EU e-invoicing adoption: SME’s in different EU regions perceive different barriers

Small businesses throughout Europe are not fully embracing the digital world, including e-commerce, e-invoicing and cloud computing.

Or at least that is what the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) said when they released a new report called A digital agenda for European SMEs .

The lack of on what points of e-invoicing the SME’s are missing out, is remedied by some nice insights of how SME’s from different countries perceive different barriers to e-invoicing

SME adoption of electronic invoicing in Europe

Let’s take a look at the adoption of electronic invoicing by SME’s in Europe, according to ACCA. The figure underneath shows how SME’s look at electronic invoicing. It becomes clear that:

• they are lacking awareness
• there is no need as customers don’t require e-invoicing
• it is perceived to be too complex
• e-invoicing is not cost effective enough

Geographical differences

Interestingly enough there were differences between several groups of countries, loosely divided into Eastern Europe (including Hungary, Poland, Russia and the Ukraine), the UK+Ireland, and ‘other’ countries. And then you get something like this:

Download the rapport