Getting your IT department ready for eInvoicing

Preparation is key when implementing eInvoicing, especially with your internal teams. Your IT team will be a particularly important cog in your journey. Here’s how we suggest getting your IT team ready for eInvoicing.

Introduce them to eInvoicing

eInvoicing is a pretty new thing, so not everyone is going to know about it. It can helpful to go over the basics including:

• what eInvoicing is
• how it works
• an introduction to Peppol
• an introduction into Access Points.

Let them know how it will impact them

It’s a good idea to review the changes your IT team will need to make before you implement eInvoicing. These could include asking your team:

• what eInvoicing is
• will new hardware or software need to be purchased?
• will additional resources be needed to implement eInvoicing?
• does your eInvoicing service provider or Access Point adhere to your security policy?

They’ll also be able to tell you if your software is eInvoicing enabled, allowing you to start sending and receiving eInvoices. If it isn’t eInvoicing enabled, your IT team will need to work with an Access Point. Your IT team should be able to answer questions from you Access Point, including:

• Can your software produce the Peppol file (this is the file type that’s used through the eInvoicing network)?
• Is your software cloud based or on-premise?
• What connection protocol can your software work with? E.g. API, sFTP, AS2, etc.

Create progress meetings

Keeping track of progress is important in any project. A good way to go is to organise meetings with your internal departments, including your IT team, to set actions and monitor progress. Having these meetings in place will ensure deadlines are met and your project doesn’t go over deadline.

Start testing

This stage of eInvoicing is critical as it determines whether everything is working correctly. Your IT team will need to work with your Access Point in order to ensure the connection between them and your software is working. This normally involves sending a file and ensuring it is correctly received, and receiving a file to make sure it’s processed correctly on your end.

Create a process for issues

If any issues arise, you need to have a process in place to deal with them. It’s important to plan ahead to make it clear what each of your internal teams, including IT, need to deal with. There are a few scenarios that IT may need to assist with when using eInvoicing, including:

• if a supplier says they’ve sent an invoice but you can’t see it in your software
• if your team are contacted by a supplier who’s received a notification to say their invoice has been rejected.

Having a clear plan for these types of issues is important to reduce delay of payment for your partners.

If you’re interested in learning more about getting your teams ready for eInvoicing, request a call from our eInvoicing experts below.