986 million electronic invoices were processed and delivered to invoice receivers in 2014 by members of the European E-Invoicing Service Providers Association (EESPA). This represented a significant growth of 17 per cent over 2013 volumes of 840 million. EESPA commissioned this second annual survey as part of a continuing commitment to supporting the rapid market growth of e-invoicing and to play its part in monitoring take-up.

EESPA members were asked to report the volume (i.e. number of items) of all e-invoices delivered by them to buyers connected to their network or service, and also volumes delivered to buyers connected to a service provider outside the EESPA community. Each member was asked to carefully identify only items representing truly electronic invoices, irrespective of the process through which the invoice or the invoice data were collected from suppliers.

Key take aways

• The majority of invoices processed were B2B or B2G (Business-to-Business or Business-to-Government) invoices (621 million invoices in total in 2014), although the EESPA membership also has a significant involvement in the delivery of B2C (Business-to-Consumer) invoices (365 million invoices in total in 2014).
• Whereas there was almost a 7% growth (32 million e-invoices) in direct B2B/B2G e-invoicing, B2B/B2G e-invoicing via other service providers/networks saw a decrease of almost 10%; cutting the B2B/B2G growth in halve.
• Indirect B2C e-invoicing rocketed with 99% to 126 million e-invoices.
• The numbers are affected by (i) a number of members that did not participate for practical and policy reasons, and (ii) by the incidence of members joining and leaving the association.

In summary: the 2014 figures reveal a rather less buoyant growth in B2B and B2G transactions processed than in the previous year. The B2C sector on the other hand showed very substantial growth and a growth of over 50% is very striking.

EESPA Co-Chairs Esa Tihilä and Charles Bryant:

“The e-invoicing service provider community continues to make a strong contribution to the development of electronic invoicing and is committed to supporting the growing number of adopters on their journey to realising the massive efficiency gains and cost savings available. Our total figures are still impacted by the reluctance of some of our members to participate in our annual survey- we will work harder in the years ahead to encourage greater participation.”

“EESPA service providers are making a very significant contribution to the adoption of electronic invoicing across both Europe and more widely. Service provider networks and services to buyers and suppliers contribute a growing and sizeable element of total electronic invoice volume and these services are more often than not preferred to direct connections between suppliers and buyers, which can be cumbersome to manage and do not take advantage of ‘network’ effects.”

About EESPA

EESPA was formed in 2011 as an international not-for-profit association. It acts as a trade association at a European level for a large and dynamic community of e-invoicing service providers, drawn from organisations that provide network, business outsourcing, financial, technology, and EDI (electronic data interchange) services. It focuses on public policy issues, the creation of an interoperable eco-system and championing the widespread adoption of e-invoicing for the benefit of economic efficiency and growth.