Since 1 April, the obligation to use the National e-Invoicing System has been extended to entities in the SME sector. Meanwhile, the SaldeoSMART survey shows that the percentage of SMEs convinced of the need for the KSeF has fallen over the past five months from 61% to 52%. The biggest change can be seen among small businesses – in this group, the share of positive ratings for the central system has decreased by as much as 13 percentage points.
According to accounting industry experts, the increase in distrust of KSeF is no coincidence. – The first weeks of the system’s operation have shown that, even for the largest companies, the clash with the practice is more difficult than expected; both at the level of work organisation and the daily workflow. In many cases, the problem is not the obligation itself, but the lack of preparation of the processes around it. The National e-Invoice System only brings to light the mechanisms that previously worked ‘by the wayside’, says Agnieszka Ligocka, an expert at SaldeoSMART and FRAM Finanse.
Over the past two months, SME operators have been observing how the implementation of the KSeF has been handled by the largest businesses, which are already subject to the changes on 1 February 2026. Based on this experience, it is possible to identify areas that smaller businesses should pay particular attention to when adapting to the new obligation.
Error 1: Failure to organise entitlements
In the preparation phase for working with KSeF, many companies generate certificates, but do not give users the appropriate permissions to use them. As a result, situations arise where access is technically correctly configured and yet the system does not allow basic operations to be performed. It is important to remember that a certificate alone does not make things possible – it is only by assigning the right roles that invoices can be issued and downloaded.
An additional challenge is the choice of certificate type. For teamwork, a more secure solution is the TIN-based model, which allows access to be managed at company level. Certificates linked to the PESEL are individual and should not be shared.
Mistake No. 2: Failure to make arrangements with the accounting office
During the preparations, many companies did not clarify with their accounting office how cooperation on KSeF was to look like in practice. As a result, some businesses assumed that all activities related to the system were the responsibility of the accountants. The lack of such arrangements translates into situations where it is unclear who is responsible for downloading invoices, assigning rights or the day-to-day running of the platform. In practice, this means delays and errors, disorganised work and a lack of control over the accounting process. In extreme cases, it even leads to parting ways with the existing accounting office when it turns out that it is not prepared to work in the new reality.
– Changing accounting partner during the year is always a challenge, but in the current reality it can mean a major disruption to business continuity. KSeF has coincided with additional reporting obligations and rigid deadlines that cannot be moved. Accountancy firms work to a specific sequence of client and document handling, and making changes during this time often causes disorganisation and time pressure. Under such conditions, the risk of errors increases significantly, explains the SaldeoSMART expert.
Error 3: underestimation of the scale of change
Many companies approach KSeF as a technological change, while in practice it means having to rebuild the way they work with documents. The new system affects not only the issuing of invoices, but also their circulation, acceptance and access to data within the organisation. One in four companies in the SaldeoSMART survey cited a change in internal processes as one of the main barriers to implementing KSeF, with 26% highlighting problems in adapting systems and software to the new requirements.
At the same time, with the Ministry of Finance providing free tools for the National e-Invoice System, many businesses assumed that these would be sufficient to work with the central system. This attitude is still strong, with 36% of entities surveyed by SaldeoSMART planning to use them. In practice, however, these assumptions are increasingly clashing with reality. Accountants point out that while basic solutions can work well for very simple activities, limitations quickly appear with more documents – especially when the solution is not tailored to the scale of the business and the company’s processes.
At the same time, companies that use solutions that are well integrated with KSeF and have structured processes are going through the implementation much more smoothly. – The tools offered by the Ministry of Finance make sense for really small companies that issue a few invoices a month and do not have complex processes. Once a company has a larger number of documents, several employees involved in handling them or a more complex invoice workflow, the limitations start to set in,’ notes Agnieszka Ligocka.
Basic tools can therefore work well for simple operations, while the need for more advanced and integrated solutions grows as the company scales up. Businesses should make sure that their technology base, including the IT systems and solutions used, are integrated with KSeF and aligned with the requirements of working with the government platform.
For companies in the SME sector, this is the last moment to get these areas in order before they fully enter into their new responsibilities. As the practice of the largest companies shows, proper preparation not only reduces the risk of mistakes, but above all avoids organisational chaos, which proved to be one of the biggest challenges in the first weeks of KSeF’s operation. In practice, this means that the success of KSeF implementation also depends on how intuitive and structured users find working with the government system.
About the study:
The survey was conducted in March 2026 by research agency Choreograph on behalf of SaldeoSMART. It was attended by representatives of small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as accounting offices in Poland. The aim of the survey was to find out the degree to which companies are prepared for the mandatory implementation of the National e-Invoice System, to identify the most important technological and organisational barriers, and to examine the attitude of companies towards changes resulting from the digitisation of document circulation.
Source: SaldeoSMART
