Stay updated with all the latest
upgrades from ClearTax E-invoicing

E-Invoicing

Changes in consolidation logic

The consolidation algorithm has been updated in line with LHDN guidelines, as now the relaxed guidelines for phase 1 customer is ending on 31st Jan’25

• Document number series is reported to the LHDN for invoices consolidated
  
• The document number series is updated in the product description and can be viewed on the invoice PDF and invoice details on UI
  
• The changes are applicable for B2B (sales & self-billed) and B2C invoices
  

Support for E-invoice version 1.1

• Invoices reported from ClearTax systems to LHDN are now digitally signed to support E-invoice version 1.1
  
• Users can verify the e-invoice version by scanning the QR code on the invoice
  

Landing page for reconciliation

• Improved the discoverability and navigation for reconciliation by adding a landing page for reconciliation which is also accessible from the side bar
  
• All reconciliations can be access from this section - Sales e-invoice Vs SR and Self billed invoices vs PR
  

Enhancements:

• Support to upload B2B (sales and self-billed) invoices on the product via SFTP. Users can come on the UI to consolidate these invoices.
  
• Added support for JSON format in response of Delete API
  
• Regeneration of cancelled invoices on the same invoice numbers is supported for both API and manual ingestion (via UI)
  
• Same invoice can now be used across different document types - invoices, CRN, DBN, Refund note for e-invoice generation
  

Enhancements on the B2C customer portal:

• Improved the user experience to handle slow latency in LHDN response when generating e-invoices (invoices stuck in submitted state) by providing clear communication and redirection
  
• Handled the issue of new user signup flow when logging out from account by retaining the same customer portal URL upon logout.
  

We are pleased to announce that the major updates and enhancements to the ClearTax e-Invoicing portal are now live.
These updates are designed to streamline your e-invoicing operations further, enhance functionality, and improve user experience.

New Features & Enhancements

Product Health Status Page

The new Product Health Status page allows you to track API performance and monitor the health of government infrastructure (LHDN) in real-time. You can also subscribe to email alerts whenever performance degrades.

Alerts & Communication Settings

You can now customize TINs and email recipients for a variety of alerts and reports directly in the “Alerts & Communication” settings. This helps to ensure alerts reach the right stakeholders in your organization.

Email API

Automatically send invoice PDFs directly to users from your existing systems for faster and more efficient communication.

Other Enhancements

• Expanded Date Range for MIS Dashboard: MIS dashboard now supports a 3-month date range, providing deeper insights into your business trends and operations.uired documents of the same type for a given month.
  
• Multiple Document Numbers for Credit Notes: Add multiple document numbers as references when issuing credit notes, reducing the need for separate credit notes for each reference.
  
• Enhanced GET PDF API: Instead of relying on document IDs which were cumbersome to retrieve you can now use readily available document numbers to retrieve PDFs.
  
• Simplified Document Edit Screens:  Fields like freight charges and sales tax exemption certificates, whose usage is unclear in invoice value calculation, have been removed for faster and simpler editing.
  

We are excited to share the latest updates and enhancements that went live in December on the ClearTax e-Invoicing portal. These new features streamline invoicing processes, improve user experience, and provide more comprehensive reporting capabilities.

New Features of ClearTax E-Invoicing Portal

These updates are designed to make your invoicing process more efficient, accurate, and user-friendly. We encourage you to explore the new features and leverage them to optimize your invoicing workflows.

We are glad to announce that we have updated several new features for the ClearTax e-Invoicing Portal. These updates are aimed at streamlining your e-invoicing process, improving accuracy, and compliance with e-invoicing rules.

Below is a detailed overview of each new feature, along with its potential impact on your business and use cases.

1. Fetch Purchase Documents
‍Users can now fetch all purchase invoices via the LHDN portal.
This specific feature simplifies procurement reporting, ensuring that all purchase transactions are extracted in one go. Businesses can cross-verify their supplier ledger with purchases in real time.

‍2. Rejection of Purchase Invoices
‍Users can now reject purchase e-invoices directly from the ClearTax portal, without the need to log into the MyInvois Portal.
This improves workflow efficiency by enabling faster rejection of incorrect or invalid invoices. For example, finance teams can immediately reject erroneous invoices, preventing payments for incorrect goods or services without having to login to MyInvois Portal

‍3. Document Audit Trail
‍An audit trail is now available for tracking submitted and received documents with a timestamp.
Businesses can now have complete visibility into the lifecycle of e-invoices, ensuring full transparency. Businesses can easily track modifications or validations in their invoices, reducing risks during internal or external audits.

‍4. Cancellation of Consolidated Invoices
‍Consolidated e-invoices can now be canceled from the ClearTax portal.
Businesses dealing in B2C transactions or those under LHDN’s six-month grace period can now cancel invoices in bulk. It's a valuable tool for businesses handling high transaction volumes, ensuring quick and efficient corrections reducing risk of non compliance.

‍5. Re-generation of  canceled E-Invoices 
‍Resubmit canceled (if needed) e-invoices for B2B, self-billed, and B2C transactions 
Previously, if you cancel an invoice, you'd have to generate a brand-new e-invoice to resubmit it. But now, with our latest update, you can submit canceled e-invoices for B2B, self-billed, and B2C transactions without needing to create a new one.

‍6. Updating Status for Canceled Documents
‍A sync feature now updates the status of invoices on the MyInvois portal with ClearTax database, ensuring real-time updates on the ClearTax dashboard.
This feature ensures real-time synchronization, preventing mismatches between ClearTax and LHDN. Businesses can maintain up-to-date records, ensuring all cancellations are reflected accurately, reducing errors in reporting.

‍7. CSV Report
‍The CSV reports have been revamped to include and omit certain fields, with changes to the sequencing for better alignment with reporting needs.
The improved reporting provides granular visibility into e-invoicing data, helping businesses analyze patterns and transaction details more effectively. 

‍8. Fetching of Invoices Based on Additional Custom Fields
‍Invoices can now be retrieved using additional custom fields from the B2C customer portal.
This feature allows businesses to customize invoice retrieval based on specific transaction criteria, improving tracking and management of particular transactions like promotions or refunds.

‍9. SFTP Email Report
‍Automatically sends detailed activity reports to customers via SFTP.
Allowing businesses to track their invoicing performance and activities efficiently without manual intervention ensuring improved compliance and operational oversight.

Enhanced Print Templates for a Smoother Invoicing Experience

We’ve made some updates to our print templates to make your invoicing process even easier:
New Templates- We’ve added new options to cover more of your needs:
‍
- Export Invoices for export transactions.
- B2C Invoices for business-to-consumer transactions.

A Government Format template that aligns with the MyInvois portal guidelines.

Easier to Find What You Need- We’ve renamed the templates so it’s simpler to pick the right one:

i. Standard EInvoice Template (ID: 1)
ii. ClearTax Export Template (ID: 6)
iii. ClearTax EInvoice Template (ID: 8)
iv. Govt EInvoice Template (ID: 9)
v. ClearTax B2C EInvoice Template (ID: 33)

Template Previews & Helpful Descriptions:
Now, you can preview each template before using it, and we’ve added descriptions for things like country codes, tax types, and units of measurement to make everything clearer.

Cleaner Layout & Better Formatting:
We’ve tidied up the alignment and hidden unnecessary fields to improve the overall look of your invoices.

Currency Formatting: The currency symbol has been removed from all amounts, and values are now shown in the invoice’s currency code for greater clarity.These changes only apply to our standard print templates. Any custom templates you have remain unchanged.

You can now delete Failed documents directly through the ClearTax portal or via our API:

• On the Portal: Just click on the document, head to the “Actions” dropdown, and select “Delete.”
  
• Via API: If you prefer working through the API, you can now use the existing "Delete API" to clean up failed documents seamlessly.
  

We’ve made some tweaks to the homepage tiles to help you track documents more effortlessly. Now, you’ll be able to see document numbers for Sales and Purchase documents with a "Consolidated" status—offering clearer insights at a glance.

We’re confident these updates will make your invoicing smoother and more efficient, giving you more control and clarity in managing your documents. As always, we're continuously working to improve your experience and would love to hear your feedback on these changes.

We have observed that for certain transactions users get the error message “maximum allowed document line length 2000 exceeded” or “maximum allowed document size 300 KB exceeded” while generating e-Invoice.

What is this error?‍
LHDN allows document size less than 300 kb in a request to generate e-invoice, however in cases where a single invoice has a huge number of line items this payload size is breached and LHDN gives an error message - “Invalid structured submission, ​​​Maximum allowed document line length 2000 exceeded.” or “Invalid structured submission. Maximum allowed document size 300 KB exceeded”, even after minification of payload is done.

Based on our observation, when an individual document has between 50-75 line items then size of payload as per LHDN data schema increases to more than 300 Kb and we start getting this error from LHDN side, when we send the payload for e-Invoice generation. 

In certain cases, we have observed, higher numbers of line items also get accepted when the amount of details in a document is minimal.

How to resolve this error?
‍In case when a single invoice has a huge number of line items or when you are receiving the above-mentioned error message, LHDN has recommended that you split the invoice into multiple smaller invoices of lesser line items so that document size is less than 300 Kb and try to generate e-invoice for the individual smaller invoices.  


How to split the invoice?

• You can choose to split the document into multiple documents and add a suffix in the end. For example: You have an invoice with document number INV0001 with 150 line items. You can split this document into 3 documents INV0001_01, INV0001_02 and INV0001_03 with 50 line items each and then generate e-Invoice for all 3 documents.
  
• You may also choose to create multiple documents in your system by splitting the line items into multiple documents within your system (ERP, billing system etc.) and create e-Invoice for each document and share them with your customer.
  
• Alternatively, you may choose to include original documents as part of consolidation if any of the methods are not feasible
  

Please note, these are some of potential solutions and there may be other ways to handle splitting of invoices that you may explore. We suggest you discuss internally and choose the right method as per your business needs. We will keep you informed in case there is any change in specification by LHDN regarding this.

We understand that navigating the e-invoicing process can sometimes raise questions. To assist you further, we've compiled a comprehensive list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) tailored specifically for you.

Check out our FAQ page where you’ll find answers to common questions like:

• How to manage your e-invoices on the ClearTax Web Portal
  
• Troubleshooting common issues
  
• Understanding various features like time zone settings, document import/export, and more
  

Access the FAQ Page Here

‍Whether you're new to our platform or have been using it for a while, this resource is designed to make your experience as seamless as possible. If your question isn’t covered, our Customer Success Team is always ready to provide personalized support.

Did you know that you can choose between Malaysia Time (MYT) and Universal Time Coordinated (UTC) as your preferred time zone for processing and viewing your e-invoices on the ClearTax Web Portal?Default Setting: UTCClearTax processes and displays your data by default in Universal Time Coordinated (UTC) as LHDN expects the timezone to be in UTC. Any e-invoicing payload you send to ClearTax is managed using UTC, and you'll see this time zone reflected in your Import History, Document Details Page, Print, and Reports.Changing the Time Zone to MYT You have the option to switch the time zone setting to Malaysia Time (MYT). By making this simple change, ClearTax will process all date and time data according to MYT, and you'll see MYT displayed across all e-invoices and relevant queries.Steps to Change the Time Zone to MYT

Go to Settings >
Time Zone inside the ClearTax web portal.Select MYT as your preferred timezone.
Choosing the most suitable time zone for your e-invoicing is important to ensure that your transactions are accurately recorded and reported in alignment with your business hours. Ensuring your business convenience is our utmost priority.

We understand how crucial it is to ensure your e-invoicing process runs smoothly. That's why we are excited to share our Error Resolution Guide – a step-by-step resource designed to help you quickly troubleshoot and resolve common e-invoicing errors.

Explore the guide here: Error Resolution Guide.

Stay ahead of the e-invoicing compliance curve with our Comprehensive E-Invoicing Guide for Malaysia. This essential resource covers everything you need to know for smooth and compliant implementation under the latest LHDN regulations.

Explore the guide here: E-Invoicing Guide for Malaysia.

To streamline your e-invoicing process, use ClearTax’s Excel ingestion method. Simply download the LHDN-compliant Excel template, fill in the necessary details such as seller and buyer information, invoice amounts, and tax details. Once completed, log into the ClearTax portal, upload your filled Excel sheet, and validate the data. Upon successful validation, you can quickly generate your e-invoices and even print them with QR codes for easy compliance.