What Is an E-Waybill (E-İrsaliye)?
An e-waybill is the electronic equivalent of the paper dispatch note, issued in the format required by the Turkish Revenue Administration (GİB). It documents the physical movement of goods, which means it must be issued and submitted to GİB before the shipment leaves. An e-invoice records the financial side of a transaction; the e-waybill records the movement of the goods. They do not replace each other — they work together.
One important difference from paper: the e-waybill does not have to travel physically with the vehicle. During an inspection it is enough that the document was submitted to GİB and can be queried. Any printout handed to the driver is for information only.
Who Is Required to Use It?
The scope is defined by General Communiqué No. 509 on the Tax Procedure Law and the communiqués that amend it. In practice it falls into three groups:
- E-invoice taxpayers above the revenue threshold: Businesses exceeding the defined gross sales revenue threshold must switch from the beginning of the following year. The threshold has been lowered in stages over the years, so the current figure should be verified against GİB's latest communiqué.
- Sector-based obligation: Holders of fuel and mineral oil licences, sugar producers, iron and steel companies, tobacco businesses, brokers and traders in the fruit and vegetable trade, and companies operating under fertiliser or mining licences are in scope regardless of revenue.
- Voluntary adoption: Businesses outside the mandatory scope may apply on their own initiative.
Being an e-invoice taxpayer is a prerequisite for using e-waybills. If your e-invoice obligation is not yet clear, our e-invoice and e-archive invoice pages are a good starting point.
How the E-Waybill Process Works
- The order is confirmed and the goods and quantities to be shipped are determined.
- The e-waybill is issued before dispatch, including carrier and vehicle details.
- The document is submitted to GİB and reaches the buyer through the system.
- The buyer receives the goods and sends an application response: accepted, partially accepted, or rejected.
- In a partial acceptance, the buyer issues a counter-waybill for the missing or returned quantity.
- The shipment is matched to the invoicing flow and the stock movement is closed.
The application response step removes the most time-consuming part of the paper process: goods-receipt discrepancies are settled as a recorded document rather than an email exchange.
Business Benefits
- Shipment and stock updated at the same moment: The lag between warehouse dispatch and the accounting record disappears.
- Traceable goods-receipt discrepancies: Short, over and returned items are reported per document.
- Lower archiving and printing cost: No duplicate copies, courier costs or physical files.
- Easier audits: A document can be queried instantly by number, plate or dispatch date.
What to Watch During the Transition
The most common mistake is installing e-waybills as a standalone accounting module. If the document is not fed from your sales and warehouse software, data is entered twice and error rates rise. When setting up the integration, check that:
- Product codes, units and customs tariff (GTIP) data match your ERP exactly.
- Warehouse dispatch is scanned with a handheld terminal and flows into the document automatically.
- Application responses are written back into the system so account and stock reconciliation closes automatically.
- There is a retry queue in case submission to GİB fails during an outage.
Pine Connector links your ERP and sales software to the integrator platform so that e-invoice, e-archive and e-waybill documents are produced in a single flow. On the store and warehouse side, Pine Pos retail sales software keeps stock movements fed from the same data source.
Conclusion
The e-waybill is not just a compliance obligation — it is an opportunity to keep shipment and stock records accurate at the same time. Check whether you fall within the scope, and plan the transition as an integration with your warehouse and sales software. To review the right setup for your business, get in touch with us.