You can make money with digital invoicing. Fortunately, most companies have already said goodbye to the paper invoice by post. The PDF invoice by e-mail however is still being sent out a lot. Nothing wrong with that, but it can be done even easier.
Why would you invoice digitally?
With digital invoicing you automatically exchange invoices between your system and the other party’s system. The exchange of these XML Invoices has some important advantages:
- Faster processing: Digital invoices do not end up on top of a pile of documents, but can be processed and paid directly by the other party’s software.
- Less mistakes: the invoicing process of a digital invoice takes less physical actions, which reduces the chance mistakes occur. Think about incorrect addresses, an invoice getting lost or processing the invoice too late.
- Save time (and thus costs): no paper and ink, no postal charges, fast and inexpensive archiving, fast and inexpensive processing.
- Environmentally friendly: the digital invoice prevents environmental impact of printing and scanning invoices.
Then why don’t we all do it?
There's a good reason why digital invoicing is only steadily gaining ground. The digital invoice format of the counterparty often does not match with the format you are using. There are many (industry-specific) formats being used, from old-fashioned EDI messages to modern UBL messages. And you want to deploy digital invoicing fully in your organization, not for a handful of business partners.
Are there parties that can help you with this?
There are several so-called ‘billing service providers’ that can help you with receiving and sending digital invoices correctly. They operate as a hub in the relationship between invoice sender and invoice recipient. They can help you with receiving, sending, validating, archiving and paying invoices. But also with connecting to software systems and portals, conversion to the receiver’s format, regulations and authorization workflow.
Clearly agree with your billing service provider which activities are included and which are not, this way you prevent unpleasant surprises. Calculate how much you can save with digital invoicing and you'll soon know if it is interesting for your organization.
As a Product Owner, Joan Gaastra is in the driver's seat at Dysel. He decides which functionalities are developed and how they are prioritized.
