Invoice

Invoice: a document the seller issues to the buyer under a foreign trade deal. It states the parties, the goods or services, the quantity, price, total amount, currency, delivery and payment terms, and the beneficiary’s bank details.

Types of invoices

• Proforma invoice: a preliminary bill issued before shipment. An advance is often paid against it.
• Commercial invoice: the final bill for a shipment. It is needed at customs, in accounting and for currency control.
• There are also customs, consular, freight and insurance invoices. To pay a supplier, the first two are usually enough.

An invoice does not replace a Russian VAT invoice (schet-faktura). They are different documents with different rules.

Where it comes up in a payment

Payment is made against the invoice: the amount, currency and beneficiary details are taken from it. The bank or the agent checks the invoice against the contract: contract number and date, parties, subject matter. In the currency control package, the invoice confirms what was paid for. At customs, the commercial invoice is used to check the transaction price and the customs value.

What to watch for

• The beneficiary on the invoice must match the seller under the contract. A payment to a third party requires separate grounds.
• Check the beneficiary bank’s code (BIC), the account number or IBAN, and the beneficiary’s full address.
• The currency and amount must not differ from the contract and the specification.
• The invoice must refer to the contract, and the payment purpose must refer to both the contract and the invoice.
• If the supplier sends a new invoice with different bank details, confirm the change through a different communication channel.

When you pay through an agent we have selected, we check the invoice against the contract before any roubles are debited. A mismatch in the details is easier to fix with the supplier before payment than to sort out a transfer that the bank has stopped. More details: Invoice payments.