August 2012. According to a query on China Finance Network, Suning Cloud Business started an electronic invoice pilot project in August 2012, and issued the first electronic invoice for reimbursement on September 18 of the same year. Electronic invoices are a product of the information age. Like ordinary invoices, they are issued uniformly by the tax bureau to merchants. The invoice numbers are uniformly coded across the country and distributed to merchants using unified anti-counterfeiting technology. The electronic invoices are accompanied by the signature of the electronic tax bureau. Signature mechanism.