DIAN e-invoicing for WhatsApp sales in Colombia: what to ask the customer and how Siigo or Alegra fit

The question almost always arrives the same way: “if I close the sale on WhatsApp, do I still have to invoice?”. The short answer is that the channel changes nothing. What decides whether you issue an electronic invoice is your status before the DIAN, Colombia’s tax authority, not where the customer wrote to you. What the chat does change is how you collect the buyer’s data, and in 2025 the DIAN set precise rules for that.

Is a WhatsApp sale invoiced like a counter sale?

Yes. Resolution 000165 of 2023 develops the invoicing system and says the sales invoice includes the electronic invoice with prior validation. Prior validation means the DIAN validates the document, which carries its unique code (CUFE), before it is delivered to the customer. None of that depends on the sales channel.

Which data can I ask for in the chat?

Since Resolution 000202 of 2025, which rewrote article 69 of Resolution 000165, the rule is closed:

Situation	What you request	How the invoice is issued
The customer asks for the invoice in their name	Name or company name, ID type and number, email	In their name, sent to their email
The customer does not ask for it in their name	Nothing: there is no basis to request data	“Consumidor final”, number 222222222222
You deliver to the customer and the invoice goes to a national ID or final consumer	The delivery address	The address is recorded on the invoice (article 11)
Sale not above 5 UVT, excluding taxes	Same as above	May go on a POS equivalent document, unless the customer demands an invoice

The same resolution says a business may use technology to collect that data, but must also offer an in-person, direct channel for the customer to provide it verbally or in writing. It also announces a DIAN lookup service so that, once available, the ID number alone will be enough.

What does an agent do and what does your invoicing software do?

Step	The agent on WhatsApp	Your software and your team
Ask whether they want the invoice in their name	Yes
Request only the three permitted items, plus the delivery address for home delivery	Yes
Find or create the customer by ID	Yes, in Siigo
Send the quote	Yes, in Siigo and Alegra
Create the invoice and send it for DIAN validation	No	Yes, with approval
Deliver the validated invoice to the customer’s email	No	Yes, the invoicing software

The reason for the line is simple: an invoice issued with an error is not deleted, it is corrected with a credit note. Preparing is fast and cheap to review; issuing carries tax consequences. The guide to invoicing and collecting from chat explains that line in more detail.

How Meteor does it

• On WhatsApp, everything around the invoice. With Siigo, the Met finds and creates third parties by tax ID or national ID, checks prices and availability, sends the quote with its link and reviews receivables. With Alegra, it identifies the customer by phone or tax ID, quotes and lists invoices with their balance.
• Issuing, on the platform and with approval. The Siigo and Alegra connectors reject the invoicing tools when the request comes from a channel, and it is not an option that can be turned on. In Siigo, the electronic invoice with approval is created only after an explicit approval, and sending it to the DIAN is a separate decision. In Alegra, the Met creates the draft and issuing happens in Alegra.
• You tell the Met what to ask for. The Met’s prompt is content in your workspace: that is where you instruct it to ask whether the customer wants the invoice in their name and to request only the items in article 69, plus the delivery address when there is home delivery.

The electronic invoicing solution brings the whole flow together, and the Colombia page shows the country’s other connections.

What this is not

This is not tax advice. The resolutions are cited by number from the DIAN’s normograma, accessed on October 28, 2026. The DIAN amends and compiles them often: the normograma already marks 000165 as compiled into Resolution 000227 of 2025, with different numbering. Before changing your process, confirm it with your accountant and the current version.