Mandatory e-invoicing in Spain: what changes for a laundromat that invoices hotels and businesses

What mandatory e-invoicing is

It's the obligation to issue and receive invoices between businesses and professionals in a structured electronic format, and to report whether they are accepted, rejected and when they are paid. It comes from Spain's Law 18/2022 on business creation and growth (the “Crea y Crece” law), and its main goal is to reduce late payments.

The technical rules arrived with Royal Decree 238/2026 of 25 March, published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) on 31 March 2026. It defines what invoices must look like, how they are exchanged and which status information must be reported.

Who does it affect in a laundromat?

The obligation only applies when the invoice recipient is a business or professional established in Spain. In a self-service laundromat that means:

• Yes: monthly invoices to hotels, guesthouses, holiday rental managers, gyms, hair salons or sports clubs.
• Yes: invoices you receive from suppliers: detergent, maintenance, energy, store rent.
• No: receipts for your private customers, paid at the kiosk with coins, card or mobile.

If your business relies only on private customers, the change barely affects you as an issuer. But you will keep receiving supplier invoices, and those will arrive in electronic format.

A PDF is not an e-invoice

This is the most common misunderstanding. A PDF sent by email is a digitised paper invoice: someone has to read it and type in the data. An e-invoice is a structured file that the customer's software reads and books automatically.

There are two ways to exchange it, and they can be combined:

• Private exchange platforms, which must be connected to each other so nobody is forced to use their customer's platform.
• The free public solution from the Spanish Tax Agency, which will also keep a copy of the invoices.

The calendar: when it becomes mandatory

The royal decree took effect 20 days after publication, but its actual application depends on another rule: the ministerial order regulating the public e-invoicing solution. Once that order takes effect, the deadlines are:

A typical self-service laundromat falls in the second row. The draft also gives self-employed owners and pass-through entities more time to report the payment status of invoices. We track the order's publication in our news section.

How it differs from VeriFactu

They are often confused because both are about invoices and the Tax Agency. But they answer different questions:

In practice, the monthly invoice to your hotel will have to meet both: be recorded under VeriFactu and be sent electronically. We explain it in detail in the VeriFactu guide for laundromats.

How to prepare calmly

1. 1List your business customers. With their tax ID, registered address and the person who receives invoices.
2. 2Ask your software provider. Whether it will generate structured e-invoices, connect to the public solution or private platforms, and comply with VeriFactu.
3. 3Group B2B washes. One monthly invoice per customer, detailing their washes, is easier to control than dozens of receipts.
4. 4Prepare to receive. Decide where you will receive supplier invoices and who will review them.
5. 5Track payments. The rules require reporting when each invoice is paid: use it to see which customer pays late.

How PAYMMIO solves it

With PAYMMIO's B2B membership cards, every wash by a business customer is recorded with its machine, time and agreed price. At the end of the month everything is grouped so you can issue a single invoice per customer from a VeriFactu-ready system. See how B2B cards work in our article on dynamic pricing.