Philippines e-invoicing
BIR Electronic Invoicing System (EIS) guide
A plain-language guide to EIS for business owners, finance teams and developers: what it is, who has to comply, how to get certified, and how invoice data travels from your system to the BIR.
31 December 2026 is the compliance deadline for the first group of covered taxpayers under RR No. 26-2025. After that date, PDFs and scanned invoices no longer count as e-invoices.
Summary
BIR EIS at a glance
- What it is
- The BIR Electronic Invoicing System (EIS) is the Bureau of Internal Revenue platform that receives e-invoice and sales data, in structured JSON, directly from taxpayers' certified invoicing systems.
- Deadline
- Covered taxpayers must issue and transmit structured e-invoices by 31 December 2026, under Revenue Regulations No. 26-2025.
- Who must comply
- E-commerce and online sellers (except micro taxpayers), Large Taxpayers Service registrants, large taxpayers under the EOPT Act, and users of CAS, CBA or invoicing software.
- Transmission
- Sales data must reach the BIR within 3 calendar days of the invoice date, through the EIS API from a certified system.
- Format
- JSON (schema v2.01, CAS or CRM/POS), digitally signed with JWS and encrypted with AES-256. PDFs and scanned invoices do not qualify.
- Registration
- Sign up on the EIS Certification Portal (eis-cert.bir.gov.ph), pass sandbox tests, obtain an EIS Certificate and a Permit to Transmit (PTT), then whitelist server IPs for production.
Overview
What is the BIR EIS?
The Electronic Invoicing System (EIS) is the BIR platform that receives invoice and sales data from taxpayers' own systems in near real time. Instead of only printing or emailing an invoice to the buyer, a covered business also transmits a structured, digitally signed copy of that invoice to the BIR.
EIS is built on Section 237-A of the National Internal Revenue Code, added by the TRAIN Law, which requires certain taxpayers to issue electronic invoices and report sales data electronically. The Ease of Paying Taxes (EOPT) Act later aligned invoicing rules so that the invoice is now the primary document for both sales of goods and services.
The point that trips people up: an invoice is not an e-invoice just because it is digital. A PDF generated by your accounting software does not satisfy EIS. The invoice must exist as structured data that your system can send to the BIR.
Your buyer can still receive a human-readable invoice (PDF, email, print). Compliance depends on the structured JSON your system transmits to the BIR behind the scenes.
Legal basis
Legal basis of EIS
- NIRC Sec. 237-A
- Requires electronic invoicing and electronic sales reporting for covered taxpayers. Introduced by RA 10963 (TRAIN Law).
- RA 11976 (EOPT Act)
- Ease of Paying Taxes Act. Makes the invoice the primary sales document and defines large taxpayer classification used for coverage.
- RR No. 8-2022
- Original EIS implementing rules, including the three-calendar-day transmission window and the pilot rollout.
- RR No. 11-2025
- Issued February 2025. Sets the structured-data requirement and the covered taxpayer groups, with a March 2026 deadline.
- RR No. 26-2025
- Published October 2025. Extends the deadline for the first groups to 31 December 2026.
Coverage
Who must comply with EIS?
Coverage rolls out in groups. The first four groups must be live by the deadline; the rest follow under separate regulations once the BIR's infrastructure is ready.
Required by 31 Dec 2026
Mandatory- Taxpayers engaged in e-commerce or internet transactions (small, medium and large)
- Taxpayers under the Large Taxpayers Service (LTS)
- Large taxpayers as classified under RA 11976 and RR No. 8-2024
- Taxpayers using a Computerized Accounting System (CAS), Computerized Books of Accounts (CBA) with e-invoicing, or other invoicing software
Covered in a later phase
Date TBA- Exporters of goods and services
- Registered business enterprises enjoying tax incentives
- Taxpayers using Point-of-Sale (POS) systems
- Other taxpayers designated by the Commissioner
If the head office or any branch falls into a covered group, every location of that taxpayer must issue e-invoices.
Micro taxpayers in the e-commerce / internet-transaction group are exempt from the 31 December 2026 mandate. They may still adopt EIS voluntarily.
Self-check
Am I covered by EIS?
Tick everything that applies to your business
A quick orientation, not a ruling. Confirm your status with your RDO or tax adviser.
Tick the boxes above to see where you likely stand.
Timeline
EIS timeline and key dates
TRAIN Law adds Sec. 237-A
Legal mandate for e-invoicing and electronic sales reporting.
EIS pilot goes live
RR No. 8-2022 implements EIS with an initial group of large taxpayers.
EOPT Act takes effect
Invoices replace official receipts as the primary sales document.
RR No. 11-2025 issued
Defines covered groups and the structured-data requirement.
RR No. 26-2025 published
Moves the original March 2026 deadline to year-end 2026.
BIR advisory on service providers
BIR states it has not accredited any e-Invoicing Service Provider yet.
Compliance deadline
First four covered groups must issue and transmit structured e-invoices.
Later phases
Exporters, incentivized enterprises and POS users, under future regulations.
Registration & certification
How to register for EIS
Every taxpayer that transmits invoices needs a certified system and a Permit to Transmit (PTT). The process runs through the EIS Certification Portal and ends on the production EIS.
Sign up on the Certification Portal
Create an account using details from your BIR Form 2303. Choose your profile (Taxpayer or Software Provider), pass the name and TIN checks, and upload your authorization document. BIR approves the account by email.
eis-cert.bir.gov.phCreate an application
Register the system that will transmit invoices and choose its type (CAS or CRM/POS). This starts a roughly six-month window to finish certification before the application is disabled.
Generate your keys
From the Settings page, generate the Application Key and the digital-signing key pair. The private key is shown only once, so store it in a secure vault immediately.
Pass the sandbox tests
Request sandbox access, then run the mandatory test cases: Authentication, Invoice Issuance (with or without callback) and Inquiry Result.
Request the EIS Certificate
Once every test passes, submit a certificate request. BIR reviews your test invoices and issues an EIS Certification Number.
Apply for a Permit to Transmit
Submit the five PTT documents listed below. Approval arrives by email.
Whitelist your server IPs and go live
Enter the fixed public IP addresses of your transmitting servers. Only whitelisted IPs can send live invoices to the production EIS.
eis.bir.gov.ph
Documents to sign up
- BIR Form 2303 (Certificate of Registration)
- Secretary's Certificate, Board Resolution or Special Power of Attorney
- A valid company email address
Documents for the PTT
- Risk and Disaster Management Plan
- Software Features and Specifications
- Sworn Statement
- IT Systems Configuration Diagram
- System, Data and Process Flow
Your accounting or invoicing system should already be registered with the BIR (for example a CAS/CBA permit or acknowledgment) before EIS certification.
For developers
How the EIS API works
Your system talks to EIS over HTTPS with three calls: authenticate, submit invoices, and check results. Every invoice is signed so the BIR can prove who issued it, then encrypted so only the BIR can read it.
Authenticate
Generate a random AES-256 session key, encrypt it with the BIR public key (RSA), and exchange it for an auth token valid for 6 hours.
Build and sign
Convert each invoice to the EIS JSON schema, then sign it as a JWS with your private signing key.
Encrypt and submit
Encrypt the signed payload with the session key and POST 1–100 invoices in one submission. Each request carries an HMAC-SHA256 signature.
Check the result
EIS validates schema, signature, TIN and totals. Poll the inquiry endpoint, or receive a callback, for per-invoice codes.
What wraps an invoice
Developer resources
EIS API documentation and test tools
Everything a developer needs to build and check an EIS integration before running the sandbox tests on the BIR Certification Portal.
EIS API documentation
Authentication, request headers and HMAC, the three endpoints, every v2.01 invoice field, signing and encryption samples, response codes and a go-live checklist.
Read the docs → Test toolInvoice JSON validator
Paste an invoice and check TIN and branch formats, EisUniqueId, item maths, VAT and totals. Catches the errors behind SYN004, ERR002 and ERR004.
Validate JSON → Test toolEIS Invoice JSON Builder
Fill in a CAS or CRM/POS invoice form and get v2.01 JSON with recalculated totals, validation and a JWS signature for sandbox testing.
Open the builder ↗ Test toolEisUniqueId and VAT calculators
Build or decode a 24-character EisUniqueId, and work out net sales, 12% VAT and amount payable for VATable, zero-rated and exempt sales.
Open calculators →Download the official guides
EIS e-invoice API Development Guide
The full API reference: authentication, HMAC signing, invoice issuance, inquiry result and callback APIs, JSON format, JWS signature, AES-256 encryption, error codes and Java code samples.
e-invoice JSON File Format v2.01
Field-by-field spec for CAS and CRM/POS invoices: field names, data types, lengths, mandatory rules, code values (DocType, TransClass, CorrectionCd) and formulas.
EIS Certification User Guide
Step-by-step screens for the EIS Certification Portal: sign-up, creating an application, generating keys, sandbox tests, requesting the EIS Certificate and the Permit to Transmit.
Documents from the EIS project team, as published on the BIR EIS Certification Portal (Downloads). Check the portal for newer versions before you build.
After go-live
EIS record keeping and transmission deadlines
Transmission
- Send sales data within 3 calendar days of the invoice date
- Transmit only from the certified system and whitelisted IPs
- Track and resend rejected invoices after fixing them
Retention
- Keep records for 10 years
- Years 1–5: hybrid, printed plus digital backup
- Year 6 on: digital only, if readable and retrievable
- Keep the JSON, JWS, BIR acknowledgments and audit trail