Download the European e-Invoicing Guide for SMEs - Celeris Ltd.

European E-Invoicing Guide for SMEs
Key considerations can be described as follows:
For the Sender
• cost of labour for invoice printing, sorting, stuffing envelopes, posting, and archiving
• cost of postage and paper
• environmental impact of paper and physical delivery
• possible printer or mailing errors resulting in missing invoices
• possible sorting errors resulting in one customer receiving another customer’s invoices
• cost of calling customers for late payments as a result of missing invoices
• cost of posting invoice copies and possibly extending terms
• cost of the organisational structure (manpower) to manage invoice handling
• cost of paper documents archiving
• cost related to archive management (e.g. searches, logistics, etc.)
• impact on customer relations as both parties generally believe the other is at fault
For the Receiver
• cost of labour for opening mail, sorting invoices by supplier, date stamping, matching to orders or
other supporting documents, looking up supplier numbers and account codes for processing,
entering the data into the computer and checking input for accuracy
• possible errors in data entry resulting in incorrect payments and reconciliation issues with
suppliers or incorrect internal postings leading to further accounting problems
• cost of additional staff in order to segregate data input from invoice approval
• cost to maintain the paper archives
NOTE: While ERP by definition means 'Enterprise Resource Planning', it is also commonly used to
describe the information system where your customer accounts are located, core business activities
are performed, and financial transactions recorded. In some cases, these activities may be carried out
in more than one system.
8
INTRODUCTION
TO E-INVOICING