e-Invoice and e-Waybill Integration: GİB, the Private Integrator and Your Own Systems

Shipping does not finish the job. The movement of goods needs an e-waybill (e-İrsaliye), and the sale needs an e-invoice (e-Fatura). The fragile point is usually the gap between ERP, shipping and the integrator. A missing field, a rejected document or a status nobody watches consumes the next day.

In this article we separate the roles of GİB (Gelir İdaresi Başkanlığı, the Turkish Revenue Administration) and the private integrator, and explain how we design the e-invoice and e-waybill flow in software.

Three paths: portal, private integrator, direct integration

GİB is not an integrator. It is the authority and the hub of the e-document applications. Under the definition in the relevant tax procedure communiqué, e-Fatura is not a new document type. It has the same legal character as a paper invoice. Taxpayers registered for the application must send and receive invoices to one another as e-invoices. For a buyer who is not registered, the rules point to an e-archive invoice instead.

Both e-invoice and e-waybill are described in the application guide as three paths:

1. The GİB portal. Basic operations are done on the screens the administration provides. This is enough when volume is low and documents are created by hand.
2. A private integrator. Documents are sent and received through the system of a private integrator licensed by the administration. The company's own software talks to the integrator's services.
3. Direct integration. The company's own information system connects to the administration's system. GİB describes this path for taxpayers who can keep a continuous connection. The detail is on the direct integration page.

The e-waybill guide states that a taxpayer uses only one of these three paths at a time. A company on the private-integrator path can still work with more than one integrator when its organization needs it. The software starts by settling which path applies, and which system the documents must leave from.

e-Invoice: create the document, send it, track the status

The document format is UBL-TR, the Turkish customization of the international UBL standard published by GİB. The software's job is to translate ERP or shipping data into that format completely, and to check it internally before it is sent.

The scenario changes the shape of the flow. A basic invoice does not wait for an accept or reject response from the buyer. A commercial invoice can be accepted or rejected by the buyer with an application response. The e-invoice portal guide describes this split through the scenario field. For a commercial invoice, the software has to watch whether that response arrives.

Typical gaps we catch before sending: the buyer's tax identifier, the unit code, the tax breakdown, a mismatch between line totals and the grand total, and a missing waybill number and date when a waybill was issued first. These checks can be made in our own system, before they come back from the integrator as a schema error.

After sending, every document has a status: queued, delivered to the integrator, accepted or rejected. The reason for a rejection sits on a screen operations can see. A retry after a timeout uses the same operation key, so the invoice is not sent twice.

Our e-invoice and e-document integration service builds this backbone. At one manufacturer, invoices were created by hand after shipping, sent to the integrator by hand, and rejected documents were hard to follow. In an e-invoice integration via eLogo we built a flow that creates the e-invoice from shipping and ERP data, sends it to the private integrator and tracks its status with GİB. Failed documents are managed from a single screen that shows the reason. Invoicing became a continuation of shipping.

eLogo is the private integrator we used for this flow. With another licensed integrator the service contract and the field names change, and we build the same workflow against that contract: create, validate, send, track the status and make the error visible. Our general API and integration approach applies to this layer as well.

e-Waybill: the same family, with rules tied to the moment of dispatch

The e-waybill is not a new document type either. It is the electronic form of the paper dispatch note, with the same legal character. The software backbone is shared with the e-invoice. The difference is the set of rules tied to the goods leaving the site. The points below come from the e-waybill application guide.

• Outside the stated exceptions, the e-waybill must be issued and successfully sent to the administration's systems before the goods are actually dispatched. The time that matters is the actual dispatch time on the document, not merely the document date.
• When the company works through a private integrator, the document reaching the integrator's system is enough to start the dispatch. The integrator then has a maximum time, from the moment it receives the document, to sign it and forward it to the administration. The guide states that time as 15 minutes. The software should show "reached the integrator" and "accepted by the administration" as separate statuses.
• An e-waybill cannot be cancelled. If the contents or the recipient are wrong, and actual dispatch has not started, the recipient can reject the whole document with a waybill response. A rejection outside that window and those conditions has no effect.
• Within 7 days of the actual dispatch date, the recipient can accept all of the goods with a waybill response, or accept some and reject some. Goods that are not accepted, and that come back or go to a different recipient, require a new e-waybill.

These rules shape the warehouse screen. A loading confirmation should stay open until the document exists, and a partial acceptance or a return should be its own movement. We describe how shipping talks to WMS and ERP in our warehouse and shipping article.

The document flow we have delivered end to end is the e-invoice. The e-waybill sits on the same backbone. We settle which document types are in scope at the start, and we treat anything outside that scope as its own piece of work.

Problems we often see on the floor

• Master data is incomplete. A tax identifier, a title or a delivery address is still being filled in as the truck waits.
• A timeout produces a second document. The first send arrived, the response was late, and the operator sends again. An operation key prevents that.
• A commercial invoice sits without a response. The document has gone, and nobody watches the acceptance or the rejection.
• Waybill and invoice quantities diverge after a manual correction. The invoice should be produced from the closed shipment.
• An integrator outage is invisible in the warehouse. The status has to be on the shipping screen, not only in a finance mailbox.

A short note on technology

e-Document integration is not tied to a particular programming language. The document has to follow the UBL-TR rules, a send must not be repeated, and every status has to be traceable. Your ERP or shipping software stays in place. We complete the link between them, and we choose the technology to fit your infrastructure.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between the portal, a private integrator and direct integration?

The portal is the screen GİB provides. A private integrator is document exchange through a licensed company's system. In direct integration, the company's own system connects to the administration. For the e-waybill, one of these three paths is used at a time.

Does delivering a document to the integrator mean GİB has accepted it?

No. Reaching the integrator and acceptance by the administration are separate statuses. The software should track both.

Can a wrong e-waybill be cancelled?

According to the guide, an e-waybill cannot be cancelled. Before actual dispatch, if the contents or the recipient are wrong, the recipient can reject the whole document. After dispatch has started, a return or a new recipient needs a new e-waybill.

Can the integration be done without replacing our ERP?

Yes. We build a layer that creates the document from the data in your ERP or shipping system, sends it to the integrator and tracks the status.

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