AWRA OpsHub Search

Market hub

Operating in Latin America

Invoices the state validates before your customer sees them, a deduction that waits on something your warehouse does, and legal limits denominated in a unit that is revalued while you sleep.

Guides published
6
Topics covered
4
Markets
18
Currencies
17

What is different about operating here

Eighteen markets, and what they have in common is not a rate — it is that the state sits inside the transaction rather than downstream of it. Latin America ran mandatory clearance a decade before Europe did, so the useful question in any of these markets is not whether invoicing is electronic but which end of the document the obligation attaches to. Our two researched markets answer that in opposite directions, which is why they are worth reading as a pair. In Mexico a receipt must go to the authority before it is issued — validated, given its folio and sealed — and only then may it reach the customer, so a document that has not been cleared is not a late invoice, it is not an invoice. In Colombia the invoice arrives already valid and the obligation is yours: on credit terms the BUYER must confirm, by two separate electronic messages, that the invoice arrived and that the goods did, and until both are sent the purchase supports no deduction and no input credit. One country makes the seller unable to issue; the other makes the buyer unable to claim. A third pattern cuts across both and has nothing to do with invoicing at all — statutory limits here are frequently expressed as multiples of an index unit rather than as sums of money, revalued annually in Colombia and daily in Chile, so a figure stored as currency is correct the day it is entered and goes stale without any event occurring. Take those three questions to Brazil, Chile or Argentina, where the clearance regimes are the same species, and they are still the right questions.

Three things that catch teams out

  1. Ask which end of the document the obligation attaches to

    Clearance is not one requirement. In some markets the seller cannot issue without the state; in others the buyer cannot claim without acting. A vendor who says "we support e-invoicing" has answered only the first kind, and if your exposure is the second kind they have not answered anything at all. Establish whether the thing you owe happens before the document leaves, or after it arrives.

  2. A compliance step can happen somewhere other than finance

    Where a deduction depends on acknowledging that goods were received, the compliance event occurs at a loading bay rather than at a desk. Ask any system where receiving produces something that leaves the building. If the answer is a separate portal, that portal is the compliance system and what you are being shown is a record kept beside it — which can be a fine arrangement, provided you chose it rather than discovered it.

  3. A limit written as a multiple is not a limit written as a number

    Statutory ceilings expressed in an index unit go out of date on a schedule rather than on an event. Nothing is edited, nothing fails, and the stored figure quietly stops agreeing with the law. An annual revaluation can be survived with a diary reminder; a daily one cannot. Ask what reads the unit, and what happens in January if nobody does.

Every module, and where the guides are

Tax is two of these ten. AWRA OpsHub runs inventory, procurement, assets, sales, point of sale, HR and payroll, finance, projects, helpdesk and reporting as one system, and all ten work in every market — the presets below only decide what a rate field is pre-filled with. 4 of the ten have a guide written for Latin America; the rest point at the method guides, which hold wherever you run them.

Tax and currency presets for this region

These are the sales-tax presets AWRA OpsHub ships with, 18 of the 188 countries covered in total. They are headline national rates and a starting point for configuration — reduced, zero-rated and exempt categories still need setting up against your own chart of accounts, and rates change with each finance act.

Market Currency Tax Standard rate
Mexico MXN Mexican Peso VAT 16%
Colombia COP Colombian Peso VAT 19%
Chile CLP Chilean Peso VAT 19%
Brazil BRL Brazilian Real ICMS 17%
Argentina ARS Argentine Peso VAT 21%
Peru PEN Peruvian Sol VAT 18%
Ecuador USD United States Dollar VAT 15%
Uruguay UYU Uruguayan Peso VAT 22%
Bolivia BOB Bolivian Boliviano VAT 13%
Paraguay PYG Paraguayan Guaraní VAT 10%
Venezuela VES Venezuelan Bolívar VAT 16%
Suriname SRD Surinamese Dollar VAT 10%
Costa Rica CRC Costa Rican Colón VAT 13%
Guatemala GTQ Guatemalan Quetzal VAT 12%
Honduras HNL Honduran Lempira VAT 15%
Nicaragua NIO Nicaraguan Córdoba VAT 15%
Panama PAB Panamanian Balboa VAT 7%
El Salvador USD United States Dollar VAT 13%

6 Latin America guides

Grouped into 4 topics, newest first within each.

Accounting Insights

2

Procurement Insights

2

Inventory Insights

1

Sales Insights

1

Help Center

Need a quick answer while you read?

Run inventory, procurement, assets, sales, and field work with approved AWRA guidance for setup, migration, integrations, security, pricing, and support.

Search all approved AWRA public help articles.

Open Help Center