Compared to countries like Finland or Austria, the process of companies transitioning to e-invoicing in Germany is taking place quite slowly. The biggest obstacle to the development of electronic invoices, from the perspective of a German entrepreneur, is the issue of an electronic signature provided with a qualified certificate, as only such a signature guarantees security and enables the secure transfer of data concerning the company, customers, and financial information. Such a signature requires financial outlays from the company, which generates additional costs during the initial “start-up” period of the system.
Paper costs
Across Europe, more than 30 billion invoices are currently issued. The average cost associated with processing an account and issuing a single invoice ranges from 8 to 12 euros, with the majority of this amount attributed to costs related to paper purchase and printing. Experts forecast that eliminating the need to print invoices could bring savings of 20 to even 70 percent, depending on the implemented system and the size of the enterprise. As forecasts predict, the transition to electronic invoices will allow for savings in the European Union on the order of 60 to 200 billion euros annually.
Market leaders
Activities related to electronic account handling, which are currently used in the Business to Business model (or at least encouraged to be used), will soon be transferred to the Business to Consumer model.
The article comes from the magazine “e-Fakty” 5/2006.