FACe — Spain’s general entry point for electronic invoices

FACe is Spain’s single B2G portal: a supplier invoicing a public administration must deposit a Facturae signed XAdES through it. Operational since 15 January 2015 and mandatory for any invoice above EUR 5,000, FACe interconnects more than 8,000 public entities and serves as the prototype for the upcoming Crea y Crece B2B hub.

Quick facts

Operator: Ministerio de Hacienda y Funcion Publica, General Secretariat for Digital Administration
URL: face.gob.es (portal) + webservice.face.gob.es (SOAP) + api.face.gob.es (REST)
Legal basis: Ley 25/2013 of 27 December 2013 on electronic invoices in the public sector, amended by Ley 9/2017 on public sector contracts
Obligation: any invoice > EUR 5,000 to a Spanish public administration — administrations may lower this threshold to EUR 0
Accepted format: Facturae 3.2.2 signed XAdES-Bes-Long (XSD validation + native FACe Schematron)
Administrative identification: DIR3 codes (Directorio Comun) — 3 codes mandatory on every invoice: Oficina Contable, Organo Gestor, Unidad Tramitadora
Authentication: qualified eIDAS certificate (FNMT-RCM, Camerfirma, ANCERT) or Cl@ve PIN (citizen identification)
Volume: 8,000+ connected public entities, ~40 million B2G invoices/year (2024 activity report)

Legal framework: Ley 25/2013

Ley 25/2013 of 27 December 2013 "on promoting electronic invoicing and creating the accounting invoice register in the Public Sector" establishes three joint obligations:

Every invoice > EUR 5,000 to a public administration must be transmitted electronically (article 4). Each administration may lower the threshold by decree.
Single format: Facturae 3.2 (later 3.2.2), electronically signed (article 5). Any other form (non-Facturae PDF, paper, image) is rejected.
Single entry point per administration: each administration designates its Punto General de Entrada de Facturas Electronicas (article 6). The State provides FACe free of charge as the default entry point.

Ley 9/2017 (Public Sector Contracts Act, transposing EU directives 2014/24, 2014/25 and 2014/55) extends these principles to ordinary contracts and adds:

Mandatory acceptance of EN 16931-compliant invoices (alongside Facturae 3.2.2) for foreign suppliers.
Entry in the Registro Contable de Facturas within 30 days of reception, with enforceable timestamp.

Scope: 8,000+ public entities

FACe interconnects three administrative tiers:

General State Administration (AGE) — every ministry, autonomous body (FOGASA, SEPE), public entity (Renfe, ADIF, Loterias y Apuestas del Estado) is natively connected to FACe.
Autonomous Communities — the 17 Comunidades Autonomas and 2 autonomous cities (Ceuta, Melilla). Some operate their own entry point connected to FACe by reverse proxy (notably Catalunya with eFACT, Pais Vasco with Ef@kktur).
Local administration — 8,131 municipalities (ayuntamientos), 50 Provincial Diputaciones, ~11,000 mancomunidades. Most use FACe directly as either primary or mirror entry point.

The DIR3 register (Directorio Comun de Unidades Organicas y Oficinas) is the official directory of the 8,000+ entities and their administrative codes. It is maintained by the Ministry of Finance and searchable on face.gob.es/es/directorio.

DIR3 codes and administrative routing

Each Spanish public administration is split into three administrative roles, each identified by a distinct DIR3 code:

text face-dir3-codes.txt

# Anatomy of a DIR3 code (Directorio Comun)
# 9 characters: 1 letter + 8 digits
# Format: <type><provincia><municipio><serie>

L01280796   # Madrid City Hall (Local entity 01, provincia 28 Madrid, ...)
L01080193   # Barcelona City Hall (Local entity 01, provincia 08 Barcelona, ...)
A01002005   # Ministry of Finance - General Sub-directorate of Revenue
A02009003   # Ministry of Health - General Directorate of Public Health
E04000001   # Generalitat de Catalunya - Department of Economy and Finance
A99001234   # Autonomous University of Madrid

# Three mandatory codes on a classic B2G FACe invoice:
# - Oficina Contable (Accounting office, receives the invoice)        <Role 01>
# - Organo Gestor (Management office, confirms service rendered)      <Role 02>
# - Unidad Tramitadora (Processing unit, pays)                        <Role 03>

Oficina Contable (Role 01) — office that legally receives the invoice and registers it in the Registro Contable. Often a single one per administration.
Organo Gestor (Role 02) — operational office managing the contract. Confirms service rendered or goods delivered.
Unidad Tramitadora (Role 03) — office that actually pays the invoice. May be the same entity as Oficina Contable in small administrations.

Large administrations may add a fourth optional role:

Organo Proponente (Role 04) — office that initiated the purchase (useful for internal budgetary tracking, never blocking when absent).

FACe SOAP + REST APIs

FACe exposes three submission interfaces:

SOAP (historical, stable) — service SOAPfacturasIngresoServicio on webservice.face.gob.es. Public WSDL. Used by large enterprises and ERP vendors. mTLS authentication with qualified certificate.
REST (2024-2026 pilot program) — api.face.gob.es with OAuth 2.0 + Bearer JWT. Endpoints /api/v1/invoices (POST submission, GET lookup, GET statuses). Target: startups, SMBs, cloud integrators.
Web portal (interactive) — face.gob.es form for single submission. The supplier uploads its signed Facturae through a browser certificate. Target: micros / freelancers without software.

xml face-soap-submit.xml

# SOAP submission via the Facev3 service (FACe v3.x stable)
POST /webservices/SOAPfacturasIngresoServicio HTTP/1.1
Host: webservice.face.gob.es

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"
                  xmlns:face="https://webservice.face.gob.es/v3/SOAPInterface">
  <soapenv:Body>
    <face:enviarFactura>
      <face:correo>contacto@atelier-iberica.es</face:correo>
      <face:factura>
        <face:nombre>factura-F-2026-0042.xsig</face:nombre>
        <face:mime>application/xml</face:mime>
        <face:factura>[base64 of the signed Facturae]</face:factura>
      </face:factura>
      <face:anexos>
        <face:anexo>
          <face:nombre>contrato-2026.pdf</face:nombre>
          <face:mime>application/pdf</face:mime>
          <face:anexo>[base64 PDF]</face:anexo>
        </face:anexo>
      </face:anexos>
    </face:enviarFactura>
  </soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope>

# Response:
<face:enviarFacturaResponse>
  <face:resultado>
    <face:codigo>0</face:codigo>
    <face:mensaje>Factura aceptada</face:mensaje>
  </face:resultado>
  <face:numeroRegistro>202604150000423456</face:numeroRegistro>
  <face:fechaHoraRegistro>2026-04-15T09:32:14+02:00</face:fechaHoraRegistro>
  <face:numeroRegistroOrganismo>HAC/2026/12345</face:numeroRegistroOrganismo>
  <face:organoGestor>L01280796</face:organoGestor>
  <face:unidadTramitadora>L01280796</face:unidadTramitadora>
  <face:oficinaContable>L01280796</face:oficinaContable>
  <face:identificadorEmisor>B12345678</face:identificadorEmisor>
</face:enviarFacturaResponse>

The REST API returns a simplified but complete JSON view:

text face-rest-status.json

# FACe REST API (2024-2026 pilot program, in addition to SOAP)
GET /api/v1/invoices/{registration-number} HTTP/1.1
Host: api.face.gob.es
Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIs...

# Response:
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "numeroRegistro": "202604150000423456",
  "fechaRegistro": "2026-04-15T09:32:14+02:00",
  "estado": {
    "codigo": "1300",
    "descripcion": "Pagada"
  },
  "emisor": {
    "nif": "B12345678",
    "razonSocial": "Atelier Iberica SL"
  },
  "destinatario": {
    "oficinaContable": "L01280796",
    "organoGestor": "L01280796",
    "unidadTramitadora": "L01280796"
  },
  "factura": {
    "numero": "F-2026-0042",
    "fechaEmision": "2026-04-15",
    "importeTotal": 1210.00,
    "moneda": "EUR"
  },
  "historico": [
    { "fecha": "2026-04-15T09:32:14+02:00", "codigo": "1200", "descripcion": "Registrada en RCF" },
    { "fecha": "2026-04-16T11:15:00+02:00", "codigo": "1700", "descripcion": "Reconocida la obligacion" },
    { "fecha": "2026-05-20T14:20:00+02:00", "codigo": "1300", "descripcion": "Pagada" }
  ]
}

Invoice statuses

FACe maintains a state machine published on face.gob.es. The main statuses (full table on the portal):

Code	Status	Meaning
1200	Registrada	Received and entered in the Registro Contable
1300	Pagada	Effectively paid
2400	Anulada	Cancelled at issuer’s request
2500	Rechazada	Rejected by the administration (reason mandatory)
1700	Reconocida	Service rendered recognised, accounting obligation created
1900	Contabilizada	Committed in accounts, awaiting payment
4100	En proceso de pago	Payment order issued, awaiting Treasury execution

FACeB2B and switch to Crea y Crece

In July 2018 the Ministerio de Hacienda launched FACeB2B, extending the B2G hub to voluntary B2B exchanges. The service accepts the same Facturae 3.2.2 but with a simulated DIR3 code on the buyer side (the supplier encodes a special "B" + buyer NIF).

In 2026, FACeB2B remains optional and lightly adopted (~3,000 active companies) due to the lack of a mandate. It should however serve as the technical foundation of the future Crea y Crece interoperable hub — the draft Reglamento explicitly contemplates reusing the FACeB2B infrastructure and extending it to private platforms.

Foundations

Standards

Flagship messages

Tools