e-Invoices, VAT and ETTN: keeping fleet expenses in the same language as accounting

A fleet's expenses live in two separate worlds. On the accounting side they are invoices: each has a number, an amount, VAT and a supplier. On the fleet side the same spending is a vehicle's maintenance, a tire change or a fuel purchase: what matters is which vehicle it belongs to, at what mileage it happened and which maintenance schedule it moves forward. In most companies these two worlds know nothing about each other. The invoice goes to accounting, and the vehicle side is either never updated or updated by hand later. Weeks on, the question 'what was done to that vehicle, and on which invoice' turns into a hunt across two archives.

In this article we cover two things together: how VAT should be stored in a fleet record, and what to watch for when an incoming e-invoice becomes a fleet record.

The logic of storing amounts VAT-inclusive

Almost all service, fuel, parts and purchase amounts are VAT-inclusive. The figure on your receipt or invoice includes VAT; yet in cost analysis you usually need the net amount and the VAT separately. The net amount is the operating cost, while VAT is a deductible item. Confusing the two is the easiest way to show cost per vehicle higher or lower than it really is.

That is why vitaFleet stores amounts VAT-inclusive. When you enter the VAT rate, the net amount and the VAT amount are calculated and shown live as you type. So you don't work out 'how much VAT is this' by hand, and you don't end up with a wrong net amount because of a wrong rate. Rates are chosen from a list and stored as numbers.

Entering the amount once, VAT-inclusive, is the only safe way to produce the net and VAT breakdown consistently everywhere afterward.

Why the invoice number and ETTN belong in the record

Every expense record holds the invoice number and the ETTN. The ETTN is the unique ID of an e-invoice (e-Fatura); different suppliers can use the same invoice number, but the ETTN is one of a kind. Together, these two pieces of information are the key for matching with accounting.

The practical benefit is this: when accounting asks at period end 'does this invoice have a counterpart on the fleet side', the answer sits in the record, not in scattered folders. Conversely, which invoice a fleet-side expense is based on can be found from the same number. Both sides speak with the same key.

A VAT report at period end

Because amounts are stored VAT-inclusive and the rate stays in the record, the VAT breakdown can be reported by period: you can see how much VAT sits in which expense category. When accounting asks the fleet side for a number, that number comes from a single reportable source rather than from people's memory or a hand-compiled spreadsheet. That is usually exactly what you want in a closing conversation with your accountant.

Turning incoming e-invoices into fleet records

The real effort is converting incoming invoices into fleet records one by one. vitaFleet's e-invoice import takes care of this. It reads the e-invoices addressed to your company from e-Logo, finds the ones related to the fleet and, with your approval, imports them as expense or service records. An important detail: the connection is read-only, and nothing is changed in e-Logo.

Fetching invoices

You select the company and a date range and fetch from e-Logo; invoice line items are retrieved together with the invoices. In multi-subsidiary structures, each company is connected separately with its own tax ID number (VKN) and web service account, and tested separately.

How fleet relevance is determined

Not every incoming invoice is fleet-related; a stationery, food or software subscription invoice should not count as a fleet expense. The system gives its suggestion by looking at these signals in order:

• Your rules: these come before everything else.
• If the invoice mentions the license plate of a vehicle in the fleet, it is marked as fleet and as that vehicle.
• Vehicle-specific words: tire, brake pad, comprehensive insurance (kasko), HGS (Turkish electronic toll system), diesel and the like.
• Decisions you made on the same supplier's earlier invoices.
• Non-fleet words: stationery, food, software and the like.

The suggestion is shown with its reasoning; so when the system says 'this is a fleet expense', it also shows why. You correct a wrong one right from the row.

Service record or expense

Vehicle invoices of the service, maintenance, tire and spare part types can be imported as service records, according to the types you have marked. This difference matters: an ordinary expense is only written to cost; a service record, on the other hand, lands in the vehicle's history, updates the odometer and moves the maintenance reminder forward. The service mileage is read from the invoice note; if engine oil and the oil filter were replaced together, that counts as periodic maintenance.

When a service invoice is imported, a completed work order with its line items is opened, and the service record is linked to that work order. If the vehicle has an open fault, it is listed at import approval; if you mark the ones this service resolved, they are linked to the work order and closed as resolved.

Before trusting the mileage on the invoice

The mileage read from the invoice is compared against the vehicle's odometer history: it must be greater than the last reading before the invoice date and smaller than the first reading of the following day. If it conflicts, a warning appears on the row; that mileage is not applied to the odometer and stays on the service record with a warning note. A consistent mileage is applied to the vehicle's odometer as a work order reading. This way a single mistyped mileage does not break the vehicle's maintenance calculation.

Special cases

Credit note

A credit note is not an expense. The system warns you and says 'uncertain'; if you import it anyway, the cost is counted in the opposite direction.

An invoice issued for several vehicles

If the invoice mentions the plates of several vehicles in the fleet, all of them come selected; you can add or remove vehicles from the row. The amount is split among the vehicles, and a separate expense, or a work order and service record, is opened for each vehicle with its share.

Tire invoice

Tire line items are saved to the tire inventory at import: quantity, brand, size and season are read from the line, and the purchase cost is the VAT-inclusive unit price. Since the invoice does not state positions, you can choose at import approval which positions the tires will be mounted on; the selected tires are recorded as mounted on the vehicle at import.

If the vehicle is added later

An invoice for a vehicle whose plate has not yet entered the fleet stays without a vehicle, with the warning that the plate is not registered in the fleet. Invoices waiting without a vehicle are matched again automatically once the vehicle is added, imported from Excel or from GPS, or its plate is corrected.

If you imported it wrong

In the Imported tab, you select the invoice and undo the import: the resulting record is deleted, the invoice goes back to pending and the maintenance reminder returns to its previous state. Records you entered by hand are not touched. This lets you approve with peace of mind, because a mistake can be undone.

Setting up rules: make the same decision once

If a supplier's invoices are always of the same type, you don't have to approve them every time. A supplier rule works by tax ID number (VKN): for example, this supplier's invoices are always insurance or always non-fleet. A phrase rule works by a word that appears in the line item: if the word battery appears, treat it as a spare part, for instance; differences in letter case and Turkish characters are ignored. If a supplier whose invoices don't state the plate always bills the same vehicle, a fixed vehicle can be added to the rule as well.

A supplier rule takes precedence over a phrase rule, and if several phrases match, the longest one wins. When a rule is added, disabled or deleted, pending invoices are re-evaluated immediately; invoices that have already been imported do not change. The authority to set up rules belongs to the account owner.

Who sees which invoice

Invoices are sensitive data. The account owner sees all of them; other users see only the invoices within the supplier, category or subsidiary scope given to them. This way, the person in charge of service does not have to see accounting-related invoices while processing service invoices.

Where to start

First set up the e-Logo connection, pull a date range and look through the suggestions. The goal of the first week is not speed but to see whether the suggestions work correctly for your suppliers. Set up rules for recurring decisions; after a few weeks, most incoming invoices land in the right place without you touching them. Once accounting and the fleet start talking through the same invoice number and ETTN, period-end reconciliation becomes a check rather than a search.