3 Key Reasons to Reassess Your E-Invoicing Strategy

Tax authorities all over the world are either implementing or announcing new electronic invoicing mandates. And with the EU publishing the VAT in the Digital Age documentation it’s clear that there will be a wave of mandates in the near future. My expectations are that the implementation of e-invoicing mandates will reach its peak between 2025 and 2028, where it could be that your organization will need to comply with the implementation of electronic invoicing in more than 10 countries per year. 

 

It’s essential for your organization to create a risk matrix and set up an internal governance framework to avoid potential penalties and in some countries even closure of your organization because of non compliance. 

 

One thing I come across during e-invoicing projects is that organizations tend to focus too much on the tax compliance of the invoice and forget about the other functionality it has, filing expenses and recording purchases. 

 

As an electronic invoice always consists of structured data, the amount of possibilities to automate your Order 2 Cash(O2C) and Purchase 2 Pay(P2P) processes is almost unlimited. From real time cash flow forecasting to robotic accounting, e-invoicing will bring the opportunity to drastically lower costs and spending. 

 

Taking this into account while implementing governmental electronic invoicing mandates can give you a competitive advantage. 

 

Let’s be honest, having over 2000 e-invoicing vendors across the globe is way too many and all the vendors know this too. Over the past 2 years we haven seen Xero acquiring Tickstar, Avalara acquiring Inposia, Kofax acquiring Tungsten and many other acquisitions within the electronic invoicing landscape. My expectation will be that there are a few more acquisitions that will happen in the next 1-3 years. 

 

Keeping into account the rapidly changing e-invoicing mandates, the innovation within accounting departments and the potential acquisitions it’s critical to choose a future proof electronic invoicing vendor provider. 

 

Whether you decide to go with a solution that will only allow you to do the tax reporting or a solution that will have enhanced O2C or P2P functionalities, it’s important to choose a strategy before the next wave of mandates. Changing your strategy while either starting or during the implementations can lead to drastic results like potential penalties, overspend on implementation costs and disruption in resource planning.