# Mandate determination

Source: https://developer.avalara.com/products/e-invoicing/integration-guides/elr/ptl1427319323875/

Guide: E-Invoicing and Live Reporting

# Mandate determination

Understand how mandate determination routes documents based on rules and mappings in ELR.

Mandate determination is a core feature that enables compliant, efficient, and automated routing of documents such as invoices, credit notes, aggregated reports, payments, and receipts based on country-specific e-invoicing and reporting requirements.

Once a company is configured in the system, users must define a decision matrix. This matrix consists of a set of business rules that determine when and which country mandate applies. These rules ensure that documents meet jurisdictional requirements without manual intervention.

Follow these principles when designing mandate determination:

-   Each rule must map to a single mapping template. The system must prevent a rule from triggering more than 1 mapping. This avoids duplication and ensures consistent data processing.
-   Users must be able to define rules based on document and related business system fields. The logic must not be limited to a fixed set of parameters. Provide access to all relevant fields, including company, customer, item, and tax data, to support advanced configurations and industry-specific use cases.
-   Each rule must reference a customizable mapping. Whether you use a default or user-defined template, the selected mapping must align with the rule logic to ensure correct data transformation and submission formatting.

Common use cases include:

-   Applying a German mandate only when invoice totals exceed €10,000
-   Submitting all Italian invoices to the SDI platform
-   Defining separate rules for inbound supplier invoices and outbound sales documents

You can also base logic on document type, customer classification, or regulatory requirements for specific industries such as energy, pharmaceuticals, or public procurement.

This decision matrix approach allows companies to operate efficiently across multiple jurisdictions while maintaining compliance.

Tip

A single country mandate can support multiple rules and multiple mappings. This allows you to define logic based on business unit, customer type, document type, or other conditions while still complying with the same mandate framework.