Technology and digitalisation have been hot topics in recent years. These two factors are said to be crucial in how people go about their daily job routines, while also being key in improving effectiveness and efficiency at a lower cost.
With the same intention in upholding tax regulations, the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (IRBM) drew the idea of implementing e-Invoice for the purpose of tax compliance. To achieve such digitalisation and compliance, standards were set and businesses in Malaysia are expected to implement e-Invoicing in different timelines based on their business’ annual revenue.
With e-Invoicing technology, the IRBM built a portal, known as the MyInvois Portal, which is accessible to all businesses for free. Businesses are expected to create, submit, and validate invoices in this portal. Through this, the IRBM will be able to view the progress of Malaysian businesses and utilise this data during the calculation of their company tax filing.
Application Programming Interface (API) for integration
The IRBM understands that businesses will face challenges in implementing e-Invoicing, even with their MyInvois Portal. Companies who have been billing invoices through a proper billing or accounting system, which may come with functionalities such as approval, credit control, etc., may face difficulty with the portal.
Businesses are also encouraged to adopt a billing or accounting system prior to implementing e-Invoicing as there is no guarantee how MyInvois Portal will be enhanced in future. With such consideration, MyInvois’ Software Development Kits (SDK) with APIs were developed for developers to integrate their own system with the MyInvois Portal. This allows software users to operate on their preferred system, according to their level of comfortability and operate with their software’s core functionality to submit invoices to the MyInvois Portal seamlessly.
For example, accounting software, AutoCount Accounting, comes with several functionalities that aids in the preparation and submission of e-Invoices. One of the popular features available is Intelligent Onboarding which allows businesses to simplify the process of getting customer details by sending a unique link to be filled by the receiver—this overcomes the hassles of data entry and secures data accuracy.
In addition to that, AutoCount Accounting’s Intelligent Submission allows their users to have full control over their e-Invoice submission, providing the flexibility to have approval control over their invoices if required. It also comes with an automatic built-in retry mechanism to que up submissions and provide real-time submission status updates should the MyInvois Portal faces downtime and this also ensures the best user experience.
Improved data analysis
With digital invoices, businesses can capitalise this to generate different reports. This means eliminating the need to manually pull data into Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, as well as write formulas, macros, etc. All this can be automated if the business adopts a software, which usually comes with a wide range of reporting functionalities.
For example, businesses would be able to generate Monthly Sales Analysis report where the business owner can identify top-performing months and the highest grossing products. Powerful pivot reporting might also be available, such as Multi-Dimensional Sales, where users are able to choose the report presentation as a pivot grid based on the selected fields with their preferred criteria; this is also a capability that is offered in AutoCount Accounting.
Security and compliance
The protection of sensitive information has become a priority since the growth of digitalisation and technology. With e-Invoicing being mandated in Malaysia, businesses have been worried about whether data transferred during submission is secure and if confidential data will be leaked. The IRBM has acknowledged those fears and implemented robust security measures to ensure any data transferred is only done through a secured channel.
Besides that, there were also concerns of fraud invoices; this is when an individual submits an invoice on behalf of another business. However, the MyInvois Portal requires selected individuals to login, where only the company's director can appoint representatives to process invoices on behalf of their company. Therefore, as long as the business owners or representatives practise safe password guidelines, such as avoiding sharing their password with unauthorised individuals, fraud invoices are not an issue.
As for API integrations, a Digital Signature and Client Secret mechanism is implemented to ensure that the user is the owner or company representative that links the system for any invoice submissions. Once again, those authorised to use the system should not share this information, especially the Client Secret, to untrustworthy individuals.
The role of technology in e-Invoicing cannot be overstated
From tax compliances to digitising your business, technology has made all these processes easier, accurate, and transparent to all parties.
With technology, both businesses and the IRBM benefit from reduced human efforts and errors as these routine tasks are completed via technology. Additionally, businesses are also able to enjoy seamless tax filing or tax reporting through the implementation of e-Invoicing.
If given the opportunity to digitise, businesses can expect better operational efficiency, as well as powerful reporting capabilities provided by software solutions, such as AutoCount Accounting, that aid in deeper business analysis and better financial reporting.
This e-Invoice News series is an collaboration with AutoCount.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.
