Exact Globe

Product Update 400: Exact Globe ready for certification (Portuguese legislation)

Effective January 1, 2011, the legal obligation in Portugal to certify computer software used by taxpayers to tax personal income (IRS) tax or corporate income (IRC), to issue invoices or equivalent documents and tickets sold, in accordance with Articles 36. and 40. of the Code of Value Added Tax (VAT), should be subject to prior certification by the Directorate General for Taxation (DGCI).

The law is as follows ”The documents that must contain the signature, whatever their designation, are the ones containing an indication of the goods or services and corresponding amounts, which may be presented to the purchaser (consumer) in support of the transaction (for example, a consultation table) in accordance with paragraph 2 of the Technical Regulations disclosed.”  

In other words, the certified Exact Globe software must supply an electronic signature for all processed sales invoices, direct invoices, credit notes, POS receipts, POS invoices, delivery notes, unplanned returns, and RMA orders, that reflects the reference to the identification of this signature in every printed copy of the sales document. This information must be provided with the electronic audit file by SAFT, which includes the information of every sales document.

Details of changes

Creating and storing private keys

The following five elements are required for generating RSA signatures. The elements are separated by a “;” (semicolon), which constitutes the message to be signed with the private key. The following describes the five elements of the signature and their structures:

Every generated electronic signature is linked to the appropriate document and stored in the administration. After the electronic signature is being generated, its DIGI control must be provided for the printed document as follows:

The control digits are Digit 1 + Digit 11 + Digit 21 + Digit 31 of the generated signature.

Based on the example in item 5 of the above table, the reference to the RSA signature in the layout must be mc2X.

Generating digital signatures

The process flow for generating a digital signature for a sales invoice, direct invoice, credit note, delivery note, unplanned return, or RMA order is as follows:

1. Process the invoice, credit note, fulfillment, or return.
2. Generate the RSA signature for the documents based on the private key and the five elements.
3. Save the generated signature.
4. Print the invoice, credit note, delivery note, or return slip.
5. Add the reference of the signature in the document layout.

The process flow for generating the digital signature for a POS receipt is as follows:

1. Process a POS receipt.
2. Print the POS receipt.
3. Generate the RSA signature for the documents based on the private key and the five elements
4. Save the generated signature.
5. Add the reference of the signature in the document layout.

Note: The same signature will be reused when processing the POS invoice. The reference of the same signature will also be reflected in the document layout when the payment method of the POS invoice is set to By account.

Document layout

The Control digits database field has been added to the Header block of the sales invoice, direct invoice, credit note, POS receipt, POS invoice, delivery note, unplanned return, and RMA order layouts, in the Logistics section at Documents settings, as shown in the following. You can print the reference of the digital signature on the layout of the corresponding processes.