How to tell if an Ecuadorian electronic invoice is authentic

An email arrives with a PDF that says "Invoice". It may be exactly what it looks like, or it may be a file someone laid out this morning. The difference is not visible by looking at the PDF: it shows by checking whether behind it exists an electronic receipt authorized by the Servicio de Rentas Internas. This guide is the procedure, and it serves equally an accountant reconciling hundreds of documents a month and someone about to pay a single large invoice.

What must be proven, exactly

Three different things, best not mixed:

1. That the receipt exists before the SRI, with that access key and those amounts.
2. That it was issued by who claims to issue it: the receipt's RUC must be that of the company you contracted with.
3. That the issuer is who it says it is: that the company exists, is active and drags none of the signals the SRI itself publishes.

The first point is settled with the access key; the second, by comparing; the third, in a directory like this one. The three together are reasonable diligence before paying.

Why the PDF proves nothing

Because the PDF is not the invoice. As we explain in the electronic invoicing guide, the receipt that legally exists is a signed XML file (a text file with the structured data); the PDF is its RIDE, the printed representation. Anyone can produce a PDF that looks like a RIDE: logos, barcode and all. What they cannot produce is an authorized receipt on the SRI's servers.

The check, in four steps

1. Locate the access key. Forty-nine digits, printed under the RIDE's barcode and present in the delivery email and inside the XML. If the document carries no access key, you already have your answer.
2. Recover the authorized receipt from that key and look at what the source returns, not what the PDF says.
3. Compare field by field: issuer's RUC and legal name, issue date, buyer identification, subtotal, VAT and total. A difference in the total between the XML and the PDF is rarely rounding: treat it as tampering until the issuer explains it.
4. Check the receipt's status (below) and, if everything squares, archive the XML, not the PDF.

The four statuses of a receipt

• Authorized. The SRI validated the receipt. The normal status and the only one that supports the cost or expense and deducts the VAT paid (the tax credit).
• In processing. The receipt was transmitted and there is no reply yet. Transitory: if it persists, the issuer has a transmission problem.
• Not authorized. The SRI rejected it: a malformed key, an expired signature, inconsistent data. It does not exist as a receipt; demand its re-issuance.
• Voided. It existed and the issuer nullified it. Beware of holding a PDF of a receipt later voided: the copy keeps looking just as good.

Checking who issued it

A receipt can be perfectly authentic and still come from a counterparty that does not suit you. With the receipt's RUC in hand, look it up in this directory: the profile shows the registered legal name, the company's legal status in the corporate registry and the status of its RUC with the SRI. Those two facts do not always match.

It is the check that separates "this document is real" from "this business is real". Both are needed, and the full procedure is in how to verify an Ecuadorian company.

Signals that demand a second look

• The SRI flags the issuer as a phantom taxpayer or with nonexistent transactions. These are designations the tax administration itself publishes: the first marks businesses it considers without real operation, and the second, invoices for operations it determined never took place. They appear on the company's profile when they exist, and invoices from such an issuer deduct no taxes and drag down whoever uses them.
• The receipt's RUC is not that of the company you negotiated with, even if the trade name matches. The classic impersonation pattern.
• The company stands dissolved, liquidated or cancelled and keeps issuing.
• The receipt arrives from a domain that has nothing to do with the supplier, or asks to pay into an account different from the usual one.

What to archive afterwards

The authorized XML. The regulation requires keeping receipts for a minimum term of seven years, and the recipient needs the original file, not a printout, to support the expense under a review.

Reglamento de Comprobantes de Venta, Retención y Documentos Complementarios (Executive Decree 430, Registro Oficial 247, July 30, 2010), art. 41, amended by Executive Decree 99 (Registro Oficial 467, December 29, 2023).

Doing it by hand, invoice by invoice, does not hold with hundreds a month. The sensible thing is for receipts to arrive already filed and reconciled.