# Electronic invoicing in Chile

> What a DTE is, the digital certificate, the CAF, the SII's certification process, certification and production environments, and the 8-day acknowledgment-of-receipt rule — with links to the official SII sources.

This page summarizes the concepts behind Chilean electronic invoicing — the
same ones Simplo automates — and links every claim to the official source
from the **SII** (Servicio de Impuestos Internos, the Chilean tax
authority). It's technical context, not tax advice: for rules, deadlines or
interpretations specific to your case, consult the SII or your tax advisor.

> **Official references:**
> The source of truth is the **SII** — Simplo doesn't replace the
> regulations. Every section on this page links the corresponding official
> page or document on `sii.cl` or `bcn.cl` (Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional,
> the Chilean National Congress Library). When in doubt about the
> regulations, the SII site always prevails.

## What a DTE is

A **DTE** (Documento Tributario Electrónico, "electronic tax document") is a
Chilean tax document — invoice, receipt, credit note, dispatch guide, etc. —
issued as XML in the format the SII defines, digitally signed and reported
to the SII, which accepts, rejects or accepts it with remarks. It isn't a
PDF you design: the PDF is only the printable representation of an XML that
has already been signed and validated.

- SII's official electronic invoicing portal:
  [sii.cl/factura_electronica](https://www.sii.cl/factura_electronica/)
  (in Spanish)
- What electronic invoicing is and which systems exist to issue it (the
  SII's free system vs. market solutions):
  [sii.cl — Conozca de factura electrónica y de los sistemas disponibles](https://www.sii.cl/servicios_online/1039-como_fact_elect-1182.html)
  (in Spanish)
- The exact format every DTE must follow — the XML structure, required
  fields and validation rules — is defined by the SII in the technical
  document
  [Formato de Documentos Tributarios Electrónicos](https://www.sii.cl/factura_electronica/factura_mercado/formato_dte_202602.pdf)
  (v2.5, February 2026, in Spanish), complemented by the
  [Instructivo Técnico de Factura Electrónica](https://www.sii.cl/factura_electronica/factura_mercado/instructivo_emision.pdf)
  (in Spanish).

In Simplo, see the supported document types and their SII codes in
[DTE types](/en/referencia/tipos-de-dte/).

## The digital certificate

Every DTE is digitally signed with a **digital certificate**: a personal,
non-transferable file that identifies the company (or its legal
representative) to the SII, equivalent to an electronic ID card. It's used
both to operate on the SII site and to digitally sign electronic tax
documents.

- What it is, what it's for and how it's installed (per the SII):
  [sii.cl — Certificado Digital, factura electrónica](https://www.sii.cl/destacados/factura_electronica/certificado_digital.htm)
  (in Spanish)

In Simplo, this certificate is uploaded once per company — see
[Digital certificate](/en/referencia/certificado-digital/) for the endpoint
and how to monitor its validity.

## Folios and the CAF

Folios (the sequential numbers on each document) aren't chosen by whoever
issues them: the SII pre-authorizes them in ranges, per document type,
through a file called the **CAF** (Código de Autorización de Folios, "Folio
Authorization Code"). The issuer requests the CAF from the SII, downloads it
and loads it into their invoicing system before they can stamp (issue)
documents from that range.

- The SII's official notice on electronic stamping and the CAF:
  [sii.cl — Informativo sobre timbraje electrónico](https://www.sii.cl/factura_electronica/factura_mercado/timbraje_electronico.pdf)
  (in Spanish)

In Simplo, the CAF is uploaded once per document type and Simplo assigns the
next folio automatically on every emission — see
[Folios and CAF](/en/referencia/folios-caf/).

## The certification process (concept)

Before anyone can issue valid DTEs in production — whether using the SII's
free system or a market system like Simplo — they have to go through a
**certification process** with the SII. Broadly, the process consists of:
applying as an electronic issuer, generating and submitting test document
sets in the certification environment, and having the SII validate that
those documents meet the required format and rules before it issues the
resolution authorizing the taxpayer to issue in production.

This page doesn't restate the exact steps of the procedure — those change,
and the SII is the only reliable source for them:

- Application, certification and authorization procedure:
  [sii.cl — Procedimiento de postulación, certificación y autorización](https://www.sii.cl/factura_electronica/factura_mercado/proc_postulacion.htm)
  (in Spanish)
- Certification process detail (test sets, information exchange, printed
  samples):
  [sii.cl — Proceso de certificación](https://www.sii.cl/factura_electronica/factura_mercado/proceso_certificacion.htm)
  (in Spanish)

## Environments: certification vs. production

The SII runs **two separate environments** for electronic invoicing:

| Environment | Used for | Tax effect |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Certification** | Submitting test sets and validating your implementation during the certification process | None — the documents are test documents, with no tax validity |
| **Production** | Issuing real DTEs, once certified and authorized by the SII | Real — every document is a valid DTE, reported to the SII |

The SII exposes the certification environment as a site separate from
production:

- SII's certification/testing environment:
  [maullin.sii.cl](https://maullin.sii.cl/dte/menu.html) (in Spanish)

Mixing up environments is a common integration mistake: a document issued in
certification is never a real DTE, and conversely, a misconfiguration that
points production traffic at certification (or vice versa) can leave you
without valid folios or generating documents the SII doesn't recognize.
Always confirm which environment you're operating in before you emit.

Simplo adds a third context that is **not** an SII environment: the
**sandbox** — a mode of your own company, selected by the API key
(`sk_simplo_sandbox_`), isolated from both real environments, for testing
your integration (including rejections and exhausted folios on purpose)
without touching certification or production. See
[Quickstart](/en/comienza/quickstart/) and
[Try the unhappy paths](/en/comienza/casos-infelices/).

## Acknowledgment of receipt and exchange (concept): the 8-day rule

When the recipient of an invoice neither claims nor objects to it, Chilean
law presumes that the goods were delivered or the service rendered, leaving
the invoice ready to be assigned (e.g. via factoring) without needing an
explicit acknowledgment of receipt. This presumption of receipt by silence
kicks in after a period — currently **8 calendar days** from receipt of the
invoice — as established by **Ley N° 20.956** ("Law 20,956"), which amended
the deadlines and conditions for acknowledgment of receipt for both paper
and electronic invoices.

This page describes the concept — not the operational detail of
acknowledgment of receipt, its exceptions, or the exact deadlines applicable
to your case, which depend on the law in force and its regulations. For the
legal text:

- Ley N° 20.956, at the Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional (Ley Chile):
  [bcn.cl/leychile — Ley 20.956](https://www.bcn.cl/leychile/navegar?idNorma=1095967)
  (in Spanish)

The exchange of acknowledgment of receipt between issuer and recipient — and
the `dte.accepted` event Simplo fires when the SII accepts a document — are
related but distinct concepts: the former is an act by the commercial
recipient, the latter is the SII's tax verdict on the document. See
[States](/en/referencia/estados/) for the full lifecycle of a DTE in Simplo.

## Related

- [DTE types](/en/referencia/tipos-de-dte/) — the 12 document types and their
  SII codes
- [Folios and CAF](/en/referencia/folios-caf/) — how folios get uploaded to
  Simplo
- [Digital certificate](/en/referencia/certificado-digital/) — the
  certificate in Simplo
- [States](/en/referencia/estados/) — a DTE's lifecycle, including the SII's
  verdict
- [Introduction](/en/comienza/introduccion/) — what a DTE is, in 60 seconds
- [Quickstart](/en/comienza/quickstart/) — the sandbox and your first DTE
- [Go to production](/en/comienza/pasar-a-produccion/) — the checklist for a
  real certificate, SII certification and a real CAF

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