Why Is E-invoicing Not The Same As A PDF?

What is e-invoicing?

E-invoicing, or electronic invoicing, is a form of electronic billing which allows businesses, customers and suppliers to send, monitor and receive transactional documents between one another. These transactional documents can include the likes of invoices, purchase orders, credit notes and remittance slips.

What is the e-invoicing process?

When e-invoicing takes place, this process usually means that there is some form of trading agreement in place and that all parties are adhering to it. This is important as the process is not only about sending the invoice, but also about the electronic booking, payment and collection of the money.

It may sound complicated but an e-invoicing process for companies of all sizes can be simple and smart. Once you have selected an e-invoicing solution and provider, you simply send your provider your data via a secure HTTPs file transfer. The provider may then check your data and validate it (depending on the pre-agreed rules with your provider), then the provider will create your invoices via your chosen method, whether this be electronic or by traditional print and post methods.

How is this different from sending a PDF?

When receiving a PDF the receiver still has to manually input the invoice data into their system to validate and process the invoice. With an e-invoice, the receiver gets all the data electronically which can then be automated with their accounting systems. Manual input is no longer necessary and the control of the content of the invoice is automated.

Not only this, but when you attach a PDF file to an email, you don’t have the security, monitoring processes or scalability that an e-invoicing solution will provide you.

Security

If you send out an invoice as a PDF attachment to an email, you cannot be sure of the secure nature of your PDF. Email addresses may be entered incorrectly, and you have the worry of an invoice ending up in someone’s junk folder. With an e-invoicing solution, your data is sent securely to your chosen provider, who should have the accreditations and processes in place to make sure your data is secure and validated.

Understand what accreditations are vital when choosing an e-invoicing provider.

Monitoring and reporting

If all of your invoices are PDFs attached to an email, you aren’t able to monitor or report on who you have sent it to, who has received the email successfully and who has opened the email, unless you carry this task out manually of course. With an e-invoicing solution and provider, you may be given the ability to view all of your invoice sends via a dashboard when you can report on the success of open rates, sends and therefore you’re able to monitor who will send you your payment quicker.

Scalability

If you have lots of invoices to send out, doing this by email and attachments can get quite time consuming and have the potential for human error. With an e-invoicing solution, all you have to do is send your data to your provider in your chosen format (excel, word doc etc.) and your provider will check the data and send out all your invoices for you.

What are the benefits?

Apart from extra security, less manual work and the ability to monitor and report, e-invoicing also has the added benefit of businesses being able to receive their payments quicker.

Due to the monitor and reporting capability, you always know for sure that invoices are received. Since the payment period usually starts from the moment the invoice is registered, the e-invoice can then shorten the payment period with a couple of days. Without the intervention of post, post rooms or other internal departments, the e-invoice lands directly into the financial system of the receiver. Reminders can be sent automatically and payment options can be built into the invoice or reminder.

With an e-invoicing provider, your e-invoices can also be digitally archived which makes them easy to find and this way they’re always accessible within the organisation.

Why should I choose an e-invoicing provider?

An e-invoicing provider takes away the burden for both the sender and the recipient in the invoice process. By using an e-invoicing provider, businesses can easily exchange electronic invoices directly with many providers from different sectors and suppliers. This requires one link (a one-time setup) between the accounting system and the platform of the service provider for you to be able to send out all your future invoices.

Discuss e-invoicing for your business today

At Prime Document, we understand the pain points of sending out invoices as PDFs over email, which is why we champion our e-invoicing solution to help your business get your payments faster. Get in touch with the team today to discuss how we can create an e-invoicing solution for your business.