eInvoicing around the world

eInvoicing is just starting to build momentum in Australia and New Zealand. In 2019, Australia and New Zealand signed the Trans-Tasman eInvoicing agreement, making it easier for businesses and government to exchange eInvoices, both within and between those two countries. Since then, we’ve seen an increase in government agencies implementing eInvoicing. And the Australian Government has promised to pay eInvoices in 5 days for contracts up to $1 million. They’ve also mandated the use of eInvoicing for all Commonwealth government agencies by the 1st of July 2022.

So, eInvoicing in Australia and New Zealand is increasing. But how are other regions faring?

North America

In 2015, the US government mandated eInvoicing for federal government agencies by the end of 2018. The transition to eInvoicing was expected to bring a range of benefits including savings between $150 million and $250 million.

Aside from Government, the largest adopters of eInvoicing are large enterprises. Some say a major issue in gaining adoption has been a lack of standards and too few eInvoicing service providers. In order to increase uptake, an eInvoicing framework is being created by the Business Payments Coalition (BPC) – a group of organisations and individuals that promote the adoption of electronic business-to-business (B2B) payments.

Latin America

Mexico has been one of the pioneers in eInvoicing globally. They started their eInvoicing journey in 2004, being one of the first in the world. Even though it wasn’t made mandatory, eInvoicing was largely adopted by businesses and government. In 2010, Mexico managed to achieve 100% adoption by businesses. The volume of digital invoices issued between 2011 and 2017 increased from 1.7 billion to 6.5 billion.

Mexico’s success has led to other countries implementing eInvoicing. The Latin America region sends 36 trillion eInvoices a year and have achieved some of the highest adoption rates of eInvoicing in the world: Chile has over 88% adoption and Brazil has achieved 100% adoption for B2B transactions. The high adoption in the region is due to the mandating of eInvoicing in both public and private sectors.

Many countries who have implemented eInvoicing have seen reduction in fraud and easier tax preparation for businesses. This is in addition to cost reductions from eliminating manual processes.

Europe

In 2019, the European Union made it compulsory to send eInvoices between B2G. And if adopted between businesses, it’s expected that eInvoicing in the region will generate savings of €40 billion a year.

Many countries have started to mandate its use both in public and private sectors. For example, Finland has used eInvoicing since 2010 for public sector procurement and now uses eInvoices for 100% of its transactions. Most Finnish businesses have also adopted eInvoicing. And in Italy, eInvoicing was made mandatory for both B2B and B2C transactions in 2019. France is joining them by making eInvoicing compulsory for SMEs and microbusinesses from 2020.

Asia

Asia is one of the regions where eInvoicing is expected to grow the most in coming years. Singapore made eInvoicing compulsory in 2008 for B2G transactions. It was the first country outside of the EU to use the Peppol framework, chosen in part to facilitate international trade. Singapore is providing grants to cover up to 50% of implementation costs for enterprises and S$200 for SMEs who join the network.

One of the reasons countries in the region are adopting eInvoicing is to reduce fraud. In 2016, Indonesia required taxpayers to issue invoices electronically in order to notify the enforcing authority. Mongolia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have also implemented eInvoicing to curb the risk of fraud.

It’s an exciting time for eInvoicing as we see a lot of countries, particularly in our region, move more and more towards a digital economy.

If you’re interested in learning how eInvoicing can help your business, request a call back from our team.