1. Three acronyms, three different things
PLE, SIRE, and PLAME show up together so often that it's easy to assume they're interchangeable, or that one replaced the other two. That's not the case — each solves a different obligation with SUNAT, and most Peruvian businesses end up using all three at once, for different things.
2. PLE — Programa de Libros Electrónicos
The PLE is the "classic" system for keeping your accounting ledgers in electronic form: Libro Caja, Libro Diario, Libro Mayor, Registro de Compras, Registro de Ventas e Ingresos, Activos Fijos, and the Libro de Inventarios y Balances sub-formats. It generates files with an exact structure (numbered: 1.1, 5.1, 6.1, 8.1, 14.1...) that you upload yourself to SUNAT's PLE application.
3. SIRE — replaces exactly two of those ledgers
The SIRE (Sistema Integrado de Registros Electrónicos) doesn't replace the entire PLE — for those required to use it, it replaces only two specific formats: the Registro de Compras (now via RCE) and the Registro de Ventas e Ingresos (now via RVIE). Everything else — Diario, Mayor, Caja, Activos Fijos, Inventarios y Balances — is still filed through the classic PLE, unchanged.
In practice: if you're required to use SIRE, you stop generating PLE's formats 8.1 and 14.1 and generate RCE/RVIE instead. Everything else in the PLE stays exactly the same.
4. PLAME — it's not an accounting ledger, it's payroll
PLAME (Planilla Electrónica) lives in a completely different category: it's the monthly filing of wages, labor taxes, and worker contributions. It has no direct relationship with your purchase/sales accounting — it's built from your worker master file and the remunerative concepts you assign each month.
5. So which one do I file?
- Purchase and sales accounting: the classic PLE, or SIRE (RCE/RVIE) if you're already required to use SIRE for those two specific registers.
- The rest of your ledgers (Diario, Mayor, Caja, Activos Fijos, Inventarios y Balances): the classic PLE, always.
- Payroll and workers: PLAME, unrelated to the above.
6. How factsimil handles it
factsimil generates the files for all three systems from the same panel: the 13 classic PLE formats, the RCE/RVIE files for SIRE, and the worker master file that's the foundation for building toward PLAME. In all three cases, you upload the generated file directly to SUNAT's portal yourself — factsimil doesn't send or validate anything on your behalf, it only generates the file in the exact format SUNAT expects.
You can see real screenshots of each of these modules on the modules page, or create a free account to try them directly.