What is a GİB-licensed e-invoicing integrator?

In Turkey, a taxpayer that takes part in the e-document programs delivers its documents to the Turkish Revenue Administration (GİB) and to the buyer in one of three ways. General Communiqué No. 509 on the Tax Procedure Law names them: the GİB portal, a licensed integrator, and direct integration with GİB. A GİB-licensed e-invoicing integrator (özel entegratör) is the company behind the second route.

The Communiqué defines it as an integration company with the technical capability to serve taxpayers in creating, signing, and transmitting electronic documents. GİB licenses it after a testing and evaluation process.

What does an integrator do?

Under the Communiqué, an integrator can create e-documents and e-document reports for the taxpayers it serves, approve them with a financial seal (mali mühür), and apply a timestamp. It can send documents to the buyer and, where required, send documents or reports to GİB electronically. Documents are approved with the taxpayer’s own financial seal or qualified electronic certificate; if the taxpayer prefers, the integrator’s financial seal is used.

The GİB portal is a web interface that GİB provides for users who lack the infrastructure to integrate their own systems. Direct integration is open to taxpayers that meet GİB’s requirements and can connect their own IT systems to GİB 24/7. With an integrator, the taxpayer doesn’t connect its own system to GİB; it sends and receives e-documents through the integrator’s systems.

GİB’s page on this route describes it as an option for taxpayers whose invoicing needs vary or who issue large volumes of invoices, and whose own IT infrastructure falls short.

What are an integrator’s obligations?

GİB publishes the list of licensed integrators at ebelge.gib.gov.tr, with separate lists for document types such as e-Invoice, e-Archive, and e-Waybill. An integrator may not use the trade secrets of the taxpayers it serves for anything other than creating, signing, sending, and receiving documents. Without the parties’ written consent, it may not share them with anyone except GİB.

The software and hardware used to send and receive documents must be located in Turkey. The integrator must take the measures needed so that documents can be accessed, viewed, queried, and verified from GİB’s systems. If an integrator breaks the rules and doesn’t fix a deficiency within the time it’s given, GİB can revoke its license.

Service begins once the integrator uploads the taxpayer’s details to GİB’s system and receives approval. The taxpayer can use the service after GİB sets up its user account. Under the Communiqué, sending and receiving e-documents through an integrator doesn’t relieve the taxpayer of its duty to keep the documents and produce them on request.

Integrators in IWB

IWB isn’t an integrator. It prepares the document in the format GİB specifies, and the integrator your company chooses applies the financial seal and sends the document to GİB. Your company signs its own contract with the integrator and enters the integrator account details in e-Document settings.

You can choose EDM Bilişim, TürkKEP, Veriban, or BirFatura for each company. The integrator password is stored encrypted. When you test the connection, IWB compares the company’s tax ID (VKN) with the one on the integrator account.

Test mode is on from the start: test documents go to the integrator’s test environment, never reach GİB, and carry a TEST label in the list. You switch to live sending in settings.

What you can do in IWB depends on the integrator. With EDM and Veriban, IWB checks the incoming e-Invoice inbox every hour; with the others, you import the incoming invoice file. Sending e-Waybills works through Veriban, and you can pull past e-Invoices from EDM’s archive.

You can check your remaining document credits (kontör), and with EDM and TürkKEP, IWB warns you when credits fall below a set threshold. Documents with no result from the integrator after 4 hours are counted separately as “Stuck at integrator.”