More and more companies realize the strong advantages of sending and receiving e-invoices. But why is that? And should your company also switch to e-invoicing?

We noticed that there's still a lot of uncertainty about this issue. That's why we'll explain the biggest advantages of digital invoicing for you.

Do you wish to start with e-invoicing directly? You can sign up here.

1. E-invoicing saves your company a lot of time

Preparing an invoice, printing it, putting it in the envelope, making sure that it's sent correctly, and then - if all goes well - the delivery to your client the next day..

This whole process demands quite some time. Sending the invoice by email (as a PDF attachment) is a better alternative, but still requires more manual actions than necessary.

This is why e-invoicing is increasing in popularity. With a single click, an e-invoice can be delivered inside the accounting program of your client.

Thus, the manual, time-consuming operations - such as sorting invoices and retyping invoice data to the financial system -  are completely eliminated.

Research shows that the processing of paper invoices requires 18 minutes per invoice. For PDF invoices a time of 10 minutes per invoice is consumed. An e-invoice, however, only requires an average of 5 minutes per invoice.

2. E-Invoices are processed faster than you think

Unlike a physical invoice, an e-invoice does have to find its way to the right department. An e-invoice reaches the right person within 1 minute - with a single mouse click.

But what about simple PDF invoices? Even for processing a PDF invoice, multiple actions are required, such as scanning, recognition, and verification by OCR.

With eInvoicing the invoice will directly be processed within the administration software, and - if the settings approve - even paid automatically.

This also has advantages for the payment period, which, of course, will be much shorter than before.

3. Real-time insight into your company's finances

With a paper invoice, the invoice process requires an average of 16 days. But e-invoicing requires zero. The invoice is processed directly in the accounting software of your client.  

Because of this, your company will have real-time insight into the purchasing process:

• Insights into the incoming and outgoing cash flows;
• Better control options regarding the status and location of invoices;
• Better cash management regarding payment obligations;
• Immediate real-time insight into the financial status of your company.

4. E-invoices are the safest invoices ever made

Digital invoices are extremely safe. In fact, there's a 0% chance of human errors. Furthermore, an e-invoice cannot become lost, be delivered to the wrong person, or be processed incorrectly.

In addition to this, to be able to send an e-invoice to another company, you must first create a Peppol ID to gain access to the super safe Peppol network.

This ID consists of unique identification numbers so that other companies can identify you automatically.  You can request a Peppol ID at a Certified Peppol Access Point.

5. Your company will save a lot of money

In 2012, 62% of the companies sent invoices as e-mail attachments, saving billions of euros worldwide. Calculating into averages - with shipping, material, and handling costs - this comes down to a saving of around €1.65 per invoice.

But if the European business communities only could see the benefits of digital invoicing, and switch to UBL invoices as a result, the savings would increase by a factor of four to five.

Also: think about the amount of paper production that we could prevent. All those envelopes, prints, and copies. Not only will this be good for our wallets, but also for the environment around us. A win-win if you'd ask me.

How do I switch to e-invoicing?

Want to start with e-invoicing, but don't know where to begin? We from Storecove offer to help.

You can contact us by chat or by phone: +31 202 611 791.

Rather try it yourself instead? Click on the button below to make an account:

Need help regarding e-invoicing?

Please contact us on +31 202 611 791 or helpdesk@storecove.nl.

Read also:

• Everything you need to know about e-invoicing
• How Vattenfall easily simplified their invoicing process
• Eneco about e-invoicing: "Less manual work, fewer errors, and faster payments”
• Access Point as-a Service - Sending Invoices via PEPPOL and Email
• What is  Peppol Access Point?
• What is PEPPOL?