EC Expert Group on e-Invoicing adopted its Final Report
The report defines a list of business requirements which represent necessary conditions for achieving mass adoption of e-Invoicing, in particular, the widespread use of e-Invoicing by SMEs. These requirements are validated against current market reality, resulting in a number of identified gaps or areas for improvement identified in the report.
A set of recommendations addressing these gaps constitutes the proposed European e-Invoicing Framework, the key deliverable of the Expert Group. The report also makes recommendations with clearly defined tasks and owners as to how this Framework could be implemented.
The report, which does not necessarily represent the views of the Commission, will be open for consultation until 26 February 2010.
Download the Final Report
Source: European Commission
Putting the power back into the hands of SMEs
The European e-Business Lab (EBL) announced today the publication of the e-Invoicing Guide for SMEs as its first contribution to foster adoption of e-Business across the region.
For the past twenty years, large corporations have been automating their invoicing processes, in order to take advantage of the savings and efficiencies that e-Invoicing can provide. Since 2005, European governments (i.e. in Denmark, Spain, Italy, Sweden, etc.) have started to make e-Invoicing mandatory for the public sector.
The benefits that Europe could derive from e-Invoicing adoption are estimated at € 238 billion and the European Associations of Corporate Treasurers has reached similar results, estimating that companies could save up to 80% of their current costs by processing invoice data automatically.
Nevertheless, today the majority of small and medium enterprises in Europe are still creating paper invoices, putting them into envelopes with stamps, and either sending them through the postal system or by courier to their clients, leaving mass adoption of e-Invoicing a distant dream.
“We developed the Guide in response to national and regional surveys in collaboration with the European SME associations. The intent is to provide SMEs with unbiased information and insight regarding the different aspects of e-Invoicing and practical guidance on how to begin. The Guide combines business, technical, practical, legal and compliance information in a way that interested SMEs can be armed with knowledge when making their own independent decisions to chart the best way forward for their business.” Carmen Ciciriello, Founder of EBL.
The Guide is not meant to be a step by step, “Technical Guide”, nor does it provide specific information on the universe of solutions and services on offer. Instead, it offers management insight into the impact of e-Invoicing, addressing key issues and providing best practices for implementation.
By avoiding an all or nothing approach, the guide may be just what is needed to spur e-Invoicing adoption. The authors, Carmen Ciciriello and Mairi Hayworth, provide clear process flowcharts taking the reader from manual processing through interim steps towards a completely automated business platform.
The Guide is sponsored by SEPA International, UAPME (the European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises), AustriaPro, CBI Consortium and WKO (Austrian Federal Economic Chamber). It will be available in English, Italian and German.
To download the Guide, please click on the following link:
UN/CEFACT approves Cross Industry Invoice (CII) Version 2.0
The United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) has approved the Cross Industry Invoice (CII) Version 2.0 standard to enhance links between the business and financial supply chains and enable cross-industry and cross-domain interoperability. This common global standard is based on a set of business requirements from different industries and stakeholders in both the private and public sectors.
The CII, which is an electronic document exchanged globally between trading partners with a prime function as a request for payment, is an important accounting document and has potential legal implications for sender and receiver. It is also typically used as the key document for Value Added Tax (VAT) declaration and reclamation, for statistics declarations, and to support export and import declarations in respect of international trade.
The CII addresses the strong business need for large scale implementation of eInvoicing, in particular, offering valuable assistance for business and governments in exchanging structured data. It has international application and also supports the requirements of the European Commission Expert Group on eInvoicing. It will be complemented by a series of additional UN/CEFACT standards covering core supply chain processes including Quotation, Scheduling, Catalogue, Ordering and Despatch Advice.
The release of the second generation of the Cross Industry Invoice, together with ongoing work within the UN/CEFACT Forum, was welcomed by the CEN/ISSS Workshop/BII (European Committee for Standardization Information Society Standardization System Workshop on Business Interoperability Interfaces on public procurement in Europe) as it allows them to move forward with their work on Implementation Verification of key business documents for use in procurement within Europe.
The above work was finalized on September 30th at the UN/CEFACT Forum in Sapporo Japan, attended by over 200 experts from over 30 countries.
The CII Schema is available from the UNECE website at:
http://www.unece.org/uncefact/data/standard/CrossIndustryInvoice_1p0.xsd
Source: UN/CEFACT
Belgian e-Invoicing Task Force to support equality of treatment between paper and electronic invoicing
A Belgian Task Force on E-invoicing calls for adoption of the European Commission proposal* to amend the VAT directive, promoting equality of treatment between paper and electronic invoicing.
The Task Force was established during the summer of 2009 and includes key corporate associations and stakeholders. Its mission is to promote the adoption of e-Invoicing in Belgium, where benefits are estimated at 3,5 billion euro. Read more
European Commission e-Invoicing and e-Order pilot: the e-PRIOR project
The European Commission is running an e-Invoicing and e-Ordering pilot project with a number of suppliers. The main goal of this project is to gain real-life experience with e-Invoicing and to share the lessons-learnt with Member States and any other interested stakeholder.
The solution developed within the European Commission is based on an Enterprise Service Bus. The name of this infrastructure is called e-PRIOR, an acronym for electronic PRocurement, Invoicing and ORdering. Read more
Joint collaboration: a powerful driver for Electronic Invoicing in Italy
Report 2009 Observatory on Electronic Invoicing and Dematerialisation
School of Management of the “Politecnico of Milan” Institute
This report is a follow up of a study aimed at improving the research conducted last year (2008). In particular the report focuses on:
- analysis of return on investment of e-invoicing projects for different automation models and sectors;
- potential benefits of e-invoicing at national level and adoption rates;
- the comparison between adoption models in Italy and in other European countries. Read more
Corporates reply to the Consultation on the Mid-term Report of the EC Expert Group on e-Invoicing
BusinessEurope and UEAPME*, two of the most important corporate associations in Europe, provided their opinions relating the Mid-term Report** of the EC Expert Group on e-Invoicing, as part of the consultation process launched by the European Commission after its publication.
The two associations agree in part with the overall recommendations included in the Mid-term Report:
1. the decision of the group to support Equal Treatment between paper and electronic invoices; and
2. the focus on the existing internal business control processes as prime means of providing assurance to tax authorities.
However, they find it necessary to assert the following: Read more
EC Expert Group on e-Invoicing
European Commission has set up an Expert Group on e-Invoicing with the task to establish a European Electronic Invoicing Framework by 2009.
On the basis of the call for applications, 31 experts were selected. The Expert Group started work on 26 February 2008 and has divided its work into three streams: Legal Framework, Business Requirements; Network and Standards. Read more
Proposal to amend VAT Directive as regards the rules on invoicing
On January 2009, a revolutionary and highly needed step forward to overcome the legal barriers hampering mass market adoption of e-Invoicing in Europe has been made by the European Commission with the adoption of a proposal to amend the VAT Directive and treat paper and electronic invoices equally.
The key changes in the proposal that affect electronic invoicing and storage are the following*:
a) E-signatures or EDI: Businesses will be free to send electronic invoices under the same conditions as they would send paper invoices. The pre-conditions for sending electronic invoices by either advanced electronic signature or by electronic date interchange (EDI) are removed. The additional optional conditions for electronic signatures and EDI are also removed. Read more
Principles for fostering e-Invoicing adoption by SMEs
NORMAPME (European Office of Crafts, Trades and Small and medium sized Enterprises for Standardisation) published, on May 2008, the principles to be followed to facilitate e-Invoicing adoption by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Europe*.
The principles described below should be taken into consideration while writing any standard on electronic solutions for invoicing. Those principles should not be strictly applied but rather constitute criteria against which the provisions of the standards need to be checked.
1. The users’ software has to be capable of being installed and operated on a standard desktop computer i.e. no additional hardware should be required in order to use the software. Read more
