The Spanish business fabric faces one of the greatest digital transformations of the last decade. The regulation approved in March 2025, which develops both the law creates and grows (18/2022) and the Anti -Arude Law (11/2021), sets a new road map for commercial relations between companies. From 2026, all B2B operations must be carried out with structured electronic invoice, leaving behind the use of conventional PDF as the only valid test.
This new legal scenario forces companies, especially SMEs, to review their internal processes and prepare to meet requirements that transcend the simple digital issuance of invoices. Documentary integrity, automated traceability, legal conservation and real -time communication with the Tax Agency will be some of the new minimum standards required.
Gaspar Palmer, CEO of OpenKM underlines the magnitude of the challenge: “The new legal framework is ambitious and necessary, but also demanding for SMEs.” And he adds: “We face accelerated digitalization in which it is not enough to have a billing program: a technological infrastructure is needed capable of guaranteeing integrity, traceability, automation and legal conservation of each invoice.”
The transformation is not limited to the technological. According to Palmer, the mandatory electronic invoice forces companies to adopt a new mentality, in which documentation is no longer only a file, but a critical asset that must meet technical, legal and fiscal standards.
The new regulation developed by the law creates and grows and the Anti -Arude Law imposes unpublished technical requirements for B2B operations from 2026
From invoice to UBL: European interoperability and fiscal control
The regulation also incorporates elements that place Spain in line with the Board of Directors (Vat in the Digital Age) of the European Union. Among the main normative changes are:
- The adoption of the UBL European standard (Universal Business Language), replacing the traditional invoice format.
- The disappearance of exceptions: All voluntary invoices must be generated in structured electronic format.
- The mandatory implementation of the verifactu system, which allows to report in real time to the Tax Agency, even through web forms.
- New demands on digital conservation of invoices, in accordance with the additional provision 21 of Law 56/2007.
“The objective is clear: to improve payment control, reduce delinquency and combat tax fraud,” says Palmer, who insists that “this also implies that companies must have robust solutions that meet both the technical and legal conservation requirements.”
Beyond the electronic invoice: a strategic opportunity
Faced with the normative vertigo, companies are not alone. “OpenKM acts as a bridge between its current system and legal demands, centralizing the documentation and ensuring that everything is in order,” says the company’s CEO. In your vision, this transition can become a competitive advantage: who now invests adequate documentary technology will be better prepared to face future regulatory changes and gain operational efficiency.
With the electronic invoice as a mandatory requirement around the corner, digitalization is no longer an option. It is, more and more, the land where sustainability, competitiveness and transparency of the business ecosystem are played.
