Automating e-Factura means invoices are sent to and downloaded from RO e-Factura (Romania's national e-invoicing system) directly from the company's software, with no manual uploads in SPV (ANAF's online portal), and are then matched automatically with orders and payments. Sending, collecting supplier invoices, status checks and error alerts can be safely automated; tax treatment and correction decisions stay with a person.
For many companies, RO e-Factura has added an extra step to every day: uploads, downloads, checking error messages and reconciliations. The good news is that much of this repetitive work can be automated. Below we explain, in terms a manager can follow, what the system is, what can be automated around it and where human control must remain.
In short
RO e-Factura is the national e-invoicing system run by ANAF (the Romanian tax authority). Invoices travel as structured XML, not as PDFs. Automation makes the most sense for sending from your invoicing software, automatically collecting invoices you receive and matching them with orders and payments. The accountant remains responsible for tax accuracy.
Please note
This article is for information only and does not constitute tax or legal advice. It reflects the general situation at the time of writing (October 2026). Obligations, deadlines and technical specifications for e-Factura change periodically; check the current information on the ANAF website and talk to your company's accountant or tax adviser.
What is RO e-Factura?
RO e-Factura is the national system through which invoices are transmitted electronically via ANAF. The issuing company sends the invoice to the system, ANAF validates it technically, and the recipient can collect it from the system. Access is through ANAF's Virtual Private Space (SPV) or through technical interfaces (APIs) used by invoicing and accounting software, on the basis of a digital certificate.
The key element is the format. The invoice is no longer a visual document but an XML file structured according to the national RO_CIUS specification, which is based on the European e-invoicing standard. Every piece of information (buyer, tax code, products, VAT rates, totals) has a precise field. This is what makes automation possible: a program can read the invoice without “guessing” where each item is written.
After transmission, the system responds either with confirmation that the invoice has been accepted or with an error message explaining why it was rejected. This response matters: a rejected invoice must be corrected and resubmitted, not simply ignored.
XML is not easy for people to read. That is why invoicing software and ANAF's tools let you display the invoice in a visual form, such as a PDF. Bear in mind, however, that within the system the reference document is the XML file, not the visual version.
Who does e-Factura apply to?
The system was introduced in stages. The obligation applied first to transactions between companies (B2B) and with public institutions, and was then extended to invoices issued to private individuals (B2C), with specific rules. Some categories of taxpayers, transactions and situations are treated differently, and the rules have been adjusted several times.
Important limitation
Do not determine your company's obligations on the basis of a general article. Which invoices must be transmitted, within what deadline and which exceptions apply depends on your company's specific situation and on the legislation in force. The reference source is ANAF, and the interpretation for your case is made by your accountant or tax adviser.
What you can automate around RO e-Factura
Automation does not just mean “automatic sending”. The value appears when e-Factura is linked to the rest of the company's workflow: orders, stock, payments and accounting.
1. Sending invoices from your invoicing software
Many invoicing programs and ERPs can generate the XML and transmit it directly to the system, without anyone downloading and uploading files in SPV. If the company issues invoices from an online store or its own application, the connection can be made via an API, so that the invoice goes out automatically once the order or delivery is confirmed.
2. Status checks and error alerts
After sending, an automated process can periodically check the status of each invoice. When one is rejected, the person responsible gets an alert straight away, with the error message rephrased in plain language and the invoice attached. That way, errors do not go unnoticed until the month-end close.
3. Downloading supplier invoices
Invoices you receive can be collected automatically from the system, saved in an orderly archive and converted into a format that is easy for people to read. They can be passed on to accounting or to the department that needs to approve them.
4. Matching with orders, goods receipts and payments
This is where automation delivers the most. For each invoice received, the system looks for the matching purchase order and goods receipt and checks whether the supplier, quantities and amounts agree. For invoices issued, payments on the bank statement can be matched automatically with open invoices. Whatever clearly matches moves on; whatever does not goes to a person, with the difference highlighted.
5. Reports and tracking
A simple dashboard can show, every day, the invoices sent, those rejected, those received but not yet recorded and those unpaid. The manager sees the situation without opening SPV.
Practical tip
Before building anything new, check what the invoicing or accounting software you use already does. Many have e-Factura connectors. Custom automation makes sense mainly for links between systems that do not talk to each other.
What must stay checked by a person
Just because a process can be automated does not mean every decision in it should be left to the system. In tax matters, some checks remain human:
- Tax treatment: VAT rates, special schemes and the treatment of unusual transactions.
- Corrections: when and how to reverse or correct a rejected or incorrect invoice.
- Matching discrepancies: invoices that do not match the order, changed prices, partial quantities.
- New suppliers and their tax details, especially on the first invoice received.
- The initial set-up and any change to the rules in the automated system.
- Situations the system does not recognise: these must reach a person, not be handled “as best it can”.
A practical rule: automation handles the volume, people handle the exceptions. If the system processes perfectly matching invoices without intervention and sends the rest to a person, with the difference explained, the team spends its time where its judgement matters. It is also worth periodically checking samples of automatically processed invoices, so you notice early if a matching rule has started making mistakes.
Where AI can help in the invoice workflow
For invoices received through e-Factura, the data is already structured, so in many cases AI is not needed. Artificial intelligence becomes useful for documents that do not arrive in a structured format: receipts, till slips, foreign invoices received as PDFs, contracts or delivery notes. An AI agent can extract the data from them, propose it for recording and flag anything that does not match.
The limit is clear: AI can misread a document or misinterpret a situation. That is why, in a financial workflow, AI proposes and a person confirms. It is not appropriate to let an AI model decide tax treatment or corrections on its own.
Questions to ask before an e-Factura automation project
- Which software do we currently use for invoicing, accounting, stock and banking, and what connectors does it already offer?
- How many invoices do we issue and receive, and where is time being lost at the moment?
- Who holds the digital certificate and who is responsible for access to the system?
- What matching rules do we have today, even if they only exist in people's heads?
- Who receives the alerts and how quickly must an error be resolved?
- How do we archive invoices and who has access to them?
- What happens if the ANAF system or the connection is temporarily unavailable?
The cost of such a project depends on the number of systems that need connecting, how orderly the current data is and how complex the matching rules are. A simple workflow built on top of software that already has a connector is much easier than integrating several applications that do not talk to each other.
How WEB-AZ helps
We build integrations and automations between the systems the company already uses: online store, in-house applications, invoicing software, bank and reporting dashboards. We start with an analysis of the current workflow and suggest automating the repetitive, well-defined steps first, with clear alerts for exceptions. The tax side stays with your accountant, with whom we agree the rules before implementation.
Next steps