Cost invoices in KSeF: how to download them, and what your accountant still needs from you

Since 1 February 2026, your Polish suppliers’ invoices reach you through KSeF, the Ministry of Finance’s e-invoicing system. They are there whether or not you look, and KSeF will not tell you that a new one has arrived. You get them out in one of three ways: download them yourself, let software download them, or give your accountant access. Foreign invoices, receipts and tickets are not in KSeF at all, so you still collect those yourself.

Are your cost invoices really in KSeF?

Most of the Polish ones, yes. Receiving invoices through KSeF has been compulsory for every business since 1 February 2026, including VAT-exempt ones and those still allowed to issue their own invoices outside KSeF. If you need a reminder of how the system works, start with what KSeF is.

Three rules decide what you find there:

• An invoice is received when KSeF gives it a number. You don’t accept it, and the date you download it doesn’t matter.
• KSeF sends no notifications. No email, no message. Someone has to look.
• It only reaches you if it carries your NIP. Since 1 February 2026 a business buyer must give the seller its NIP when the invoice is issued to it (art. 106ba of the VAT Act). Without it, the invoice lands nowhere you can see.

Until 31 December 2026 there are also Polish invoices that legally stay outside KSeF: from sellers whose KSeF invoices total 10,000 PLN gross or less in a month, and invoices printed from a shop’s cash register. Those still come as a PDF or on paper.

Watch out: an empty month in KSeF does not mean an empty month. It only means no Polish supplier issued an invoice to your NIP through KSeF.

Three ways to get your invoices out of KSeF

You can combine them. Many people give their accountant access and keep their own copy, so they can check a month without asking.

Downloading them yourself

The Ministry’s Aplikacja Podatnika KSeF 2.0 is free and runs in the browser at ap.ksef.mf.gov.pl. You log in through login.gov.pl (the mObywatel app, online banking, an e-ID card or Profil Zaufany) or with a qualified signature; a sole trader has owner rights automatically. Inside, you can search the invoices issued to you and download each one as XML (the invoice itself) or as a PDF (a readable copy with a QR code). There is also a KSeF mobile app, and e-mikrofirma in e-Urząd Skarbowy, which moves received invoices straight into your VAT records.

Letting software download them

In the Aplikacja Podatnika you can generate a token: a key that lets a program act for you within the permissions you tick (for example “Przeglądanie faktur”, viewing invoices). The program then checks KSeF on its own and brings new invoices in. Keep in mind that the current regulation still limits token logins to 31 December 2026, although the Ministry has said it plans to keep tokens beyond that date; your software should tell you what to do when that changes.

Giving your accountant access

Log in, open permission management, choose your accountant or their firm (by NIP) and the scope, usually viewing invoices. A firm can pass the permission on to its staff. Don’t hand over your own KSeF certificate: it identifies you personally, and the Ministry says plainly that it can’t be shared.

XML or PDF: which one is the invoice?

The XML file is the invoice. KSeF stores it for 10 years under its KSeF number. The PDF is only a visualisation of that file, useful for reading, for forwarding and for anyone without KSeF access.

For your own records, keep what your accountant or software needs, and make sure every downloaded file is named so you can find it later: date, supplier and number are enough. A folder per month keeps it simple.

What you won’t find in KSeF

KSeF is for invoices issued under Polish rules. These stay outside it in 2026:

• invoices from foreign suppliers (Google, Meta, Adobe, AWS, Apple, Stripe and the like);
• receipts with your NIP up to 450 PLN gross, and cash-register invoices;
• single-journey tickets that count as invoices;
• PDFs from small Polish sellers still using the 10,000 PLN monthly relief;
• pro forma documents, which are not invoices at all.

All of these are still business costs your accountant needs. The details, including where to download each foreign supplier’s invoices, are in KSeF won’t collect your foreign invoices.

How to make sure your accountant has every cost

Access to KSeF solves half of the month. The other half is the documents KSeF never sees, and the only reliable way to catch them is your bank statement: every business payment should have a document behind it. A card payment to Adobe with no Adobe invoice is the gap you are looking for. Matching bank payments to invoices shows how to do that check in a few minutes.

Komplet, our free Mac app, does this pairing for you: it reads your statement, pairs each payment with its invoice and shows in amber what is still missing. With Connect it also brings your suppliers’ invoices in from KSeF and files each one into its month, next to the ones you dropped in yourself; see KSeF in Komplet.

What to do now

1. Decide how your cost invoices leave KSeF: you, your software, or your accountant’s permission. Set it up once.
2. Give your NIP to every Polish supplier and at every till when you buy for the business.
3. Pick one day a month to download foreign invoices and collect receipts and tickets.
4. Compare the month’s bank statement with your documents: every payment needs one.
5. Send your accountant what KSeF doesn’t have, by the day your contract says. The full list is in what to send your accountant every month.