How to import purchase invoices from e-Fatura

What is it for?

Suppliers communicate the invoices they issue to the Tax and Customs Authority (AT), and those invoices appear in e-Fatura, on the Portal das Finanças. Importing the e-Fatura list shows, document by document, what the supplier communicated and whether that invoice is already entered in the accounts. The missing ones are flagged, with a suggested expense account.

The import creates neither invoices nor journal entries. Each missing invoice is entered like any supplier invoice, and only then are there lines in the ledger. It does not send anything to the AT either.

When to use it?

• Every month, before settling VAT and closing the month, to find the purchases that suppliers communicated and that have not been entered yet.
• When a supplier says they sent an invoice and you cannot find it in the accounts.

Where to find it?

• Accounting › Record › Import (in the Entries group): the Import page has the Import e-Fatura file and Default e-Fatura accounts buttons.
• Accounting › Record › e-Fatura invoices received (in the Purchases group): the list of documents already imported.

Before you start

• Your profile is Accountant. With it you can do every step in this article, including entering the missing invoice (tested with that profile). The Billing profile has neither the Accounting app nor these menus.
• You have the purchases list file, exported from e-Fatura on the Portal das Finanças, in CSV or XLSX. Pending validation on screen: the export path in the Portal das Finanças and the column titles of the 2026 file (the demo does not connect to the real AT; the example file was made with the titles fiscaldoo recognises).
• The right company is chosen in the top right corner: the documents are stored in the active company.
• In the example, Empresa Demonstração, Lda imports the purchases of September 2026: 10 lines (8 invoices, 1 line with a wrong date and 1 document cancelled on the Portal), with the columns NIF Emitente, Emitente, Tipo Documento, N.º Documento, Data Documento, Valor Base, Valor IVA, Total and Situação.

How to use it

1. Open Accounting › Record › Import and click Import e-Fatura file.
2. In the Import e-Fatura purchases window, leave Kind of file on e-Fatura purchases (the other option, Green receipts, is for the list of green receipts (recibos verdes) issued to the company). In File exported from the Portal (CSV or XLSX), click Choose a file and choose the file.
3. Click Import. The window says how many documents came in and which lines did not, and why. In the example: “8 document(s) imported, 6 already booked, 0 duplicate(s) ignored.”, and two lines refused (see “Common problems”). The line number counts the title row: “Linha 10” is the tenth line of the file.
4. Click See the documents. The e-Fatura purchases list opens with the Not booked filter: in the example, 2 documents, 159,90 €. To see them all, remove the filter: 8 documents, 3.671,55 €.
   • Communicated and booked (in green): there is a confirmed supplier invoice with the same NIF and with the Bill Reference equal to the Document number (spaces and signs do not count). The Vendor bill column shows which one, for example FTF/2026/00030 (FT GAB/928).
   • Communicated, not booked (in red): there is no such invoice. In the example, FT TEL/920 from Telecom Atlântico, SA (61,50 €) and FT OF/2026/7 from Oficina Sintética, Lda (98,40 €).
5. Open a Communicated, not booked document. The Suggested account says which expense account to book to, and Suggestion from says where it came from: History (the account most used on that supplier's confirmed invoices) or Rule (step 8). In the example, FT TEL/920 has Taxable amount 50,00 €, VAT 11,50 €, Total 61,50 € and the Suggested account 6262 Comunicação, from History.
6. Enter the invoice as in How to enter a supplier invoice: the Supplier, the Bill Reference equal to the Document number (FT TEL/920), the Bill Date (20/09/2026), the suggested account, the amount and the VAT. Before you click Confirm, check the Accounting Date: it decides the VAT period, and the screen proposes the day you record the invoice (in the example, 29/10/2026), not the document date (see “Important notes”). In the example, clicking Confirm opened the Confirm Entries window, because the amount is low for this supplier (“O valor de Telecom Atlântico, SA parece incomum…” on the draft); click Confirm in that window if the amount is right. The invoice became FTF/2026/00054, Posted, with the Accounting Date 29/10/2026 and these lines (checked in Review › Ledger, from 01/10/2026 to 31/10/2026):
   • 6262 Comunicação, debit, 50,00 €;
   • 2432 IVA - Dedutível, debit, 11,50 €;
   • 2211 Fornecedores gerais, credit, 61,50 €.
7. Go back to Record › e-Fatura invoices received, open the document and click Match again. Before the click, the document already shows the Suggested bill FTF/2026/00054 (FT TEL/920). Afterwards, the state changes to Communicated and booked, with the Vendor bill and the Difference to the bill 0,00 €. If the invoice reference is not the same as the communicated number, Match again does not find it: click Link a vendor bill, choose the confirmed invoice in Vendor bill and click Connect.
8. For a supplier without history, set the account before entering the invoice. On the Import page, click Default e-Fatura accounts and New. Type the Supplier NIF (in the example, 599999993), leave Type of document empty so it applies to all (or type, for example, FT), choose the Expense account (6226 Conservação e reparação), type a Note and click Save. Then, on the document, click Suggest the account again: FT OF/2026/7 now has the Suggested account 6226 Conservação e reparação, from the Rule.

Expected result

• Every document the suppliers communicated is in the list, with its state and, if already entered, the supplier invoice next to it. In the example, after steps 6 and 7: 7 Communicated and booked and 1 Communicated, not booked (the Oficina, which does not exist as a supplier yet).
• The import created no journal entry: the only lines in the ledger are those of the invoice entered in step 6.

Important notes

• The Accounting Date decides the VAT period. The invoice of 20/09/2026, entered on 29/10/2026, got the Accounting Date 29/10/2026, and the VAT (11,50 €) enters the October VAT settlement. If the invoice had to be in September, type the date in the field before Confirm. If the period is already locked or declared, see How to lock periods and manage exceptions. Pending validation by a certified accountant: in which period the VAT is deducted for an invoice communicated in one month and received or entered in another (VAT Code (CIVA), art. 22, no. 2, and art. 78).
• What the list does not see. It only has what was in the file: the invoices suppliers communicated to the AT. It does not have invoices from foreign suppliers (in the example, Cloud Services Inc. and Software Berlin GmbH), nor documents cancelled on the Portal, nor invoices a supplier did not communicate. Entered invoices that no supplier communicated can be seen with the list's Panel and synchronisation button, under Booked, not communicated. The panel opens on the current month: change Date From and Date To to the imported month. A list with no Communicated, not booked documents does not mean the purchase accounts are complete.
• Importing the same file again changes nothing. A document with the same NIF, number and date is ignored as a duplicate, and the ones already in the list are not compared again. After entering the missing invoices, click Match again on each document (the list does not have this action for several at once).
• Do not consider. A document that is not part of the company's business (for example a personal expense with the company's NIF) is marked by typing the Reason for not considering and clicking Do not consider: it goes to Not considered, with the reason. Consider again puts it back in Communicated, not booked and clears the reason. A document with a linked invoice cannot be marked: first click Unlink the vendor bill.
• The suggested account is only a help. It books nothing and does not change invoices already entered; check it with your accountant when the supplier changes business.

Common problems

“Choose the file exported from the Portal das Finanças first.”

• Symptom: Invalid Operation window when you click Import.
• What to do: click Choose a file, choose the file and click Import again.

“Linha 10 não importada: a coluna “Data do documento” tem “31-09-2026”, que não é uma data válida…”

• Symptom: the result says “… (espera-se dia/mês/ano, por exemplo 31/03/2026). Corrija a linha no ficheiro e importe-o de novo; as outras linhas já foram importadas.” (line 10 not imported: the date is not valid, day/month/year is expected; correct the line in the file and import it again; the other lines have already been imported).
• What to do: correct that line's date in the file and import the same file again: only the corrected line comes in; the others count as duplicates.

“Linha 11 não importada: o documento está anulado no Portal…”

• Symptom: “… so it was not imported as an active document. Nothing to do unless it is wrong in the Portal.”
• Verified cause: the file's Situação column says the document was cancelled (in the example, Anulado).
• What to do: nothing. If the supplier should not have cancelled the invoice, talk to them.

“0 document(s) imported, 0 already booked, 8 duplicate(s) ignored.”

• Verified cause: the file had already been imported. Nothing changed in the list.
• What to do: open the list in Record › e-Fatura invoices received.

“The columns of the file were not recognised.”

• Symptom: the window stays open with “… Format read: texto, codificação utf-8-sig, separador “;”. Columns of the file: … Still to say: NIF do fornecedor, Número do documento, Data do documento, Valor total. … Nothing was imported yet.” and the boxes Column of the supplier NIF, Column of the document number, Column of the document date, Column of the base amount, Column of the VAT and Column of the total.
• What to do: in each box, type the title of the file column that holds that data, exactly as it is in the file (for example Contribuinte for the NIF), and click Import. In the test, with the four missing boxes filled in, the result was “1 document(s) imported, 0 already booked, 0 duplicate(s) ignored.”

“No contact has this NIF: create the supplier before booking the bill.”

• Symptom: blue banner on the document (in the example, FT OF/2026/7 from Oficina Sintética, Lda); the list suggests no invoice and no account from History.
• What to do: create the supplier with that NIF in Record › Suppliers and enter the invoice (steps 6 and 7). For the account, use a rule (step 8).

“Write the reason for not considering this document in the activity…”

• Symptom: Invalid Operation window when you click Do not consider: “… (for example "personal expense") before marking it.”
• What to do: type the Reason for not considering and click Do not consider again.

“Choose the vendor bill to link.”

• Symptom: Invalid Operation window when you click Connect in the Link a vendor bill window without choosing the invoice.
• What to do: choose the invoice in Vendor bill, or click Cancel if the invoice has not been entered yet (step 6).