(16 July 2024 – Global) Driven by government mandates aimed at efficiency and tax compliance, eInvoicing is rapidly becoming a feature of best practice treasury management systems.
Kam Patel reports for TMI that CFOs faced with a challenging business outlook are focusing on operational inefficiencies, not least those associated with invoicing processes. Corporates are expending considerable effort on leveraging eInvoicing to secure a host of benefits including a reduction in processing errors, improved cashflow management and time savings.
Notwithstanding the compliance challenges that presents to MNCs, the world is inexorably moving towards eInvoicing with the cash visibility benefits that will flow for corporates and their treasurers clearly defined. Pagero estimates that the value of the eInvoicing market will grow by an average 28 percent per year between this year and 2028, at the end of which the annual transaction volume is forecast to be 184 billion eInvoices.
“While government policies and regulations to promote e-invoicing can be traced back to 2014, specifically in Latin American countries, the take-up is now becoming truly global. Regulation in the early years focused on business-to-government (B2G) billing: the EU, US and UK for instance all require eInvoices for business dealings with the public sector. More recently, in response to the large-scale digitalisation triggered by the Covid pandemic and greater focus on e-invoicing by firms themselves, governments are now zeroing in on B2B invoicing” stated BNP Paribas Global Head of Product Management, Receivables, Lirka Bibezic.
“In terms of cash flow visibility, it is proven that eInvoicing can enhance visibility by speeding up invoicing and payment. eInvoicing can also enhance risk management simply because accurate, highly visible, and timely data is intrinsic to its operation” Bibezic added.