Black Friday is, for many companies, one of the best sales periods of the entire year. At the same time, the increase in demand brings particular challenges, including in terms of fiscal management. Certain problems end up disrupting the operation or even causing greater impacts on the business, such as fines and penalties.
This is what Hugo Ramos, CEO of, says.Oh, oh, national reference in solutions for Electronic Fiscal Documents (DF-e) and other digital fiscal demands. "Every year, we notice some common mistakes that affect companies across all sectors, both in e-commerce and physical stores. Being prepared to face these situations can prevent them from escalating into bigger problems," he explains.
Thus, the professional identified the main tax setbacks that could affect companies on Black Friday 2024, and what to do to reduce the associated risks. Check below
- Duplicate invoices
Whether due to connection or SEFAZ processing problems or even internal instability in the company's system, it is possible that repeated tax documents may be generated.
“When there is duplication, the fiscal closing is different from the financial closing, which causes undue tax charges. Furthermore, if the fiscal messaging does not identify this error in authorized invoices, the generation of the invoices by the ERP will be incorrect, resulting in fines and charges for non-payment of taxes or omission of data”, explains Hugo.
To avoid headaches, it is worth relying on a specialized tax system that can control duplicate invoices and verify the existence of repeated data, in order to then cancel invalid documents. Furthermore, it is also important to ensure the audit of authorized electronic tax documents to guarantee that the financial and fiscal closing will be done without errors. With this, the obligation to issue invoices will be consistent and the risk of penalties reduced.
Furthermore, another direct impact of duplication is on inventory control. With an incorrect inventory, the company may face tax and logistical problems, such as incorrect orders, delivery delays, and inadequate purchasing planning.
- Inability to communicate with Sefaz
Communication failures between the tax system and SEFAZ are problems in themselves, as they can increase the time for authorizing the issuance of the invoice and closing each sale. In a cascading effect, customers in the checkout line need to wait longer to be served, which is especially complicated during Black Friday.
To prevent this from happening, it is important to monitor SEFAZ availability, which is automated by certain tax management systems. Many also have a feature that spontaneously identifies the moments when it is necessary to enter or exit contingency mode, in which the issuance is not immediate: the customer receives a note that is not yet valid until communication with SEFAZ is restored.
“With the right tool, contingency issuance is automatically activated whenever necessary. When reestablishing communication with SEFAZ, the tax messaging software must be able to reprocess, resend, identify duplicates and request authorization for all tax receipts issued in this format,” the CEO points out.
- Contingency issuance
Although solving a problem, contingency emission can generate others. With the high volume of notes, it can be difficult to manage the number of issued and rejected documents. Thus, the company may miss the deadline to send to SEFAZ.
For example, the customer can check the invoice on SEFAZ and not find it because the access key has not yet been validated. Consequently, the consumer then has the option to contact PROCON. Therefore, to avoid such risks, it is necessary to pay attention during the resubmission after the contingency to identify rejected notes.
“Once again, this is a feature facilitated by cutting-edge tax management systems. It is also worth saving the XML of all invoices, including those issued in contingency, to record the sale and attempted issuance,” suggests Hugo.
- Wrong NCM on the invoice
The Mercosur Common Nomenclature (NCM) aims to control and identify the tax on products. Incorrect NCM data when filling out the invoice may result in rejection of the issuance and authorization of the issuance with the wrong code, leading to incorrectly paid taxes. If an error is found in the code, the Tax Authority reviews the latest entries and charges the difference in rate, along with fines and interest.
Therefore, it is essential to update the registration database of the NCM codes that the company uses in its daily operations. If the NCM is nonexistent, the invoice will also encounter problems and will be rejected. Therefore, it is necessary to be familiar with the classifications of goods to avoid this type of failure.
“In situations like this, if the retailer receives a product with the incorrect NCM code, they must pass the correct code to their supplier to avoid tax penalties,” concludes Ramos.
Above all, it is important to point out that with the significant increase in sales at BF, it is very important that the system is resilient or capable of processing high volumes quickly. This is essential to ensure efficient operation and sales success. During this period, the transaction volume increases exponentially, requiring the system to be capable of handling this demand without compromising performance or causing disruptions. Thus avoiding delays in deliveries, queues at the checkout, and of course, customer dissatisfaction.
