The electronic invoice does not apply to this document

Symptom

The Send to FE-AP button does not appear on the document, or the document is refused because it cannot have an electronic invoice.

Message

When you click Send to FE-AP on an invoice to a customer without a NIF:

“Nothing was sent to the FE-AP portal, because of these documents:

• The customer of "FT D26/44" has no VAT number: the public-sector electronic invoice requires it.”

When you click Confirm on a debit note without the document it complements. The refusal comes when issuing, before there is any electronic invoice:

“The credit/debit note "Rascunho de fatura" does not say which document it rectifies. Why: The law requires a credit or debit note to refer to the document it rectifies (CIVA art. 36.º n.º 6). How to fix it: Fill in "Rectified document" (or, for a document issued by other software, its number) before posting.”

Once that field is filled in, the next refusal asks for the reason:

“The credit/debit note "Rascunho de fatura" does not say why it was issued. Why: The reason for the rectification goes into the tax file (at most 50 characters). How to fix it: Fill in "Reason for the rectification" before posting.”

Verified causes

In most cases there is no message: the button simply does not appear. This is what the screen showed:

Document	Send to FE-AP	Why
Issued sales invoice	Appears	This is the normal case
Draft invoice	Does not appear	Only an issued invoice is sent. It only has Confirm, Cancel, Preview entry and Deduct advance
Vendor bill	Does not appear	Only a sales invoice or a sales credit note is sent
Invoice already accepted	Disappears	An accepted document is not sent again. The FE-AP history link remains
Invoice of a company with another fiscal country (tested with Spain)	Does not appear, nor does Sign PDF	These steps are only for companies with Portugal as their fiscal country
Any invoice, with the Accountant or Billing profile	Does not appear	Sending belongs to the Certified accountant and the Administrator

An invoice with a customer without a NIF has the button, but is refused, as in Message.

What to check

1. The document type and state, in the top right corner.
2. The document's company and its fiscal country.
3. The profile you logged in with.
4. On the debit note, whether you gave the rectified document and the reason for the rectification.

How to fix it

• Draft: click Confirm and see whether the button appears. Missing data has its own article: How to issue a certified invoice.
• Customer without NIF: this sending does not apply while the customer has no NIF. An issued invoice cannot be changed; if the customer did have a NIF, see I issued an invoice with the wrong customer details.
• Debit note without a document: fill in Rectified document and Reason for the rectification and click Confirm again. In the test, the debit note was issued and the Send to FE-AP button appeared.
• Profile without the button: ask someone with the Certified accountant profile to send it.
• Company with another fiscal country and vendor bill: this sending does not apply. There is nothing to correct.

If you try another way

These refusals do not appear in the invoice's buttons, because the button does not exist in that case.

Trying through an integration, in a company with Spain as its fiscal country:

• “FT/2026/00001 belongs to a company whose fiscal country is not Portugal: the Portuguese electronic invoice signature does not apply.”

Not triggered on screen: “The debit note "..." does not refer to the document it complements. The Portuguese public-sector electronic invoice requires that reference: create the debit note from the original document.” The product refuses the debit note without a document earlier, when issuing, so this sentence never appears.

Expected result

On a document the sending applies to, the Send to FE-AP button appears. What happens next is in The electronic invoice cannot be generated. Sending to the FE-AP is simulated here: nothing leaves the computer, even if the state says Accepted.

When to contact support

If the button does not appear on an issued sales invoice, of a company with Portugal as its fiscal country, with the Certified accountant profile, and the invoice is not accepted, ask for support.

Information to send

• The document number and the company.
• The profile you logged in with.
• The text of the message, if any.