Giving Customers a Bill or Credit Note Produced Using an SRS
If you are subject to mandatory billing, there is no way to avoid giving your customers a bill. Regardless of whether you are registered for the QST, you must always give customers a bill without delay (exceptions apply). Customers do not have to ask for a bill.
Credit notes must be provided within a reasonable time.
You have to give customers a bill if the amount of the transaction is nil (when you do not charge for a service, for example).
Electronic or paper bill
Under the mandatory billing measures, the bill or credit note can be given:
- by hand (paper bill);
- electronically;
- both by hand and electronically.
You cannot give customers a bill or credit note that has not been printed or sent using a certified sales recording system (SRS). If you are unable to give a customer a print or electronic bill (sent by a certified SRS), contact us without delay.
Can customers request a paper bill?
Customers can request a paper bill unless the conditions they accepted prior to using the services stipulated electronic bills only, in which case you can refuse to give them a paper bill.
In all other cases, customers can request a paper bill and you must be able to give them one.
Information required on bills
Each bill or credit note must include the prescribed information. For details, see Sending prescribed information.
In addition to the prescribed information, the bill or credit can contain any other information you deem relevant (such as a phone number, logo, thank-you message or business slogan). You do not send this additional information to us.
The prescribed information below is specific to bills and is generated automatically by your WEB-SRM-compatible sales recording system (SRS).
Depending on the situation, the document produced by the SRS must include specific notes. Most of them are presented in Sending prescribed information.
If the digital certificate used to communicate with our system is invalid (because it has expired, been revoked or deleted, for example), the bill must say “*** CERTIFICAT INVALIDE ***”and “NE PAS REMETTRE AU CLIENT.” We will deem the transaction to have not been sent to us. You must correct the situation and resend the transaction.
Each bill and credit note produced with an SRS contains a QR code. Customers can scan the code, which contains a web address where they can view a summary of the transaction. For electronic documents, customers can click on “Consulter la transaction en ligne” under the QR code to view the summary online. This information is also sent to us.
Below is an example of a transaction summary that will appear when a customer scans the QR code or clicks on the link:
Once you have sent us information, we will send you a reply with the time and transaction number.
The time we process the transaction information sent by your SRS is expressed as date, hour, minute and second.
The transaction number is a unique number we send you.