E-Invoicing Solutions: a Global Superhero?

E-invoicing solutions have slowly, but surely made their way into the day-to-day running of a business. Apart from saving tons of paper (and thereby trees) and printing costs, and merchants getting paid faster, e-invoicing solutions have become the scourge of tax fraudsters.

Global governments having realized the massive potential of e-invoicing solutions have pushed for greater adoption. Today, there are as many as 50 e-invoicing mandates in force all over the world and many more are in the offing.

Electronic invoicing is said to have become so commonplace that across the EU, it will be implemented mandatorily in the coming years. Australia has successfully implemented the electronic invoicing mandate, while Saudi Arabia is rolling out e-invoicing mandates in phases.

In no time, businesses would have to adopt e-invoicing solutions or risk non-compliance. With an electronic invoicing solution, both Governments and business benefit in that it makes processes more transparent, and tracking and monitoring cross-border transactions will become hassle-free.

Did you know that the first e-invoice was issued as early as 1965? It was facilitated via electronic data interchange or EDI. Chile was the first country to voluntarily implement electronic invoicing and in 2014, Italy became the first country to make e-invoicing mandatory for B2G. Since then, a wave of e-invoicing adoption has begun across the globe.

Why did Governments see electronic invoicing as a global superhero?

1. Greater transaction transparency
2. Prevents tax defections
3. Data extraction quicker
4. Hassle-free real-time reporting
5. Eventual phasing out of traditional VAT

What makes e-invoices a merchant’s superhero?

1. e-invoices get paid faster
2. Seamless revenue reconciliation
3. Easy to track e-invoices
4. Eliminates error-prone manual processes
5. It saves time
6. Greater accuracy & hence better productivity
7. Cost-effective
8. Greater data security

Did you know the US is the only major economy without a federal VAT system? Although that is a topic for discussion for another post altogether. E-invoicing brought in a fresh approach to collecting tax. Rather than e-invoicing mandates, global digital compliance developments are slated to be adopted in the coming decades.

Check out our feature-packed e-invoicing solution SmartInvoice.