For those of you who are familiar with business in Mexico, the discussions of CFD and CFDI are quite familiar. The government has been on a slow transition from the paper based CFD to the electronic based CFDI invoice process.
2011 was when they stopped all new implementations of the paper based CFD, instead requiring CFDI. As CFDI was rolled out, both business and government needed time to learn how to best support the new processes. There have been changes over the last couple of years as the electronic process matured.
Some of the most recent changes include:
- The SATestablished afree CFDI portal for the smallest of suppliersat the end of last year
- The CFDI legislationwas relaxedin Q4 2012 to make it easier to implement CFDI
- As of December 28, 2012, the SAT wants companies to archive the XML CFDI invoices for audit purposes — making inbound validation a requirement
These changes point to a “when not if” scenario for the retirement of CFD and the mass adoption of CFDI.
Last time this happened (i.e the transition from CFD to CFDI for a select set of companies that weren’t grandfathered) there was a mad rush to implement. There were many companies that weren’t able to comply in time and faced fines, audits and worse — shut downs of their operations.
So the question now is — are you prepared? We are taught growing up in Atlanta to have an emergency plan when you hear the sirens. You need a place to go that is secure and dependable so that you come out of the storm safely. Many organizations are doing the same thing when it comes to the CFD – CFDI transition. They are appropriately – creating budgets, project plans, teams, and gap analysis — and most importantly they are speaking with solution providers to understand what and when they could implement when it happens. Remember, 90% of all invoices including those by most multi-nationals are still CFD. When the storm comes, will you be prepared or will you be scrambling for a solution. Just food for thought.
