Verifactu, e-invoicing and AI shopping: which changes affect your business

Three messages reach you in the same week. Your accountant reminds you that you need to get ready for Verifactu. A supplier offers you “artificial intelligence for your business”. And over lunch someone tells you that people can now buy things without leaving ChatGPT. All three sound urgent. Which one actually concerns you?

It isn’t a lack of attention on your part. Technology, and the rules around it, move faster than a mid-sized company without its own technical team can follow. The good news is that almost everything fits into three boxes, and only one of them has a deadline.

How to separate what you must do, what is worth doing and the noise

Every new development falls into one of three boxes: obligations with a date, opportunities with proof, and noise. Sorting them this way avoids the two most expensive mistakes: arriving late to what is mandatory and spending on what doesn’t pay off yet.

• Obligations. A regulation sets them, they have a date and there are penalties if you don’t comply. In Spain, Verifactu and business-to-business e-invoicing are the two that affect mid-sized companies most right now.
• Opportunities. Nobody forces you, but companies like yours are already saving time or winning sales with them. Selling through AI assistants such as ChatGPT is starting to belong here.
• Noise. Novelties with no real cases in your sector, or that only the person selling them will vouch for. Look at them again in six months.

Verifactu: what it is and whether it affects you

Verifactu is the Spanish rule that requires the software you invoice with to store every invoice so that it can’t be altered later. It comes from Royal Decree 1007/2023 and, after two postponements, becomes mandatory on 1 January 2027 for companies paying corporate tax and on 1 July 2027 for everyone else, including the self-employed.

There are two ways to comply: the software sends each invoice to the tax agency as it is issued, which is the Verifactu mode proper, or it stores them with an electronic signature and hands them over on request. What to know before you change anything:

• If you already use the SII, it doesn’t apply to you. The Immediate Supply of Information system already sends your invoices to the tax agency within days. It is mandatory for companies with a turnover above six million euros a year, and those who use it are outside Verifactu.
• If you invoice with off-the-shelf software, the vendor has to adapt it and declare that it complies. Ask them in writing when it will be ready.
• If your invoicing software was built for you, adapting it falls to whoever built or maintains it. This is where most companies fall behind, because nobody is keeping an eye on it.

Mandatory e-invoicing: not the same as Verifactu

Mandatory e-invoicing is a separate rule: invoices between businesses must travel in electronic format, and you must report when they are paid, to fight late payment. It comes from Spain’s Crea y Crece law (Law 18/2022) and is developed by Royal Decree 238/2026, published in March 2026.

Verifactu looks at how you store your invoices; e-invoicing, at how you send and receive them with other businesses. They are easy to confuse, and complying with one doesn’t free you from the other.

The deadlines count from the entry into force of a ministerial order that completes the rule: twelve months later for companies with a turnover above eight million euros, and twenty-four months later for everyone else. Ask your accountant for the exact date that applies to you, and your software provider how they plan to meet it.

Selling through ChatGPT: where things stand

More and more people ask an AI assistant what to buy or whom to hire, and getting it to recommend you is already a way of selling. What is still moving is the other half: paying without leaving the conversation.

What has happened so far:

• September 2025. OpenAI lets users in the United States buy inside ChatGPT, using an open standard it develops with the payments company Stripe.
• January 2026. Google presents its own standard for paying from its AI search and from Gemini, also starting with stores in the United States.
• March 2026. OpenAI withdraws direct payment from ChatGPT’s results, moves it into each store’s own app inside ChatGPT and focuses on helping people find products.

What it means for your company: paying inside the chat will come, but its rules still change every few months. What pays off today is making sure assistants find and understand you: a catalogue with complete details, up-to-date prices and stock, and a website a machine can read without guessing. That work serves any assistant, and whichever standard ends up winning.

How to decide whether a novelty deserves your money

A novelty deserves your money when you can say what improves, and by how much, in your company and not someone else’s. Before you sign anything, ask yourself:

• Is it an obligation? Then the question isn’t whether, but when and with whom.
• Are companies of your size and sector using it, with results you can check?
• What happens if you wait six months? If the answer is “nothing”, wait.
• Can you try it small, in one area, before rolling it out?
• Does it fit the software you already have, or does it force you to replace it?

What you can do this week:

• Ask your accountant whether you are in the SII and which Verifactu date applies to you.
• Write to your invoicing software provider and ask in writing when they will comply with Verifactu and e-invoicing.
• If your software was built for you, find out who is responsible for adapting it. If nobody knows, that is your first problem.
• Ask ChatGPT about what you sell, the way a customer would, and see whether you appear and whether what it says about you is right.
• List the novelties you have been offered this year and put each one in its box.

How we approach it at vitamina.dev

Staying up to date is part of our job, so that it doesn’t have to be part of yours. We tell you which changes affect you and which don’t, with dates and in plain language, and we put them to work on what you already have, without starting from scratch.

Our team has experience with commercial and management systems, fintech platforms connected to banks, e-commerce and AI integration. So we can just as well adapt your invoicing to Verifactu as get your catalogue ready to sell through AI assistants. And if something is noise, we tell you that too.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to comply with Verifactu if I already use the SII?

No. Companies that send their invoices to the Spanish tax agency through the Immediate Supply of Information system are outside Verifactu. The SII is mandatory if your turnover is above six million euros a year, and you can also join it voluntarily. Business-to-business e-invoicing, however, will still apply to you.

Are Verifactu and mandatory e-invoicing the same thing?

No. Verifactu governs how your invoicing software stores invoices and how they reach the tax agency. Mandatory e-invoicing governs the format in which you send and receive invoices with other businesses, and the information about their payment. They have different timetables, and complying with one doesn’t exempt you from the other.

Can I already take payments from my customers inside ChatGPT?

Not in general yet. Payment inside AI assistants started in the United States, and the big platforms keep changing how it works. What you can do now is get your catalogue and website ready so assistants find and recommend you, which is the step before any form of payment.