Why this guide
There are many electronic-invoicing providers in Peru, and most of them get the basics right: issuing a valid invoice or boleta with SUNAT. The real difference between them shows up in more specific questions almost nobody asks before signing up. These are the eight we'd use ourselves to evaluate any provider — including factsimil.
1. SEE del Contribuyente, or does it depend on an OSE?
Almost every accounting-software provider in Peru integrates with an OSE (Operador de Servicios Electrónicos) instead of homologating directly with SUNAT — it's faster to build. That means a permanent middle layer between your receipt and SUNAT, with its own SLA and, in many cases, its own per-receipt fee. Ask directly: "are you homologated as SEE del Contribuyente, or do you go through an OSE?" See the full explanation in SEE del Contribuyente vs. an OSE.
2. Does it include PLE, SIRE, and payroll, or just invoicing?
Issuing a receipt is half the regulatory problem. The other half is the electronic ledgers (PLE), the purchase/sales register (SIRE — RCE/RVIE), and, if you have payroll workers, PLAME. Many providers only solve invoicing and assume you'll keep the rest in a separate spreadsheet. Ask whether all three live in the same panel, or whether you'll end up manually exporting data between systems. Full detail in PLE, SIRE, and PLAME: which ledger to file, and when.
3. Does the Kardex update itself, or is it another spreadsheet?
If you sell physical products, your inventory's weighted-average cost (Kardex) should recalculate itself with every purchase and sale linked to the product — not by hand, once a month, with a real risk of falling out of date. Ask to see the Kardex module actually working before signing up, not just being told they "have it."
4. How does it prevent gaps or duplicates in numbering?
Two people invoicing at the same time from the same panel is a real case, not an edge case. If the system doesn't handle sequential numbering in a concurrency-safe way, the risk is a duplicate sequential number or a gap — both are real problems in front of SUNAT. Ask specifically how this is solved at the database level, not just "it hasn't happened to us yet."
5. Who manages your digital certificate?
Your digital certificate signs every receipt — if it expires without anyone noticing, you lose the ability to invoice overnight. Ask whether the system warns you before expiration, and whether the certificate is stored encrypted at rest (not as a loose file on a server).
6. Does it have a real API, or just a closed panel?
If at some point you're going to integrate invoicing with your own system (an internal ERP, an e-commerce platform, a marketplace), you need to know from day one whether the provider exposes a documented REST API or whether everything goes exclusively through their web panel. Migrating from a closed panel to an API integration later is far more expensive than asking beforehand. See factsimil's API documentation as a reference for what you should be able to ask to see.
7. How does it handle multiple companies or RUCs?
If you're an accountant managing several RUCs, or your company has more than one legal entity, ask how switching companies works within the same system: is it a separate account (and a separate subscription) for each RUC, or one account with access to several companies?
8. Does pricing scale with what you actually use?
Comparing prices between providers by the cheapest plan's headline number alone is misleading — what matters is what that plan actually includes (are PLE and SIRE included, or a separate add-on module?) and what happens as your receipt volume grows. Ask for the full breakdown, not just the "from" price.
The full checklist
- Homologated as SEE del Contribuyente, or dependent on an intermediary OSE?
- PLE, SIRE, and payroll included in the same panel, or just invoicing?
- Kardex with automatically recalculated weighted-average cost?
- Concurrency-safe sequential numbering?
- Digital certificate encrypted at rest, with an expiration warning?
- Documented REST API available, not just a closed panel?
- Real support for multi-company/multi-RUC?
- Pricing with a clear breakdown of what each tier includes?
factsimil answers yes to all eight — not because they're our favorite questions, but because they're exactly the problems that led us to build it this way. Create a free account and check it yourself, or see what each module includes.