What Data Should You Include in Your Company’s Invoices?

If you’re starting your business in Estonia or you don’t have much experience billing customers, invoicing can be confusing.

What data should I include? Do I need to add VAT? 🤔

Well, that’s just what we’re going to look at in this article, so keep reading.

But first, keep in mind that this article does not include cryptocurrency companies, as special conditions are applied. That is, we are only talking about “standard” companies, which carry out all their activity in fiat money (euros, dollars, etc.).

What information should the invoice include?

We will explain what data you need to include in your invoices, both in the invoices you send (sales invoices) and in the invoices you receive (purchase invoices).

Data of sales invoice

It must include at least the following data:

• Data of your customer:
  • If the customer is a business: the name of the company and registration number. If the company has a VAT number, the VAT must be included in the invoice.
  • If the customer is an individual: The person’s full name and the person’s address. If you don’t have the address, you need to include at least the country of the customer.
• Any invoice you issue must have an invoice number, which is unique and preferably sequential.
• Date of issue of the invoice and the due date. The first is the date on which the invoice is generated and the second, is the later date on which the customer can pay the invoice to the company (it can be specified as a number of days instead of a date).
• Price without VAT.
• Currency. You should issue your invoices always in EUR, even if a conversion to another currency is added. For example, you want to charge $100 to your customer. You calculate that $100 is 90.23€ right now, so you issue an invoice for 90.23€ and add $100 as an extra concept.
• Information about applicable VAT:
  • If the invoice must include VAT, specify the VAT separately, first as a percentage, and then the amount.
  • If your company is VAT liable (has a VAT number) and you are invoicing another EU company that is VAT liable (has a VAT number), you add “VAT 0%, intra-communitary reverse charge”.
  • If the invoice does not include VAT, you don’t need to specify it.
• The total amount of the products or services, including VAT and any other applicable taxes or modifications. The currency must also be indicated (euros, dollars, etc.).
• To invoice a company, you must specify the company’s details, including its name, registration number, and VAT number if it has one, and if possible its physical address.

Data of purchases invoices

Purchase invoices follow the same rules:

• They must clearly mention your company as the recipient of the invoice, indicating the name of your company (with the OÜ), the registration number, the VAT number (if any) and, preferably, the physical address.
• The seller, supplier, or vendor information must be specified, including the name of the business, registration ID, and the VAT number if they have a one, and their legal address (at least, the country).
• The invoice must clearly state the total cost excluding VAT, the applicable VAT (if any) and the grand total, including any VAT, tax or additional charge applicable to the cost.
• The currency must also be clearly indicated (euros, dollars, etc.).
• It is also important that the invoice includes a unique invoice number and two dates: the issue date and the due date.

When to include VAT on the invoice

The inclusion or non-inclusion of VAT in the invoice and its value depends on two factors: the type of activity of your company, and the customer to whom it is invoiced, although the most important thing is whether or not your company is responsible for VAT (that is, whether or not it has a VAT number). You can find more information here.

Do I need to include other tax types on the invoice?

No. This is a very common mistake if you come from the complex tax world of the other EU countries (especially southern Europe), where there are a number of exceptions and additional taxes that apply to some types of invoices.

So do NOT add any additional taxes beyond VAT to your invoices.

Review your invoices

Our final recommendation is to review your invoices before submitting them, especially at the beginning.

However, there is a way to avoid errors in your invoices and to create them automatically: invoicing with Companio’s dashboard. Simply type in the data requested, and that’s it! You can find more information here.