What if instead of spending almost 2 minutes creating, sending and filing an invoice, we spend 30 seconds? Well, the difference is 1 minute, which we can assume if we do not have a very high volume of invoices, but what if we invoice hundreds or thousands of invoices? We could think then that perhaps it would not be a bad thing to save hundreds or thousands of minutes, but what if in addition to saving time we reduce costs?
These are simply two “small” advantages that we obtain with electronic invoicing. Saving time and money is not something that trivial, we all care about it and a lot! An invoice is still a paper, a receipt, but advancing in digitization provides us with these and many other advantages (efficiency, safety, environmental impact …) that you can obtain in your company if you take the step.
We tell you some below:
1. Reduction of billing expenses
As mentioned before, the digitization of the billing process means that your company can forget about the messaging process, printing costs (paper, ink for the printers) daily. Even keeping these printed invoices forces companies to allocate rooms in the offices to accumulate only paper, and even look for other storage points for them (rental storage rooms, which usually means higher expenses).
2. Optimised management times
Electronic invoices significantly reduce the time to issue an invoice as all the manual work involved in a paper invoice is removed, reducing payment times between companies.
As mentioned before, when issuing invoices we could save about a minute, but, when looking at how many minutes we could save when it comes to the receiving invoices process, we could be saving up to 9 minutes in the entire process: we would have to check our inbox, verify, and review the received invoice, codify and register it the system and finally, archive it. If we receive an electronic invoice, we would remove all the manual work in the process and we would only have to verify and review the invoice, which would take about 2 and a half minutes!
Imagine the efficiency that means having electronic invoices if you receive hundreds or thousands of invoices.
3. Treasury optimization and avoid mistakes
Invoicing does not necessarily mean that you are going to get paid automatically, I am sure you are familiar with having to chase up some clients. The manual issuance of an invoice can lead to errors in the data, CIF, dates, addresses, errors in the forms of payment or due dates… Those invoices may be returned, and we repeat the tedious process again. Most systems allow this process to be carried out in a more efficient way by creating drafts, massive data uploads, pre-filling of fields, a single scheme for all invoices… Having all this integrated into the system of our company will allow us to achieve a greater control of the cash flow of our company.
4. Integration with business systems, real-time information and automation
Most companies have an ERP to meet their needs. In all of them, the integration of electronic invoicing is basic and necessary. Receiving or issuing electronic invoices should not only be approached as a project that must be carried out by obligation, but rather, the company should take advantage of the electronic invoice potential. Its use and correct implementation will allow all the available information to be used in real time, sharing this information across all departments.
One step further, and in which we are experts at Brait, is to move forward with the optimization of the Accounts Payable process thanks to VIM.
5. Legally compliant
n a world that is progressing more and more in the digitization process, we see how many public entities make mandatory the use of the invoice. In Spain we have the SII or the obligation since 2015 to issue electronic invoices in commercial relations with the public administration. But this is not something only specific in Spain, European administrations are increasingly promoting and forcing the use of this (SAF-T in Austria, RTIR in Hungary, eSPap in Portugal…).
6. Security
In a digitized word, we can see how public entities make the use of the electronic invoice mandatory. For instance, in Spain we have the SII or the need to send electronic invoices in commercials relations with the public administration. However, this does not only happen in Spain, as European administrations are increasingly promoting and forcing the use of it to a greater extent (SAF-T in Austria, RTIR in Hungary, eSPap in Portugal, etc. )
7. Environmental impact
Finally, although every company always focuses on economic savings or reduction in processing times, an intrinsic benefit of electronic invoicing is that the company automatically becomes more environmentally responsible.
The use of paper is almost entirely eliminated or, for example, not using physical spaces for storing bills allows saving in energy that would be necessary in their future destruction or recycling.
From Brait, we invite you to visit our section dedicated to electronic invoicing to obtain more information. In addition, through our online recommender, we can help you find the most optimal solution for your company to adopt electronic invoicing.
