Plain-English how-to

How to download your received e-invoices from SPV.

Every supplier invoice for your Romanian company lands in ANAF’s SPV as a structured file (XML), not a PDF — and it stays downloadable for only about 60 days. This guide explains what SPV is, what you are actually pulling, and the two ways to get it out: by hand, or connect once and let it run.

SPV hands you XML, not a ready-to-read PDF
The download window is about 60 days — retention is 5 years
Do it by hand, or connect once and let it run

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Last updated 19 June 2026 · general information, not legal advice

Spațiul Privat Virtual (SPV)

SPV is ANAF’s secure mailbox — and the only place your e-invoices arrive.

SPV — Spațiul Privat Virtual — is ANAF’s online portal for taxpayers. RO e-Factura runs inside it, so every B2B invoice issued to your Romanian company travels through SPV; since January 2025 B2C invoices do too. It is where you both submit and receive — but it is not a webmail with PDFs attached. What waits for you is raw, signed XML, and only for a while.

Before you start

What you are actually downloading

Three facts that shape every decision below: the format, the deadline, and how long you must keep it.

It is XML, not a PDF

Each received invoice arrives as a structured UBL XML file inside a ZIP. The XML is the legal original, but it is not made to be read — open it and you see tags, not a tidy invoice. You convert it to ANAF’s official PDF to actually read, share or store it.

~60 days to download

ANAF keeps each invoice downloadable in SPV for roughly 60 days. After that neither the portal nor the API returns it — to anyone. The clock starts the moment your supplier transmits, not when you notice.

5 years to keep

Romanian law requires you to retain every invoice for 5 years. SPV is a transmission channel, not your archive, so closing the gap between a 60-day window and a 5-year duty is entirely on you.

The trap is the mismatch: SPV keeps an invoice for ~60 days, but you owe a 5-year archive. ANAF provides no automatic storage, so anything you do not download in time is simply gone. See how archiving works.

Option A — by hand

Downloading from SPV manually

It works for one invoice. The friction shows up across dozens a month, several companies, and a 60-day clock.

Sign in to SPV with your certificate

Open ANAF’s portal and authenticate with your qualified certificate — a USB token or a cloud certificate. Without a certificate enrolled in SPV for your CUI, the e-Factura messages are simply not reachable.

Find the received messages, download the ZIP

Open the e-Factura message list and read the “received” side — the supplier invoices addressed to you (the filtru P messages). Locate each one by its ANAF upload ID and download the ZIP, one message at a time.

Unzip, convert the XML, then file it

Each ZIP holds the UBL XML plus ANAF’s signature. To read or share it you convert the XML into the official ANAF PDF, then save both somewhere you will still have them in five years.

Need to convert a single XML you already pulled? Our free XML to PDF converter renders the official ANAF representation in your browser — no account, nothing uploaded anywhere you cannot see.

Option B — automatic

Connect once. The rest happens on its own.

No logging into SPV, no token to keep plugged in, no manual per-invoice downloads — and the 60-day window stops being your problem.

Connect ANAF once

Authorize with your certificate a single time over ANAF’s official OAuth flow. The token is used once; after that the connection renews itself on auto-rotating 90-day access / 365-day refresh keys, with nothing plugged in.

Every received invoice is pulled for you

eFacturaSPV checks SPV on a schedule and downloads each supplier invoice as it arrives — for one Romanian entity or for every CUI your certificate is enrolled for, before anything leaves the 60-day window.

Official PDF, archived to your Drive

We render ANAF’s official PDF through the transformation service — the same PDF an inspector sees — and file it in your own Google Drive in YYYY.MM folders.

Side by side

By hand vs. automatic

The same task, two very different amounts of attention. An honest comparison of where each one lands you.

	eFacturaSPV	By hand in SPV
Signing in	Once, then unattended	Every session, with the certificate
What you end up holding	Official ANAF PDF + original XML	Raw XML you convert yourself
Several companies on one certificate		One CUI at a time
Beats the ~60-day window automatically		—
5-year archive in your own Google Drive		Wherever you remember to save it
Reconcile with manually downloaded SPV files		—

Built for non-Romanian operators

The lightweight, self-serve option in a field of advisories

If you run or finance a Romanian entity from abroad, the same SPV obligations apply to you — yet the help on offer is mostly VAT advisories and enterprise EDI platforms. eFacturaSPV is the alternative you can set up yourself: connect ANAF once, pull and archive your received invoices, all in English, across every company on your certificate.

For foreign companies How automatic download works

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What is SPV?

SPV — Spațiul Privat Virtual — is ANAF’s secure online portal for taxpayers. RO e-Factura runs inside it, so every B2B invoice issued to your Romanian company (and, since January 2025, B2C invoices) is delivered into SPV. It is where you both submit and receive electronic invoices.

Are the invoices in SPV PDFs?

No. Each received invoice is a structured UBL XML file inside a ZIP, not a PDF. The XML is the legal original; to read or share it you convert it to ANAF’s official PDF. Our free XML to PDF converter does exactly that for a single file.

How far back can I download invoices from SPV?

About 60 days. ANAF keeps each invoice downloadable in SPV for roughly 60 days; after that neither the portal nor the API returns it to anyone. Because you must retain invoices for 5 years, you have to download and archive them before that window closes.

Do I still have to keep the invoices after downloading?

Yes. Romanian law requires you to retain each invoice for 5 years. SPV is a transmission channel, not an archive, so once the ~60-day window passes, the responsibility to still have the document is entirely yours.

Can I download from SPV without speaking Romanian?

You can, but the portal and the message list are in Romanian and what you get is raw XML. eFacturaSPV is in English: it pulls your received invoices, renders the official PDF and files them, so you never have to navigate SPV by hand.

Do I need the USB token every time I download?

By hand, yes — you authenticate to SPV with your certificate each session. With eFacturaSPV the certificate is used once, at authorization; afterwards the ANAF connection renews itself automatically, with no token plugged in.

Can one certificate cover several Romanian companies?

Yes. If your qualified certificate is enrolled in SPV for multiple CUIs — common for groups and the accountants who serve foreign-owned entities — a single authorization imports them all, and you switch between companies from one login.

Stop downloading from SPV by hand.

Connect ANAF once. We pull every received invoice, render the official PDF, and archive it to your own Google Drive — before the 60-day window closes.

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Free to start · no card · your data stays in your own Google Drive