Your Guide to e-invoicing

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Your Guide to e-invoicing
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• What is an e-invoice?
• Electronic invoicing (or e-Invoicing) is the
  automated digital exchange of invoice information
  between suppliers and buyers software through a
  secure network. An electronic invoice is a PDF or
  similar document that contains information about
  the products and services you have sold. It has
  all your companys contact details, including
  name, address, phone number and email address.
  Often these documents are generated automatically
  by accounting software on receipt of payment from
  your customer.

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• Australia has adopted the Peppol framework as the
  common standard for e-Invoicing.
• Peppol e-Invoicing is a new channel that is a
  more efficient, accurate and secure way to
  transact with your suppliers and buyers than PDF
  and email.
• What is not considered an e-invoice?
• An electronic invoice does not include any
  signature or handwritten annotations that are
  required for certain tax purposes. For this
  reason, it may be necessary to issue paper
  invoices in some circumstances if required by law.

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• Comparison of invoice types
• Heres a quick overview of the main differences
  between print, PDF (including other image files)
  and electronic invoices.
• Print invoice
• Paper invoices are most often created digitally
  then printed and sent by post to the counterpart.
  It takes time for the invoice to reach the
  recipient, and there is no traceability of the
  delivery.

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• Pros
• No system/process changes
• Cons
• Labour-intensive
• Expensive
• Slow payment cycle
• Low track and traceability
• Low data quality and visibility
• Not accepted by many organizations
• Not environmentally friendly

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• PDF invoice
• Invoices exchanged over email as PDF, Word or
  other image files are a first step away from a
  paper-based invoice flow. However, these are not
  e-invoices because data must be manually keyed in
  or captured using OCR.

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• Pros
• First step towards digitalisation
• Cost-effective
• Cons
• Not secure
• Low traceability
• Emails can get lost or sent to spam
• Manual or scan and capture entry
• Low data quality and visibility
• Often printed for processing and filing

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• E-invoice
• An e-invoice is issued, transmitted, received and
  processed electronically. E-invoicing is an
  integrated solution that enables a fully
  automated flow from one companys ERP system to
  another.

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• Pros
• Secure
• Real-time delivery and processing
• Touchless operations
• High data quality
• Track and traceability
• Better cash flow and lower DSO
• High ROI
• Environmentally friendly

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• What are the advantages of e-invoicing?
• It is an easy way to save time and money. By
  saving paper, postage costs etc., you can reduce
  your companys carbon footprint as well as its
  general cost levels. You will also be able to
  view invoices in real time and process them
  immediately.

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• Touchless operations E-invoicing enables the
  automation of time-consuming and error-prone
  tasks like data entry, matching and approvals so
  you can reallocate staff to higher-value
  initiatives.
• No Errors that there is no need to print or
  handle an invoice after it has been sent. This
  also eliminates the possibility of data entry
  errors.
• Track and traceability E-invoices offer a high
  degree of track and traceability You can follow
  the progress of each invoice through every stage
  of the process, from creation to payment.

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• Real-time delivery and processing The efficiency
  and speed of e-invoicing can help save time in
  the customer payment process.
• Improved cash flow Reducing your companys
  reliance on paper invoices, it will reduce costs
  associated with sending an invoice (postage etc.)
  as well as clearing them after they have been
  received. This is because you will be able to
  process them immediately, rather than having to
  wait for payment before you can do so.

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• Paperless Invoicing No printing costs, no
  shipping costs and filing time is eliminated
  because e-invoices are digitally stored on your
  system or the vendors system.
• Legal Compliances e-invoicing fulfils legal
  requirements like the AU regulation on invoices
  and payment terms, it helps to reduce fraud risk
• Remote work-ready With an e-invoice, employees
  dont need to be in the office to access and
  process invoices.

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• Ready to start e-invoicing?
• If you are ready to move to e-invoicing, ask
  yourself these questions
• What are the advantages of e-invoicing for my
  company? Is now the right time to start
  e-invoicing? Who should be involved in this
  decision process and how can I convince them that
  we need to change our current way of doing
  things? How will it impact on other business
  processes, like cash flow management or supplier?

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• Once you have answered this then simply get an
  accounting software like Xero and start
  e-invoicing
• If you need some help in putting together a
  strategy for e-invoicing speak with one our
  experts at iKeep.