What is an e-invoice?

A genuine e-invoice is an invoice which is issued, received and processed electronically. It is digital from its creation in the ERP system by the issuer until it is received, processed and archived by the recipient. In other words, genuine e-invoicing is electronic throughout its lifecycle.

Some companies choose to send a PDF copy of the invoice by e-mail. The invoice copy is scanned or printed so it can be registered in the financial system. There are several drawbacks with this approach:

• E-mail is not a secure way to communicate invoices.
• Many larger companies will not accept PDF invoices via e-mail.
• PDF files can be stopped in the recipient's spam filter.
• The sender does not receive any confirmation that the PDF invoice has been received by the recipient.
• The recipient must invest in a scanning solution to be able to interpret the PDF invoice.
• Considerably less information (fewer fields) is interpreted during scanning compared to when the invoice is fully electronic throughout its entire lifecycle.
• Studies show that the probability of a scanned invoice being interpreted without any error is only 34.7% (source: Basware), which implies time consuming work on error management.