How to configure transport documents

What is it for?

Goods that move accompanied by a transport document (Decree-Law 147/2003) require the company to decide four things before issuing the first one: which type of transport document each operation issues, in which series it is numbered, how it is communicated to the Tax and Customs Authority (AT) and which rules fiscaldoo applies when the goods leave (AT code, start-of-transport tolerance, copies). This article shows where each one is decided and what the screen refuses. Issuing the delivery note, step by step, is in How to issue a delivery note.

When to use it?

• The company is going to issue transport documents for the first time, or starts issuing another type (for example delivery notes, “guias de remessa”).
• You want communication to the AT to change from automatic to manual (or the other way round).
• There are operations that do not need a transport document (personal use, samples…) and you want fiscaldoo to stop requiring it.
• It is not for issuing a specific delivery note or for correcting one already communicated.

Where to find it?

• Settings › Inventory › Transport documents (PT): the company's five options.
• Inventory › Configure › Warehouse Management › Operation types: each operation's transport document type and whether it requires one. The Inventory menu has no “Configuration” item: the path is through Configure, which may be hidden behind the + sign of the menu bar.
• Accounting › Configure › Certified invoicing › Fiscal series: the series of each transport document type.

Before you start

• Your profile is Administrator. All the steps were done from start to finish with it. The demo's Accountant, Certified accountant, Management and Billing profiles open Settings with “No access: You do not have access to “Settings””, so they cannot do steps 1 and 5.
• The company has its AT credentials stored, for automatic communication: How to connect fiscaldoo to the Tax Authority. In the demo the AT is a simulator: the code you see (“MOCK-…”) is fictitious and nothing leaves the machine.
• To see the result of each option you need a delivery with an issued transport document. The article uses the demo ones, made as in How to issue a delivery note.

How to use it

1. See the default values. Open Settings › Inventory and scroll down to Transport documents (PT). The block has five options, all at company level: AT code required to validate (on), Communication of the guides (Automatic), Valued guides (off), Printed copies (2) and Start of the transport tolerance (30 minutes). When you change one, click Save.
2. Create the series for the type of transport document you will issue. The demo already has active 2026 series for [GT] Transport guide (including global ones) and [GD] Return guide or note, and none for the other types. To issue, for example, delivery notes (GR), open Fiscal series, click Create and communicate, type D26 in Series identifier, choose [GR] Delivery note in SAF-T document type (type “Delivery note”: searching for “[GR]” finds nothing), leave Journal empty (transport documents have no journal), tick I confirm that these data are correct and can be communicated and click Create and communicate. The result says: “Series "GR D26" was communicated to the Tax Authority and is active, with validation code …”. The fields and the rest of the path are in How to create a series and communicate it to the AT.
3. Choose each operation's transport document type. Open Operation types and the outgoing operation (in the demo, Deliveries). There are four fiscaldoo fields:
   • Transport document type: it only accepts the five transport document types, [GA] Own fixed assets movement guide, [GC] Consignment guide, [GD] Return guide or note, [GR] Delivery note and [GT] Transport guide (including global ones). If empty, that operation's deliveries are not issued as transport documents.
   • Requires a transport document: with the option on, the delivery cannot be validated without the issued transport document.
   • Transport guide exception: the operation is outside the regime and never requires a transport document. The 17 choices are those on screen: Personal or domestic use, Retail goods for final consumers who already bought them, Own tangible fixed assets, Own agricultural, forestry, fishing or livestock production, Samples, travellers' showcases and advertising material, Films and advertising material for cinemas, Motor vehicles with a definitive plate, Returnable tare and packaging, Municipal or hospital waste, Social solidarity goods (IPSS, campaigns of non-profit organisations), Water, sanitation and waste utilities of the State or of local authorities, Goods subject to excise duties under a suspension arrangement, Intra-Community transaction, Goods under customs transit, Move of the taxable person's premises (communicated to the tax offices), Itinerant sellers and small-business suppliers (purchase invoices replace the guide) and Other (a reason is required). Pending validation by a certified accountant: which of these exceptions applies to each of the company's operations; the article does not answer that legal question.
   • Valued guides: As the company, Valued or No value, for an operation to decide differently from the company.
4. For a new operation, also type the Sequence Prefix (for example GRD), which is mandatory: without it the screen says “Some required fields are empty”. It is the delivery's internal name (GRD00013), which is not the transport document number: the document is issued with the series number (GR D26/1).
5. Decide the communication. In Settings, Communication of the guides has two choices, Automatic (web service, when the guide is issued) and Manual (the user presses “Communicate to the AT”). With automatic, when the transport document is issued it is Communicated, with an AT code and Communicated by “Web service”. With Manual, the document is To communicate (“Communicate it to the AT before the transport starts.”) and the delivery shows Communicate to the AT and Register the AT code by hand. Click Communicate to the AT: the message “Communication with the Tax Authority. Accepted: 1, rejected: 0, no answer: 0.” confirms it and the document becomes Communicated.
6. Check the other four options of the block, which change what the screen accepts:
   • AT code required to validate off: Validate no longer waits for the code. The document stays Not yet communicated (the AT code is not needed to validate it) and the screen reminds you: “Communicating it to the AT is still mandatory (except for the cases dispensed by DL 147/2003, art. 5.º, n.os 10 and 11); only the validation no longer waits for the code. Communicate it to the AT.”
   • Start of the transport tolerance: with 30, a document whose start is 2 hours in the past is not issued (see “Common problems”); with 240 it was issued.
   • Printed copies: 2 gave a PDF with two pages (Original and Duplicate); 3 gave three (Original, Duplicate and Triplicate).
   • Valued guides on: the issued document carries the value of the goods, with VAT. If the delivery comes from a sales order, it uses the price, discount and taxes of the order line (in the test, 2 units at €10.00 with 23 % VAT gave €20.00 excluding VAT, €4.60 of VAT and €24.60 including VAT). If it does not come from an order, it uses the product's sales price and taxes (in the test, 1 unit at €7.50 gave €7.50 excluding VAT, €1.73 of VAT and €9.23 including VAT). The value is fixed on issue: changing the price afterwards does not change a document already issued. An operation type can force Valued or No value.

Example. Series GR D26 created and active; operation Entregas com guia de remessa (Transport document type [GR], Requires a transport document on); delivery to Papelaria Central, Lda with the start of transport on 02/11/2026 at 06:00: it produced delivery note GR D26/1, with ATCUD MKK8GN9S-1, communicated to the AT on issue (simulator code MOCK-4549C893).

Expected result

• The series of each transport document type is Active, with a Validation code; the document's ATCUD carries that code (MKK8GN9S-1) and the document's QR code has the type GR.
• Each outgoing operation has its own Transport document type and whether it requires one.
• Communication follows the company's option and, either way, the document only stops being To communicate when the AT accepts it.
• With Valued guides on, the document's PDF shows the totals excluding VAT, of VAT and including VAT.
• The configuration creates no journal entries.

Important notes

Switching off the AT code does not exempt you from communicating

AT code required to validate only decides whether Validate waits for the code; communicating the document to the AT is still mandatory, and the document stays To communicate until the AT accepts it. A document validated without a code cannot be printed once the option is on again: the PDF request is refused with “Guide "GR D26/3" cannot be printed: it has no AT code. Communicate it to the Tax Authority, or register the code obtained by telephone or in the Portal…”. Pending validation by a certified accountant: communication deadline, exemptions under DL 147/2003 art. 5(10) and (11) and what to do when communication fails.

• What changes and what does not change retroactively. Changing an option applies to the following documents. A document already issued cannot be changed, and the series of a transport document type, once active, follows the rules of the other series (How to create a series and communicate it to the AT).
• Exception per contact. A customer whose deliveries are always outside the regime can have the Transport guide exception on the contact record: open Contacts, the contact, the Billing tab and the Portuguese tax data group. Only the Administrator, Fiscal officer and Inventory manager profiles see it. That contact's new deliveries inherit the exception and no longer require a transport document; the operation type's exception, if there is one, takes priority. A delivery already created can have its exception changed on the delivery itself, as long as it has not been issued. Pending validation by a certified accountant: which customers can have a permanent exception.

Common problems

“Operation type … requires a transport document: choose which transport document type (GT, GR, GA, GC or GD)…”

• Symptom: when you save the operation with Requires a transport document on and Transport document type empty, Validation Error opens: “Operation type "Armazém Demonstração: Entregas com guia de remessa" requires a transport document: choose which transport document type (GT, GR, GA, GC or GD) its transfers are issued as.”
• What to do: choose the transport document type (step 3) and save.

“… cannot both require a transport document and be an exception to the regime: choose one.”

• Symptom: Requires a transport document on and a Transport guide exception chosen at the same time.
• What to do: keep only one. An operation under an exception never requires a transport document.

“The start of the transport (…) is in the past, beyond the tolerance of 30 minutes.”

• Symptom: Issue guide › Confirm with a start 2 hours in the past opens “The transport guide cannot be issued: - The start of the transport (01/11/2026 18:30:00) is in the past, beyond the tolerance of 30 minutes. Set the real date and time the goods leave.”
• What to do: correct the Start of the transport to the real time. Increasing the Start of the transport tolerance is only for documents issued later than the goods actually leave: Pending validation by a certified accountant: what tolerance is acceptable.

“Communication with the Tax Authority. Accepted: 0, rejected: 1, no answer: 0.”

• Symptom: Communicate to the AT returns “GR D26/2: The Tax Authority refused it (Simulated rejection). Correct what it says and communicate again.” The document is Refused by the AT, with “Read the warning below, correct what it says and communicate again.” The English phrase in brackets comes from the simulator; the real AT gives the reason.
• What to do: correct what the warning says and click Communicate to the AT again: the second attempt, accepted, gave “Accepted: 1, rejected: 0, no answer: 0.”. If the AT cannot be reached: Communication with the AT failed.

“… the goods cannot leave before the Tax Authority gives the guide its code”

• Symptom: Validate on a document not yet communicated, with AT code required to validate on.
• What to do: communicate the document or register the code; the other cases are in The delivery note has no AT code.