All for One KSeF in the Automotive Industry

How did Volkswagen Poznań view the introduction of the KSeF regulations—as a legal obligation or as part of a broader change?

Sylwia Bereś: A project of this scale requires a strategic approach, especially when the regulatory environment is volatile and not entirely predictable. We viewed the mandatory KSeF as part of a broader transformation, and it was clear to us that integration with the National System of e-Invoices would be a project combining business and technology.

As part of an international corporation, we operate in accordance with global standards, so we had to translate them into specific legal requirements. When it came to adapting SAP to Polish law, we already had experience from implementing support for the Standard Audit File for Tax (JPK) in SAP based on the All for One JPK solution. However, the mandatory KSeF required changes to our processes—which demanded collaboration among multiple departments within the organization (IT, SAP, Tax, and Accounting) and a much broader perspective on data and its flow.

When did you begin the conceptual work on integrating SAP with KSeF, and what did the first steps look like?

Krzysztof Pamuła: We began the planning phase shortly after the Ministry of Finance announced the new requirements. We wanted to develop the concept and understand the scale of the changes as early as possible. We launched the implementation project as early as March 2022, and it continued until the go-live on February 1, 2026.

Our initial mappings were still based on the FA(1) scheme, which, from today’s perspective, shows just how early we began our preparations. In subsequent stages, we developed the solution collaboratively, adapting it on an ongoing basis to changing legal requirements, subsequent schemes and their technical implications, as well as the postponed deadlines for the mandatory implementation of KSeF.

From the very beginning, we assumed that only starting the project early enough would give us the time we needed for thorough preparation. This approach proved successful, allowing for a smooth and orderly transition to the production phase.

What were the biggest challenges from the perspective of operational continuity?

SB: The biggest challenge was finding a balance between several parallel perspectives. On the one hand, we had strict regulatory requirements and the need to ensure full compliance with KSeF; on the other hand, we had to ensure smooth implementation while maintaining operational continuity in an organization highly sensitive to downtime.

The project was carried out with limited expert knowledge available. KSeF was still taking shape, so it required an iterative approach and ongoing adjustment of assumptions. It was like building a car while driving it.

KP: Thanks to the project’s early start, we were able to keep pace with the changes announced by the Ministry of Finance and translate them into assumptions for redesigning our financial processes and adapting our IT landscape. Every decision was made with the realities of our business in mind—namely, production and logistics—where even short-term disruptions are simply unacceptable.

The topic of redesigning and remapping financial processes in SAP in accordance with KSeF has come up several times already. What did these changes entail?

SB: As an automaker, we operate in a highly complex business environment—we work with a broad network of suppliers, distributors, and business partners. This directly contributes to the complexity of our sales processes. Within a single company, there are as many as 10 different types of sales, each with its own specific characteristics and requiring a distinct approach to invoicing.

Self-billing, a key process widely used within the Volkswagen Group, proved to be an even greater challenge. In our case, it covers six different scenarios. It was precisely self-billing—with its numerous data variants and complex document workflow—that required the greatest project discipline, precise interfaces, and extensive testing.

Such a complex structure of financial processes naturally requires an appropriate system architecture. How did you approach this?

KP: This meant we had to redesign and map our processes in the system in great detail so that, on the one hand, they would meet KSeF requirements and, on the other, accurately reflect our actual business models.

KP: In the case of self-billing, the key was to integrate data from different areas of the system—both financial and inventory-related—and to design the processing logic appropriately so that invoices could be issued correctly. Additionally, once a KSeF number had been assigned, it was necessary to link the documents to the data of specific suppliers.

As a result, the project covered not only data mapping, but also a redesign of the process logic—including communication and sending mechanisms based, among other things, on dedicated tables. This illustrates the scale of the changes: we moved from individual fields to a comprehensive reorganization of the data flow within the system.

Apart from self-billing, what else would you point to as specific to the automotive industry?

SB: We placed particular emphasis on the ability to process and link a wide range of additional information to an invoice. One such area was preparing to support the custom “New Means of Transport” field in KSeF, where, for each vehicle, we record, among other things, the VIN, date of entry into service, and operating parameters.

In car manufacturing, this kind of information naturally exists within the organization; the challenge was to map it properly in the system and link it to the invoicing process.

KP: Standardization is a key issue in the automotive industry, which is why it was important to ensure that the new KSeF invoicing process complied with VDA (Verband der Automobilindustrie—the German Association of the Automotive Industry) requirements. The preparation required a detailed analysis of data records in VDA files and fields in the structured invoice schema, testing with suppliers and customers within the Group, and the involvement of additional IT teams from the Group. Ultimately, thanks to the appropriate configuration of All for One KSeF, we can precisely link an invoice to a vast amount of additional vehicle data, such as equipment or component data, without the risk of duplicate invoicing.

What were your key priorities during the adaptation process?

SB: It was crucial for us to maintain flexibility and the ability to respond quickly to the Ministry of Finance’s changing guidelines, while retaining control over the direction of the project. We placed great emphasis on close collaboration across many areas of the organization. It was also important to foster a high level of awareness within the company so that the organization would not only participate in the change, but remain its true driving force.

This approach is consistent with our way of working—based on responsibility, collaboration, and continuous improvement. We supported the process through active consultations with both consultants and our implementation partner, which allowed us to regularly review the direction of our efforts and make decisions based on up-to-date knowledge and practical experience.

How was change managed within the organization during such a complex and long-term project?

KP: The change management process centered on an iterative approach and an intensive, multi-stage testing process. Each of the designed processes underwent detailed verification—both for compliance with KSeF requirements and for alignment with the company’s needs—before being implemented as the target standard.

Each round of testing produced further insights that helped verify the initial assumptions. As a result, the solution matured gradually rather than all at once, which significantly reduced the risk during the production launch of All for One KSeF.

An additional challenge was managing the project schedule in parallel with numerous other business and IT initiatives. This required constantly adjusting plans and priorities to ensure consistency in our efforts and avoid disrupting day-to-day operations.

The go-live itself also included a testing phase: during the initial period, we sent invoices through KSeF manually so that we could monitor the process and intervene immediately if necessary. Once we were confident that the process was stable, we launched tasks running automatically in the background.