01SPV is a mailbox and a front door, not an invoicing program
ANAF's own description of SPV, written for individuals, is plain: a virtual space on the servers of the Ministry of Finance and ANAF through which ANAF and the taxpayer exchange information and documents about the taxpayer's own tax situation. ANAF's registration page adds what it is used for: information about tax obligations, receiving tax administrative acts and other documents, and other electronic services. RO e-Factura sits on top of it. The 2023 ANAF and Ministry of Finance guide to RO e-Factura says a business must be registered in SPV to use the system, and that SPV can email an alert if a document has not been downloaded within 24 hours of its publication there, when the email option was chosen. Registration is done by you or your accountant. PROOF48 does not register businesses.
- SPV: ANAF's channel for documents between the tax authority and a taxpayer, about that taxpayer's own tax situation
- RO e-Factura is reached through SPV, and a business must be registered in SPV to use it
- An email alert if a document is not downloaded within 24 hours, when the option is set
02What happens to an invoice once you send it
The invoice is not a PDF. It is an XML file built on the European standard EN 16931 plus the Romanian RO_CIUS rules, according to the ANAF and Ministry of Finance guide. You can send it two ways: through your own software connected to the system by an API, or with the free web application the Ministry of Finance provides on mfinante.gov.ro, which generates the XML without authentication and sits next to a tool that validates an XML invoice. The system then checks the file. Under OUG 120/2021, in the text consolidated in July 2022, and ANAF's procedure for the system, an invoice with errors is not treated as sent and the issuer gets the errors back, while a correct one carries the Ministry of Finance's electronic seal and the sealed XML is the original. An invoice counts as communicated to the buyer on the date it becomes available for download, and a corrected invoice goes through the same system.
- A structured XML file (EN 16931 with RO_CIUS), not a PDF
- Two ways in: your own software through the API, or the Ministry of Finance's free web application
- With errors, the invoice is not treated as sent. Without errors, it gets the Ministry's electronic seal and the sealed XML is the original
- An invoice communicated to the buyer cannot be returned; a correction goes through the same system
03Why it feels like every invoice, and why it is not quite
ANAF's guide says Law 296/2023, published in Monitorul Oficial 977 of 27 October 2023, made e-invoicing mandatory from 1 January 2024 for transactions between taxable persons established in Romania. The European Commission's page on e-invoicing in Romania, last updated in August 2025, adds that B2C invoices from Romanian taxpayers have been mandatory in RO e-Factura since 1 January 2025. So for a typical Romanian business, invoices to companies and to consumers do go through it. But the same ANAF guide lists exempt operations, such as supplies of goods shipped outside the EU and intra-Community supplies, and the rules keep moving: an ANAF note on OUG 37/2025, published in Monitorul Oficial 613 of 30 June 2025, shifted some exemption dates from 1 July to 1 October 2025. This post leaves deadlines and fines to your accountant, because they have changed more than once.
- B2B between Romanian taxable persons: from 1 January 2024 (Law 296/2023, per ANAF's guide)
- B2C domestic: from 1 January 2025 (European Commission page, updated August 2025)
- Exceptions exist, including exports and intra-Community supplies, and they have been amended since
- Confirm anything that affects you with an accountant
04Where automation helps, and where PROOF48 is the wrong choice
If you issue a few invoices a month from invoicing software that already sends them to SPV, you do not need us, and a custom build would buy you nothing. We are useful at volume or where things are messy: invoices coming out of several systems, a job record that should create the invoice itself, or a status that has to be written back to your own records. PROOF48 generates the UBL 2.1 XML, submits it through the ANAF API, reads the validation response and writes the result back, as a standalone integration or inside a larger build, priced on request. We cover the workload side in How much manual work does invoicing automation actually remove? We do not register your business in SPV, and we do not decide your VAT or what you must report. That is for your accountant.
- A few invoices a month from software that already sends to SPV: you do not need a custom build
- Volume, several source systems or a status that must flow back into your records: that is where it pays off
- Registration in SPV and every tax decision stay with you and your accountant
e-Factura as a requirement from day one
ATP Spedition runs courier, moving and freight from one transport management system PROOF48 built. Romanian e-Factura and e-Transport were handled as first-class requirements, next to quoting, VAT calculation, gapless invoicing and payments, and a country layer lets tax, invoicing and addresses swap per market rather than being rewritten. That is the lesson for any business: invoicing compliance belongs in the same record as the job, not in a step somebody has to remember at month end.
See the build: ATP SpeditionQuestions, answered
Is SPV the same thing as RO e-Factura?
No. SPV is ANAF's wider space for exchanging documents with a taxpayer. RO e-Factura is the national e-invoicing system, administered by the Ministry of Finance, and ANAF's guide says it is accessed through SPV.
Do I need to buy software to use RO e-Factura?
Not necessarily. The Ministry of Finance provides a free web application that generates the XML and a tool that validates it, according to ANAF's guide. Software starts to matter when invoice volume or several source systems make manual entry slow.
Does PROOF48 register my company in SPV?
No. Registration is done by you or your accountant. PROOF48 builds the software side: generating, sending and tracking invoices.
Where PROOF48 fits
SPV is ANAF's channel for documents between the tax authority and a taxpayer, and RO e-Factura is the national e-invoicing system reached through it. Business invoices go through as structured XML, B2B since 1 January 2024 and B2C since 1 January 2025, with exceptions your accountant confirms. PROOF48 builds the part that generates, sends and tracks them when your volume makes that worth paying for.
Cosmin Tiu · Founder, PROOF48
Cosmin has worked in online marketing and software development since 2018, and has built with AI every day since January 2023. He still writes code from scratch daily, in Python, React, Rust and C#. PROOF48 ships business websites in 48 hours and invoices afterwards, so every opinion on this blog was paid for in real builds, not in theory.