Invoice date

An invoice date is the date on which an invoice is issued.

An invoice is often issued in connection with, or in close proximity to, the date on which the actual purchase takes place. Often a customer will enter a store, select an item and the clerk will print the invoice, which the customer (debtor) can then go home and pay - typically with a payment deadline.

The invoice date is often also called the issue date and is the date on which the invoice is issued.

Other important dates around an invoice are the payment deadline and payment date.

Why is the concept of invoice date interesting?

Most people may not realize it, but the term invoice date is actually both important and required by law - both for private individuals, but especially for companies that are subject to the Bookkeeping Act.

If you are a company that issues invoices to your customers, it is actually a requirement, according to the Swedish Tax Agency's requirements for an invoice, that the invoice date is stated. The tax authorities refer to the invoice date as the issue date.

For example, the invoice date is used to determine when an invoice is due for payment. If the issuer states that payment is due in 7 days, it is based on the invoice date.

The invoice date is also used by both the debtor and the creditor - for example, in connection with sending invoices, but also in connection with arrival registration etc.

Statutory retention of accounting records

Your company must comply with the Bookkeeping Act - including the law's provisions on the storage of accounting material, and the invoice date is also of interest here.

As a general rule, Chapter 5 of the Bookkeeping Act "Storage of accounting material" requires you as a company to store accounting material safely for at least 5 years.

Many people mistakenly believe that this means you only need to store an invoice for 5 years from the day the invoice was printed (the invoice date) - this is not true.

Section 10 of the Danish Bookkeeping Act states that the material must be stored "from the end of the financial year to which the material relates". This means that the entire year must be stored for 5 years, and not from the individual invoice date.

Obsolescence of an invoice

An invoice becomes invalid after 3 years. This means that after 3 years, you as a creditor cannot collect your claim from the debtor - and neither a lawyer nor a debt collection agency can help you. However, you can interrupt the statute of limitations with the help of the bailiff. This must be done within the 3 years.

But when does the 3 years start? Many people think that it applies from the invoice date - and this may be partially correct. If the payment deadline is "cash payment" or the same date as the payment deadline, then the invoice date can be considered the start date.

However, section 2 of the Limitation Act states that "the limitation period is calculated from the time to which the creditor could demand satisfaction of the claim " - in other words, this means that the limitation period applies from the due date - the payment deadline.

However, the wording of the law also means that if you only send an invoice 1 year after the work has been completed or the goods have been delivered (and you could therefore have claimed the claim ), then the statute of limitations is not 3 years from the payment deadline - but rather 2 years.

In Denmark, however, the vast majority of companies send an invoice in the immediate vicinity of the goods being delivered - so in practice this is often not a problem.