The E-invoicing Platform sometimes writes articles that touch a nerve with certain people. We never mean to offend, but merely want to keep the subjects on our website open to discussion. Susie West’s sharedserviceslink.com pursues the same goal as a community for leaders in finance shared services. During their e-Invoicing Europe conference last July the European Commission’s influence on the e-invoicing market was brought up for discussion. The conclusions don’t look too rosy.
Will EU policy determine the e-invoicing future of vendors, buyers and suppliers?
Wheels are in motion, but the European Commission is certainly not leading this market. You could argue that they do not fully understand the business application of e-invoicing and are looking at the adoption of electronic payments as a past reference against which to benchmark their treatment of e-invoicing.
Why does the EU care about e-invoicing?
It would seem that there is no compelling event driving a stronger and more unified voice from the European Commission. It was generally agreed that the Commission will become seriously interested in this as a topic once adoption has reached critical mass.
Will the EU intervene?
The Commission moves relatively slowly so don’t expect any sudden movement. Drive your own agenda and keep an eye on what’s happening at Commission level, but don’t let them determine your pace. You’d be waiting a while for progress.
So, do you agree or disagree with sharedserviceslink.com? Has the EU truly been overtaken by events? What is your take on EU policy and the future of e-invoicing? Let’s get the discussion going and hope it (eventually) will lead us to a proper solution.
Cláudia Wada on 