Preparing invoices for i.SAF: VAT codes and pitfalls

i.SAF is Lithuania's VAT invoice register inside the tax authority's i.MAS system. Legal entities on a monthly tax period file by the 20th of the following month, and the register must be filed even when there were no invoices. The filing itself is rarely the problem: the register simply reflects what was already entered in accounting.

i.SAF errors are created during invoice entry

The register pulls data from your accounting system, so every wrong VAT code on a line travels straight into it. The usual suspects:

• •Mixed-VAT invoices – standard-rate, reduced-rate and 0% lines in a single document
• •Non-VAT objects – packaging deposits, which should not be registered as a supply at all
• •Credit notes and returns with negative quantities
• •Reverse-charge VAT and foreign suppliers with their own rates
• •Summary invoices (telecoms, fuel) with dozens of lines

The VAT code belongs to the line, not the document

The VAT code is assigned to each line separately rather than to the document as a whole, so a mixed invoice reaches your accounting already split by rate. Which codes you use is your decision, set in accounting settings: they match your firm's practice rather than a generic template.

Deposits and other non-VAT objects

A deposit on returnable packaging is not a VAT object, so it should carry neither a taxable nor an exempt supply code – otherwise the line shows up in the register as a supply that does not belong there. You mark such products in Ezura once: the amount still posts to the ledger but drops out of the i.SAF register, and nobody has to remember it invoice by invoice. The marking applies across every supported system: Rivile GAMA, Pragma, EuroSkaita, Agnum, Centas and Finvalda.

Credit notes and negative quantities

Credit notes and returns carry negative quantities. Ezura reads and exports them like any other document – the negative quantity stays negative and reduces the period's figures. That matters for i.SAF: a missed credit note leaves overstated input or output VAT in the register.

Same code, different rates

In practice the same VAT code is sometimes needed at different rates – the same foreign supplier billed at 0% and at that country's standard rate. Ezura lets one code carry several rates and passes along whatever your accounting system expects for such a document. Foreign invoices then need no manual fixing inside the accounting system – and that fix is exactly the one most often missed before the register is filed.

A check before export

Before export, Ezura reconciles the per-line VAT amounts against the invoice header for each VAT rate. If rounding or OCR drift breaks the totals, the invoice is flagged for review instead of being exported silently. Fractional rates, such as 25.5% OSS, are not rounded to whole numbers.

Duplicates: the same invoice registered twice

The second most common register error is the same invoice entered twice: the supplier resends it, an employee photographs the same document, or a payment reminder arrives with the same PDF attached. Ezura detects repeat invoices by supplier, number and amount, so the duplicate is stopped before it reaches accounting – and the register.

From email to a clean register

• •1. The invoice arrives by email and is read automatically
• •2. Lines get VAT codes and dimensions from your rules
• •3. Deposits and other non-VAT objects are flagged out of i.SAF
• •4. VAT amounts are reconciled against the header; drift goes to review
• •5. Export to the accounting system that files i.SAF

The result: fewer register corrections, because VAT codes are fixed where they originate – on the invoice line.

FAQ

Does Ezura file i.SAF with the tax authority? No. The register is produced and filed by your accounting system – Ezura makes sure the data reaching it is right: per-line VAT codes, dimensions, deposit flags and reconciled VAT amounts. That is the stage where most register errors are born.

Do VAT codes have to be redone when we change accounting systems? No. Code mappings live in one place – in settings, not on every individual invoice.

What if a supplier sends an invoice with a wrong VAT amount? The mismatch surfaces when lines are reconciled against the header and the invoice goes to review. The accountant decides – automation does not silently rewrite the document.