Download your must have guide for 2012 The Top 10 leading practices in electronic invoicing Top leaders in electronic invoicing have been asked by Susie about their keys to project success. Here is the result.

If you are a large shared services organisation processing tens of thousands of purchase invoices annually, you'll know that traditional paper invoicing can be time-consuming, costly and open to error.

That's why businesses are turning to electronic invoicing to save time, reduce their overheads and improve controls, and why businesses are becoming ever more accepting of the technology.

True e-invoicing involves the use of sophisticated invoicing networks that allow suppliers to send data via its network to any connected buyer. This allows for computer-to-computer processing, otherwise known as 'straight through processing'.

Because an invoice is a legal document, it needs to be treated in a legal manner. However, there is no one-rule-for-all in Europe and each country has their own list of requirements when it comes to the makings of a legal e-invoice

At sharedserviceslink.com we can assist you in your e-invoicing ventures, from deciding on your project scope and understanding critical success factors to appreciating how to select a network partner and how best to enrol suppliers.

We provide monthly webinars on e-invoicing, as well as white papers and reports, video interviews, newsletters and interactive conferences, all designed to help you improve the performance of your e-invoicing projects and your business.

Benefits of e-invoicing

E-invoicing has numerous benefits over traditional paper invoicing, many of them relating to costs. Firstly, paper invoicing can cost ten to 100 times the cost of an electronic invoice.

If you are receiving five million invoices per annum and each one costs you €10 to process, this represents a €50 million cost just to pay suppliers. Reducing this to a fraction of this cost can mean a huge contribution to the profit margin.

Secondly, it means better relations with suppliers. Gone are the days of supplier help desk enquiries and constant calls checking 'have you got my invoice'.

Because e-invoicing networks guarantee invoice delivery, suppliers know their customer has received the invoice, and via a portal they can track the status of their invoice. In addition to this, because e-invoicing means invoices are processed quicker, they are more likely to be paid quicker too.

Of course converting paper invoices to electronic systems also has significant environmental benefits, as paper consumption and energy use is substantially reduced.

Other benefits include increased accuracy in data, the elimination of keying or manual treatment of the invoice, increased productivity within your accounts payable team and the ability to focus on higher value activities by freeing up staff.
 
Barriers to electronic invoicing

Implementing an e-invoicing solution can be a complex process and there are a number of barriers you may need to overcome in order to reap the benefits.

Most companies have between 1,000 and 100,000 suppliers. Onboarding the volume of suppliers that send you 80 per cent of invoices can take time and a great deal of effort. E-invoicing means a change in behaviour for suppliers, so a change in the management aspect of e-invoicing can be significant, yet will pay off.

Also think about who owns the relationship with suppliers. It's nearly always procurement. And think about who e-invoicing ostensibly benefits - accounts payable. For e-invoicing to work, accounts payable need to secure procurement's buy-in. These departments are not natural bed fellows, so aligning on a project can be a challenge.

Make the most of electronic invoicing with sharedserviceslink.com
 
The European Commission has said it wants to see electronic invoicing become the principal method of invoicing in Europe and adoption of the technology is growing all the time, though at a relatively slow rate. Out of the 30 billion invoices transacted in Europe each year, less than ten per cent of them are pure electronic.

At sharedserviceslink.com, we can help you make the most of e-invoicing and overcome the barriers holding you back by providing you with informative resources such as monthly webinars on e-invoicing, white papers, reports, video interviews and newsletters, as well as interactive conferences.

Our annual e-Invoicing Europe conference is designed to help ensure your e-invoicing project is massively successful.

Joining sharedserviceslink.com is free. Simply fill in our online member registration form and we'll provide you with ten issues of our newsletter, as well as free access to our downloadable content and our archive of presentations.

To find out more about electronic invoicing and how it can help your organisation, or to ask about our conferences, webinars and online resources, just get in touch with us today.

Download your must have guide for 2012

Top leaders in electronic invoicing have been asked by Susie about their keys to project success. Here is the result.