The complete guide: how to issue FEL in Guatemala (2026)

Guatemala invoices online. The Online Electronic Invoicing regime — FEL — was created by the SAT’s Acuerdo de Directorio 13-2018, and today it is simply how an invoice is issued. This guide takes you from zero: what a DTE is, what the SAT asks of you to get enabled, what you will issue from, what it actually costs, and how to get your first invoice out without drama. Everything asserted here comes from the SAT’s own documentation; where there is no source, we say so instead of inventing the figure.

What FEL actually is

FEL is the regime through which the SAT administers electronic invoicing. Every document you issue is a DTE (Documento Tributario Electrónico): a signed XML file, certified and transmitted online, carrying a unique authorisation number. The regime defines 20 DTE types — from the invoice and the small-taxpayer invoice to credit and debit notes, the donation receipt and the VAT exemption certificate — and when you issue, the system shows you the documents that match your tax regime.

The regime has four actors, defined by the SAT itself: the issuer (you), the certifier, the recipient (your customer) and the SAT as administrator. Under article 3(e) of Acuerdo 13-2018, the certifier is "the individual or legal person that performs the certification and storage of the DTEs transmitted by issuers". It receives your document, validates it, assigns the authorisation number and transmits it to the SAT, in seconds.

Which leads to the first thing worth being clear about: the certifier does not define your invoice. The DTE format, the validation rules and the document types are set by the SAT, so an invoice certified by one company and one certified by another are the same XML with the same legal standing. It is also worth separating the PDF from the XML: the PDF is the graphical representation you send the customer; the file that constitutes proof is the XML.

What you need before you start

The SAT asks for five things before enabling you as a DTE issuer, and you can check all five in ten minutes:

• Access to your Agencia Virtual.
• Up-to-date details in the RTU.
• At least one active establishment in the RTU.
• Registration for VAT — or for the ICT if you are in the primary or livestock regime, where applicable.
• Your fiscal address on record as located.

The electronic signature certificate you need in order to issue is provided when you are enabled and, in the SAT’s own words, "has no cost". There is nobody to buy it from and no queue to stand in for it.

Step 1: get enabled as an issuer with the SAT

Enabling is done online, from the Agencia Virtual (Servicios Tributarios > Factura Electrónica en Línea) or from the App FEL, the SAT’s free mobile application. If you enable yourself using those applications, the SAT is automatically registered as your certifier: you do not have to accredit anyone or contract anyone to start invoicing legally.

That surprises a lot of people, so it bears repeating: issuing DTEs through the SAT’s systems costs nothing. Asked whether issuing has any cost, the SAT answers: "No, if the taxpayer uses the web application in the SAT’s Agencia Virtual or the App FEL". Contracting a private certifier is an option, not a requirement.

Step 2: decide what you will issue from

This is where nearly everything is decided, and the order matters: you choose the system you will issue from first, and the certifier comes with it. Picking "the best certifier" before you know where you will be invoicing from is starting at the wrong end. You have three routes.

The SAT’s free application

You fill in each DTE on a web form or in the App FEL. It does credit and debit notes, voids, bulk upload from Excel, issuing from several establishments, printing on letter size or as a ticket with your logo, and voice invoicing for small taxpayers. Its limit is not a number of invoices: it is that product and service descriptions are entered manually, so every line of every invoice is typed again. The SAT describes it as suitable "for professionals, technical services, small taxpayers, or any company whose volume of issued invoices allows it".

What the SAT’s free application does and does not do, in detail

A system with FEL built in

A point of sale, an online shop or a booking calendar that already knows your products, your prices and your customers, and issues the DTE as a consequence of taking payment. The certifier comes with the service, so you do not contract it separately. This is the route when the invoice has to come out of the same place where you take the money and stock is deducted.

Your own system against a certifier’s API

If you already run an ERP or a custom build, you integrate against the web services of an accredited certifier. What decides it here is not the price per document: it is the quality of the technical documentation, a test environment that genuinely works, the service’s response time, and who you call at six on a Friday evening when the till will not invoice. Ask for an integration trial with your own developer before you sign.

The 18 authorised certifiers and how to compare them

Step 3: if you go with a private certifier, accredit it

This step only applies if you are going to issue through a private certifier. It is done in the Agencia Virtual, under Servicios Tributarios > Factura Electrónica en Línea > Acreditación de Certificadores, choosing from the official list of authorised providers. Then you generate the electronic signature for third-party issuing, using the "Otros certificadores de DTE (terceros)" option; that signature is installed in the system you will issue from.

The reassuring part: you can hold more than one certifier at the same time. Article 14 of Acuerdo de Directorio 13-2018 states that "the issuer may operate with more than one certifier simultaneously", and article 13 "A" speaks of accrediting "the electronic tax document certifier or certifiers it deems appropriate". Which is why changing provider need not be risky: you accredit the new one, run both in parallel, and only once you are satisfied do you set the previous one to "No acreditado".

Step 4: issue your first invoice

If you are integrating against a certifier, test in its test environment first: confirm the XML is generated with your details, that the graphical representation carries your logo, and that the document certifies. If you are issuing from the SAT’s application or from a system with FEL included, there is no environment to prepare.

Your first real invoice is best made small and issued to someone you trust. Then verify it in the SAT’s Verificador Integrado and look it up in your Agencia Virtual, under Consultar DTE. If it is there, the whole circuit works: issuing, certification, transmission and lookup.

What FEL really costs

Getting enabled costs nothing. The electronic signature certificate costs nothing. Issuing through the Agencia Virtual or the App FEL costs nothing. The only things you pay for are the software you issue from and, if you contract a private one, the certifier.

And here is the uncomfortable part: no authorised certifier publishes a price list. They all quote against your volume and other variables, and the SAT does not regulate those rates, so the same provider charges a corner shop differently from a pharmacy chain. The per-document ranges circulating in blogs and comparison posts have no traceable primary source: follow them back and they end at a 2019 press piece in which an auditor — not a certifier — estimated what electronic invoicing cost. Repeating that figure in 2026 would be inventing a number, and you cannot budget against an invented number. So this article publishes none, and you should distrust the ones you see elsewhere.

What you can do is ask three providers to quote against your real monthly volume and compare the total cost for the year, not the price per document. Ask all of them the same things:

• Is there a monthly minimum even in a month when I do not invoice?
• Are implementation or API integration charged separately, and how much?
• Do unused documents roll over from one month to the next, or are they lost?
• Does the contract have a lock-in period and an exit penalty?
• Does support answer on Saturdays?

Common mistakes when starting with FEL

• Not having the establishment active in the RTU. Only active establishments appear when you issue, so if you opened a new location and did not register it, you cannot invoice from there.
• Choosing a certifier before choosing a system. The certifier is rarely the purchase; the software you issue from is.
• Getting the tax regime wrong. If you are a small taxpayer, your document is the small-taxpayer invoice, not the VAT invoice: the system shows the DTE types that match your regime, and they have to be respected.
• Correcting by "deleting". A wrongly issued DTE is voided — within the filing deadline for the monthly VAT return — or corrected with a credit or debit note. Deleting it from the system does not exist.
• De-accrediting the previous certifier before the new one is issuing. You can hold both at once; there is no reason to end up unable to invoice on a Monday.
• Not downloading your XMLs before leaving a provider. The PDF is not enough.

What happens to your invoices afterwards

Your certified DTEs sit with the SAT and can be looked up and downloaded from the Agencia Virtual (Servicios Tributarios > Factura Electrónica en Línea > Consultar DTE), from the App FEL and from the Verificador Integrado, regardless of who certified them. They do not expire either: the SAT answers that they do not, "because their authorisation is unique to each document at the moment of issuing and certification".

Keeping the XMLs, on the other hand, is your obligation. Article 21 of Acuerdo 13-2018 puts it on the issuer to retain the XML files of certified DTEs until the Código Tributario’s limitation period has run, which is four years. Article 22 says the certifier keeps them until its authorisation is renewed. Translated: if you ever change provider, download your XMLs from its portal before you de-accredit it.

Where Cuadra fits

Cuadra is a point of sale with FEL built in for Guatemala: the sale deducts stock, each employee signs in as themselves, stock and reports are per branch, and the DTE is certified as you take payment. It issues with Ainnova included, without contracting the certifier separately, and it also connects to Digifact and INFILE for businesses that already hold their own accreditation and want to keep it.

The Pro plan is Q249.00 a month and includes 250 DTEs a month, then Q0.75 per document. Premium is Q500.00 a month, includes 500 DTEs and then Q0.50 per document. You can try it for 14 days at no charge: nothing is charged until day 15. That said, if you issue a handful of invoices a day and carry no stock, the SAT’s free application solves it without paying anything, and we would rather tell you that here.

Frequently asked questions

• Am I required to contract a private certifier? No. You can issue for free from the Agencia Virtual or the App FEL, where the SAT itself is your certifier, or contract one of the authorised certifiers. The documents carry the same legal standing either way.
• What does it cost to get enabled as a FEL issuer? Nothing. Enabling is done online and the electronic signature certificate you are given has no cost.
• What does a certifier charge per DTE? There is no public figure: none of the authorised certifiers publishes a price list, they all quote against your volume, and the SAT does not regulate those rates. Ask three of them to quote against your real volume and compare the total cost for the year.
• Can I have two certifiers at once? Yes. Article 14 of Acuerdo de Directorio 13-2018 expressly allows it, and it is the sensible way to switch: accredit the new one and test before standing the old one down.
• What do I do if I issued the wrong invoice? You void it, within the filing deadline for the monthly VAT return, or you correct it with a credit or debit note. If you voided it by mistake, you can request the void be reversed.
• Do I need to keep my invoices if the SAT already has them? Yes. The SAT keeps them and you can look them up, but article 21 of Acuerdo 13-2018 obliges you to retain the XMLs until the four-year limitation period has run. Keep the XML, not just the PDF.
• Can I invoice from my point of sale or my online shop? Yes, with a system that issues DTEs through an accredited certifier. The documented routes for the SAT’s free application are the web form, the App FEL and the Excel bulk upload.