SIGN PT signs every document in the cloud, so a compliant electronic document cannot be issued while SIGN PT is unreachable. In Portugal, the fallback is a pre-printed paper invoice from an AT-authorised printing house, which is entered into SIGN PT once the connection is back.
An AT outage alone does not trigger this scenario, because SIGN PT does not need real-time clearance from the AT.
Before an outage
- Pre-printed forms: order them from a printing house authorised by the AT. It communicates the series and numbering to the AT and prints the series, the sequential number and the ATCUD on every form. The forms do not need a QR code.
- Recovery series: the taxpayer registers a separate recovery series with the AT before using it for the first time. It is the series in which the paper invoices are recorded afterwards. It is not the series printed on the forms.
During an outage
Fill in the form with all mandatory invoice elements, hand the original to the customer and keep a copy.
After the outage
Enter each paper invoice in SIGN PT as follows:
- As a new document of the same type (FS, FR or FT), in the recovery series, with the content of the paper invoice.
- With the date of the paper invoice as the document date (
issued_at), not the date of entry. - With the
offlineobject (operation.document.offline), which has two fields.reasonis the cause, for example a connectivity outage.referenceis the identifier of the paper invoice: the series and number printed on the form, for exampleabc/00001. - Once only, and in date order.
A later credit note or debit note references the series and number of the paper invoice, not the number SIGN PT assigns to the recovered record.