Italy started digitalization of public procurement in 2014. Government successfully implemented electronic invoicing in all public procurement transactions. A few years later, they decided to extend this regulation to sales and purchase orders. As of February 2020,
Mandatory B2G E-invoicing
Italy designed FatturaPA for public procurement transactions. It is the official electronic invoice format for public authorities. Use of FatturaPA between taxpayers and public entities has been compulsory since 2014. The Sistema di Interscambio (SdI) exchange system is the portal for sending and receiving e-invoices. All e-invoices issued are transmitted via SdI to the customer by identification of buyers’ IPA code.
Mandatory B2G E-ordering
As a first phase, public entities belonging to the Italy’s National Health System or Servizio Sanitario Nazionale (SSN) and their suppliers must submit all ordering documents. Those include Order (Ordine), Initial Order or Original Order (Ordine iniziale), Order replacement (Ordine sostitutivo), Revocation Order (Ordine di revoca), Pre-arranged order (Ordine pre-concordato).
Mandatory e-ordering for goods and services started on 1 February 2020 and 1 January 2021 respectively. But there is a grace period until 1 January 2021 for orders of goods and 1 January 2022 for orders of services.
During the grace period, Italian public entities will continue to pay for orders even if no e-orders has been transmitted through the Orders’ Routing Node platform.
Orders’ Routing Node is the exchange system of e-orders. It is officially called NSO (Nodo di Smistamento degli Ordini). E-orders are not submitted via SdI platform like e-invoices. NSO platform not only manages the validation and transmission of sales and purchase orders but also execution documents such as transport documents and work progress reports.
In order to receive electronic orders, all suppliers of the national health service bodies (SSN) must have an electronic address for NSO.
It should be noted that the e-ordering process can be started, alternatively, by the customer or by the Supplier. Three main NSO e-ordering processes are described:
Simple order: only includes the order;
Full order: includes the order, an order response and the order acknowledgement;
Pre-agreed order: in this case the e-order is issued by the supplier instead of the customer It can include the order acknowledgement. The pre-authorization to issue the order by the Supplier, rather than the customer, can be derived from the contract or other document (eg, an order sent by fax or by e-mail due to the unavailability of the computerized system that emits Orders electronic, or an order perfected through a telematic communication platform)
Contribution by Ege Akbas, SNI
