What is e-invocing? How is it different from print and pdf invoice? What are the advantages of e-invoicing? How to start e-invoicing?

1. Your Guide to e-
invoicing

2. What is an e-invoice?
Electronic invoicing (or e-Invoicing) is the automated
digital exchange of invoice information between
suppliers’ and buyers’ software through a secure
network. An electronic invoice is a PDF or similar
document that contains information about the
products and services you have sold. It has all your
company’s contact details, including name, address,
phone number and email address. Often these
documents are generated automatically by accounting
software on receipt of payment from your customer.

3. Australia has adopted the Peppol framework as the
common standard for e-Invoicing.
Peppol e-Invoicing is a new channel that is a more
efficient, accurate and secure way to transact with your
suppliers and buyers than PDF and email.
What is not considered an e-invoice?
An electronic invoice does not include any signature or
handwritten annotations that are required for certain
tax purposes. For this reason, it may be necessary to
issue paper invoices in some circumstances if required
by law.

4. Comparison of invoice types:
Here’s a quick overview of the main differences
between print, PDF (including other image files) and
electronic invoices.
Print invoice
Paper invoices are most often created digitally then
printed and sent by post to the counterpart. It takes
time for the invoice to reach the recipient, and there is
no traceability of the delivery.

5. Pro’s
• No system/process changes
Con’s
• Labour-intensive
• Expensive
• Slow payment cycle
• Low track and traceability
• Low data quality and visibility
• Not accepted by many organizations
• Not environmentally friendly

6. PDF invoice
Invoices exchanged over email as PDF, Word or other
image files are a first step away from a paper-based
invoice flow. However, these are not e-invoices because
data must be manually keyed in or captured using OCR.

7. Pro’s
• First step towards digitalisation
Cost-effective
• Con’s
• Not secure
• Low traceability
• Emails can get lost or sent to spam
• Manual or scan and capture entry
• Low data quality and visibility
• Often printed for processing and filing

8. E-invoice
An e-invoice is issued, transmitted, received and
processed electronically. E-invoicing is an integrated
solution that enables a fully automated flow from one
company’s ERP system to another.

9. Pro’s
• Secure
• Real-time delivery and processing
• Touchless operations
• High data quality
• Track and traceability
• Better cash flow and lower DSO
• High ROI
• Environmentally friendly

10. What are the advantages of e-invoicing?
It is an easy way to save time and money. By saving
paper, postage costs etc., you can reduce your
company’s carbon footprint as well as its general cost
levels. You will also be able to view invoices in real time
and process them immediately.

11. • Touchless operations: E-invoicing enables the
automation of time-consuming and error-prone tasks
like data entry, matching and approvals so you can
reallocate staff to higher-value initiatives.
• No Errors – that there is no need to print or handle
an invoice after it has been sent. This also eliminates
the possibility of data entry errors.
• Track and traceability – E-invoices offer a high degree
of track and traceability You can follow the progress
of each invoice through every stage of the process,
from creation to payment.

12. • Real-time delivery and processing: The efficiency and
speed of e-invoicing can help save time in the
customer payment process.
• Improved cash flow: Reducing your company’s
reliance on paper invoices, it will reduce costs
associated with sending an invoice (postage etc.) as
well as clearing them after they have been received.
This is because you will be able to process them
immediately, rather than having to wait for payment
before you can do so.

13. • Paperless Invoicing – No printing costs, no shipping
costs and filing time is eliminated because e-invoices
are digitally stored on your system or the vendor’s
system.
• Legal Compliances: e-invoicing fulfils legal
requirements like the AU regulation on invoices and
payment terms, it helps to reduce fraud risk
• Remote work-ready – With an e-invoice, employees
don’t need to be in the office to access and process
invoices.

14. Ready to start e-invoicing?
If you are ready to move to e-invoicing, ask yourself
these questions:
What are the advantages of e-invoicing for my
company? Is now the right time to start e-invoicing?
Who should be involved in this decision process and
how can I convince them that we need to change our
current way of doing things? How will it impact on
other business processes, like cash flow management
or supplier?

15. Once you have answered this then simply get an
accounting software like Xero and start e-invoicing…
If you need some help in putting together a strategy for
e-invoicing speak with one our experts at iKeep.