Desiree Venema Earns Master’s in Finance & Control

She found that when there was limited knowledge of global -invoicing variations within a company, finance staff consequently adopted their own segmented approach per country.

The factors that influence e-invoicing can usually be linked to variations between platforms and how e-invoicing is applied differently worldwide. The global e-invoicing landscape is not consistent. This is true of both the technical aspects and the legal requirements.

In Latin America, for example, the “Clearance model” is used, in Europe the “post-audit model” is the most common. There are differences between the two models in the exchange of invoices, how invoices are verified and also in how long an invoice should be retained (or archived). Desiree’s research shows that a central proactive strategy is the best method for the adoption of e-invoicing within a company, instead of a reactive, decentralised approach.

This example showed that two countries, both located in Latin America, had the highest priority to comply with the law and regulations following the outcome of the roadmap. Desiree compared the invoicing processes within Latin America, plus the current situation and also the optimal situation. Desiree’s recommendation to this company is to stop adopting local software solutions and explore the possibility of using a service provider for all countries worldwide for this specific case.

Currently, the countries in Latin America receive the amounts billed from the United States. Therefore, the invoice is sent from an US entity and these transactions are considered cross-border transactions between the United States (Export) and Latin America (Import). The country requires e-invoicing for all taxpayers within its own country border. As this company does not currently qualify as a taxpayer, the transactions are exempt from e-invoicing requirements.

However, future developments may require foreign companies to issue e-invoices, or the customer may request the invoices in a specific format. Using an e-invoicing platform would reduce potential manual work on conversion or input of current invoices to customer or country specific portals or applications. In addition, there are other benefits, such as the opportunity to optimise the efficiency of the process and lower costs.

If you recognize this problem within your organisation and would like to start a discussion or get some advice, please contact me at desiree.venema@trifinance.nl