Self-billing (purchase borderelles): how does it work?

With self-billing, it’s not the seller but the buyer who draws up the invoice. The result is called a purchase borderelle (self-billed invoice): a document that legally states “invoice issued by the buyer”. Classic examples are a dairy company drawing up the milk payment settlement for the dairy farmer, or an auction settling with its growers.

In Sage Cloud Demat Invoicing there are two sides, both under the Invoices menu:

ℹ️ Purchase borderelles are available depending on your subscription (included or as an add-on). Don’t see the modules? Contact help@clouddematinvoicing.be.

Drawing up a purchase borderelle yourself (issued)

1. Go to Invoices → Issued purchase borderelles and click Add
2. Choose the supplier on whose behalf you draw up the document
3. Fill in the lines as with a regular invoice and save

A few properties:

• Own number series: purchase borderelles get a separate, uninterrupted numbering with default prefix AB (credit notes AC). You set the starting number via Settings → Preferences (Purchase borderelle starting number).
• Naming: under the same preferences you choose whether the document is titled “Purchase borderelle” or “Self-billing”.
• The PDF automatically carries the legal statement “Invoice issued by the buyer”.
• You send the document by email or Peppol to your supplier, and follow up payment and status just like invoices.
• Via the action menu (⋮) you create a credit note on a borderelle (Create credit note), or add the borderelle to your Expenses so it also appears in your cost overview.

Sending via Peppol

A purchase borderelle goes through Peppol as a self-billed invoice (document type 389; credit notes as type 261).

• Your supplier’s IBAN is required. If it’s missing you get the message “The supplier (client) has no IBAN configured. An IBAN is required for sending self-billing documents via Peppol.” Add the IBAN on the supplier card under Financial data.
• The recipient must be registered on Peppol for self-billing documents; not every Peppol participant can receive this document type. Align this with your supplier.
• After sending via Peppol the document is locked; corrections are done via a credit note.

Receiving purchase borderelles (income)

If a customer (e.g. a cooperative or auction) draws up invoices on your behalf, they arrive via Peppol:

1. The document appears in your Peppol inbox with a Self-Billing label
2. Click Check: you’ll see the notice that your customer drew up an invoice on your behalf, and that on import it appears in the Purchase borderelles module rather than in Expenses
3. Link the document to an existing or new customer and click Import into Purchase borderelles

The document then sits under Invoices → Purchase borderelles (income), with statuses like New, Open, Partially paid and Paid. Credit notes received on such borderelles arrive there with negative amounts.

💡 A prerequisite is that your Peppol receiving is active. See How do I connect to the Peppol network?

Accounting

Issued purchase borderelles and their credit notes are included in your exports to your accountant and in integrations like Clearfacts. In the settings you can define separate email templates and default intro/remarks texts per document type.

Self-billing via the API

Does an external system generate your settlements? You can also create purchase borderelles and their credit notes programmatically, including your own PDF layout as an attachment. See Self-billing via the API.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference with a regular purchase invoice (expense)? For a regular purchase your supplier draws up the invoice and you register it as an expense. With self-billing you draw up the document yourself on behalf of the supplier, hence the own number series and separate module.

Do I need to agree on something with my supplier? Yes. Self-billing presumes a (written) agreement between both parties: each document only takes effect after (tacit) acceptance by the supplier.

Can I reject a received purchase borderelle? Yes, in the Peppol inbox you can reject a document instead of importing it (and undo that rejection later).