The essentials
- A PAC validates your documents, or the DGI's free tool if your volume is small.
- The CUFE identifies every document in an unrepeatable way.
- The fiscal document is the electronic file; the printout is its representation.
- Promec doesn't yet issue electronic invoices in Panama.
For a Panamanian shop the real change isn't fiscal, it's workflow. With a fiscal device, invoicing was a physical act at the counter. With electronic invoicing, invoicing is the end of a process that starts when the car enters the shop — and if that process is on paper, the electronic system turns into double entry.
What Promec does today in Panama. The system runs the whole shop — AI quotes, scheduling, the mechanic's app, inventory, the customer portal and accounting — and it invoices with your own series, your own taxes and your own currency. What it
doesn't do yet is issue electronic invoice documents (documentos de factura electrónica) with the DGI. That integration is in development and we don't have a date for it; until then, issuing stays with your current invoicing provider. We're telling you this before you sign up, not after:
here is where direct integration already exists.
PAC or the free tool
The DGI offers a free invoicing tool and enables private companies as PAC providers. Which one suits you is a question of volume and integration:
The real cost of the free tool isn't zero: it's the time spent typing every work order in twice, and the entry errors that come with it.
Where the work actually gets decided
Issuing is the last step and the most visible one, but the real work happens before: the order having complete customer details, the quote separating labor from parts, and the final amount coming from a closed work order instead of a sum done by hand.
A shop with that solved can issue through whichever channel it wants. One without it will type every job in twice, no matter which invoicing tool it uses.
Sources
Official portal and technical documentation of the DGI. Informational content: it does not replace your accountant. Deadlines, thresholds and format versions change by regulation, often — always confirm the version in force.
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FAQ
What's a PAC, and do I need one?
A PAC (Proveedor de Autorización Calificado, Qualified Authorization Provider) is a company enabled by the DGI to validate receipts. There's also a free tool from the DGI itself, meant for small volumes. A shop with several orders a day usually ends up with a PAC, because the free tool forces you to enter everything separately.
What's the CUFE?
The Código Único de Factura Electrónica (Unique Electronic Invoice Code): the identifier that makes every document unrepeatable and lets it be looked up. It's the functional equivalent of the access key used in other countries in the region.
I had a fiscal device. Doesn't it work anymore?
The Panamanian model has moved toward electronic invoicing. The details of the timeline and the exceptions are set by the DGI and have kept changing, so confirm your specific situation with your accountant before deciding anything.
Is the PDF the document?
No. The document is the validated electronic file; what you hand the customer is its representation. Keep the original files.
Is there shop software 'authorized by the DGI'?
The DGI enables PAC providers, not shop management programs. The useful question is which PAC your provider works with.