In Colombia, an electronic sales invoice is validated by the DIAN before it reaches the buyer, and each one gets a CUFE (código único de factura electrónica), a 96-character code printed with a QR code on the invoice's graphic representation. With either, you can look the invoice up in the DIAN's own records.
Looking an invoice up by CUFE
Open the DIAN's electronic invoicing catalog (catalogo-vpfe.dian.gov.co) and choose the document search. Paste the CUFE, or scan the QR code, which opens the search with the CUFE already filled in. The page may also ask for the tax ID of the issuer or the receiver. The result shows the invoice and whether the DIAN validated it, along with its events.
Downloading the invoices you received
A business signs in to the same catalog with a link sent to the email registered in its RUT. From there it can list the documents received over a date range and download them as PDF or XML.
Acuse de recibo and other events
For invoices sold on credit, the buyer generates the acuse de recibo (acknowledgement of the invoice) and the receipt of goods or services as electronic events, through its software, a technology provider or the DIAN's free invoicing tool. These events are recorded in RADIAN, the DIAN's register for invoices traded as securities.
POS tickets
Till tickets (tiquetes POS) have become electronic equivalent documents, reported to the DIAN with their own code (CUDE). When you need an invoice for the expense, ask for an electronic invoice in your company's name at the till.
Keeping the rest
The DIAN's catalog keeps the invoices issued to your NIT. Smartbills keeps everything else: photograph a ticket in the app or forward an email receipt, and each one is kept with its items, every tax and the total.