Invalid VAT numbers
Client invoices regularly carry incorrect or missing VAT registration numbers — an automatic rejection under SARS schema validation.
Operator 01 · Clarity
Your clients’ e-invoice data needs to be correct before SARS sees it.
Clarity ingests tax invoices, credit notes, and debit notes from your accounting systems, validates every field against the SARS e-invoice schema, flags and fixes errors, and returns clean, submission-ready data — before a single figure reaches SARS.
The Problem
Your clients’ invoice data was never built for SARS validation.
Tax invoices, credit notes, and debit notes are generated inside accounting systems every day — often with wrong VAT numbers, missing fields, incorrect tax periods, and inconsistent line-item formatting. When SARS mandates structured e-invoice transmission, dirty data means rejected submissions, verification letters, and penalties. That falls on the firm.
Missing or incomplete fields
Required fields — tax period, line-item classification, invoice totals — are often absent or inconsistent. Gaps SARS will reject.
Classification inconsistencies
VAT treatment varies by client and capturer. Returns demand one standard; your records follow dozens.
Schema non-compliance
Invoice data that does not conform to the SARS Peppol-based schema will fail at transmission. Manual review at scale cannot catch every deviation.
The Clarity Operation
Four functions. One outcome: e-invoice data SARS will accept.
- Ingests. Tax invoices, credit notes, and debit notes are pulled directly from Xero, Sage, and QuickBooks via API or export — across your entire client book.
- Validates. Every field is checked against the emerging SARS e-invoice schema (Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 / UBL 2.1 aligned). VAT numbers, tax periods, line items, totals — nothing passes unchecked.
- Fixes. Errors are flagged and corrected at the data layer before they can become submission failures or SARS correspondence.
- Returns. Clean, schema-valid invoice data is returned alongside a full audit report — ready for Conduit to transmit, or for your own submission process.
What Clarity Identifies
Every risk, before it reaches a return.
Clarity validates e-invoice data field by field to surface the errors that manual review misses at scale.
Missing VAT registration numbers
Invoices issued or received without a valid VAT number — automatic non-compliance under SARS requirements.
Classification errors
Transactions coded to the wrong category, distorting VAT treatment downstream.
VAT treatment inconsistencies
The same transaction type handled differently across clients, capturers and periods.
Schema non-compliance
Fields that do not conform to the SARS Peppol-based e-invoice schema — invalid formats, missing mandatory elements, incorrect data types.
Audit risks
Exposure that would only surface under SARS scrutiny — identified in advance.
Submission blockers
Any data condition that would cause SARS to reject a transmission — caught and corrected before it reaches the submission layer.
The Result
What changes when Clarity is deployed.
Reduced errors
Issues are corrected at the data layer — before they can become return errors with SARS consequences.
Improved readiness
Every client’s VAT position is compliance-ready as standard — not assembled under deadline pressure.
Less manual review
Your team reviews exceptions, not everything. Hours of line-by-line checking are returned to the practice.
Audit confidence
When SARS looks closer, your records hold. Structured, reconciled records are their own defence.
Clarity prepares the records. Conduit executes compliance reporting. Together they close the loop.
Find out how compliance-ready your VAT records really are.
Book a VAT Readiness Assessment and see exactly where your practice’s records stand against SARS requirements.
A focused, partner-level review of your practice’s VAT readiness. No obligation.