside its calculations.
Own the tax decision
Confirm the tax category, rate and any required explanation using the applicable transaction facts and suitable advice. The current form cannot determine the place of supply, registration obligations or whether an exemption is available to your business. A country selector and a non-empty tax reason do not supply those missing facts.
If an accountant or another qualified adviser makes the decision, ask what information and wording should appear on the invoice and whether the intended software can represent it. Keep the answer clear enough for the person entering the data. “Tax checked” without a category, rate or explanation can leave the actual entry unresolved.
Do not treat a zero numeric rate as a complete description of tax treatment. The form distinguishes zero-rated, exempt and outside-scope categories because the business meaning differs. Entering the appropriate explanation is a preparation task; establishing that the treatment legally applies remains a separate decision.
Verify payment instructions through trusted records
Review the payee, account details and payment reference. The editor cannot verify ownership of an account, authenticate a bank-change message or confirm that a payment method is operational. If instructions conflict, use an established contact route to resolve the conflict before sharing the document.
Check that the payment reference matches the intended reconciliation process. A sample reference or an old invoice number can remain in the payment section after the main document number is replaced. Reading the preview’s payment block is therefore a real control, not a cosmetic check.
For a fictional agency, a new message requesting a different account on the same day as invoice preparation should trigger independent confirmation. It should not automatically become the most trusted instruction simply because it is the newest item in the inbox.
Check what the recipient will actually receive
Confirm the required format, version and route against the customer’s instructions. EInvoiceCreator’s current printable output, application JSON and line-items CSV are not recognised standards-based e-invoice exports. A preview that looks professional does not establish compatibility with a specified XML profile or submission platform.
Use the preview’s strengths and limits to decide what visual review can establish. Then inspect the actual exported file and choose the correct version for attachment or hand-off. Do not assume that the last file downloaded is the one the reviewer approved.
If the invoice needs external mapping, validation or transmission, identify who completes that stage and what evidence they return. A passed local field check should not be reported as government acceptance, successful Peppol delivery or formal standards conformance.
Record a useful review result
A practical sign-off identifies the invoice reference, reviewed file or draft version, facts checked and unresolved issues. It need not be elaborate, but it should allow another person to distinguish “data entered” from “prices approved” or “output validated externally”. Avoid a blanket approval that appears to cover checks nobody performed.
When a fact changes after review, reconsider the affected checks. A changed buyer can alter references and delivery requirements; a changed quantity can alter amounts and tax calculations. Review is complete when the relevant facts and the selected output agree, not merely when the application displays no missing-field messages.