Set up SFTP ingestion

An SFTP connection lets you send invoice workbooks as files instead of API requests. Either your team uploads files to a server Complyance hosts, or Complyance collects them from an SFTP server you run.

What each country accepts

• United Arab Emirates: invoice workbooks.
• Malaysia: invoice and receipt workbooks through the same connection. A file whose name contains receipt, in any case, is imported as receipts, for example receipt-july.xlsx or july-RECEIPT.xlsx. Every other file is imported as invoices. A Malaysian workspace that still sends through API v2 takes invoice files only: a file whose name contains receipt is refused.

Create the connection

Name the connection

Open Developer portal → SFTP and choose Add SFTP connection. In Name and metadata:

Field	What to enter
Connection name	A name that is unique in the workspace, such as Acme Trading — invoices
Country	United Arab Emirates - AE or Malaysia - MY
Environment	Sandbox to start, Production for live documents
Mapping template	Shown as LOCKED. The connection uses the default mapping.

Choose Next.

Choose who hosts the server

Option	When to use it
Complyance-hosted server (recommended)	Complyance gives you an endpoint. Your team or your system uploads files to it.
Your own server	You already run an SFTP server. Complyance connects to it on a schedule and collects new files.

You cannot change this later. To switch, create a new connection.

Set up authentication

For a Complyance-hosted server:

• Username & password: Complyance generates a username and a one-time password.
• SSH public key: paste your uploader’s public key in OpenSSH format. To register several keys, put one key per line. Your uploader keeps the matching private key.

For Your own server:

• Username & password, or Username & private key with its passphrase if it has one.
• Then, under Connection details, enter Host, Port (usually 22), Username and Remote path.

Use a dedicated SFTP account with access to the upload folders only.

Prepare the folders on your own server

Skip this step for a Complyance-hosted server.

The Remote path must contain four folders. Create them before you test the connection:

Folder	What it holds
inbound/	New workbooks. Upload here.
processing/	Workbooks that passed our checks and are waiting for the tax authority’s result
invalid/	Workbooks that failed our checks or were rejected, each with an error workbook beside it
validated/	Workbooks the tax authority accepted

For example, with Remote path /invoices, create /invoices/inbound, /invoices/processing, /invoices/invalid and /invoices/validated. The hint under Remote path lists only three of them, but Test connection fails if any of the four is missing.

Choose the lookup interval and notifications

In Customization:

• Lookup interval (your own server only): how often Complyance checks inbound/. Choose Every 1 minute, Every 5 minutes, Every 15 minutes, Every 30 minutes or Every 1 hour. Every 1 minute is the default.
• Email addresses: who receives the digest email. Separate several addresses with commas or new lines.
• Notify me when: three switches, all on by default: Files import successfully, Files fail to import and Duplicate files are skipped. Turn off the ones you do not want.

Review and create

Check the summary and choose Create connection, or Save as draft to finish it later. With Username & password on a Complyance-hosted server, the generated password appears once. Copy it into the uploading system before you close the dialog.

The connection starts in Draft.

Test and activate

On the connection’s page, choose Test connection. A passing test shows Connection validated: the credentials, the host and the remote path all work. Then choose Activate. The connection shows Active and starts picking up files.

After you change the connection’s details, it shows Re-test required before activation. Test it again, then activate it.

Send files

Connect with any SFTP client, such as FileZilla, WinSCP or Cyberduck, using the host, port and username on the connection’s page. Upload each workbook to inbound/.

• Send .xlsx workbooks. The connection imports .xlsx files; other types are rejected as an extension mismatch.
• Each file can be up to 50 MB.
• Re-uploading a file that was already imported can be skipped as a duplicate.

Follow each file in Fetch history on the connection’s page. On your own server, the file also moves between the folders:

1. Complyance picks it up from inbound/ and checks every row.
2. If any row fails, the workbook moves to invalid/ with an error workbook, <file name>.errors.xlsx, that lists the problems.
3. If every row passes, the workbook moves to processing/ and its documents are sent to the tax authority.
4. When the result arrives, the workbook moves to validated/ if it was accepted, or to invalid/ if it was rejected. In Malaysia, accepted means LHDN accepted it. In the United Arab Emirates, both the buyer’s Peppol access point and the Federal Tax Authority must accept it.

Open the resulting documents in the Invoice Portal to check each one. A file that reached processing/ has passed our checks; it is not yet accepted.

Rotate the password

If a password is lost or exposed, open the connection and choose Rotate password, then Generate new password. The old password stops working at once, and ingestion pauses. Save the new password, update your uploading system, then test and activate the connection again.

If something goes wrong

Validation failed when testing: check the host, port, credentials and that the remote path holds all four folders. For a missing folder the message names it: does not exist or is not accessible.

No file appears: check that the connection is Active, the environment is the one you expect and the file is in inbound/. On your own server, wait for the lookup interval.

A file fails or is skipped: open Fetch history, or the error workbook in invalid/ on your own server, before uploading it again. Keep the file and the error details if you ask support for help.

Next, set up purchase invoice webhooks if your application also needs to hear about purchases you receive.