In December 2014 we announced the launch of e-invoicing to our customers as of 01.01.2015.
Within our finance department we were really excited on this new improved – easy - way of working … However not every customer was immediately won …. Few of them had some doubts and even refused: “their organisation was not ready”….
Some facts about e-invoicing
We encountered a slow start-up. The purification of our database proved to be labour intensive. Upon announcing e-invoice only 20% of customers had confirmed an e-mail address within the first month.
We’re getting there … Meanwhile, 60 % of our customers have changed their e-invoice address in a central address and already 90% of our customers accept e-invoices.
Needless to say there are some advantages for both parties:
- Sending electonic invoices is easier, faster & with practically zero costs
- Invoices arrive much sooner (and without being lost ‘even before arrival’) at the customer
- Customer questions about content on our invoices can be handled up to 3 weeks earlier in the process: both organisations gain on speed & efficiency.
Tips & Tricks for starting with e-invoicing
- A golden tip: make sure your database is up to date.
- Do … use this occasion to update your database not only for the correct invoicing address, but also check the correct address for sending reminders.
- Don’t … think after receiving the payment of the first e-invoice, that all systems at your customer are automatically functioning appropriate. Remember, as most companies have not yet installed e-invoice procedures nor software, it is often still a person that needs to act upon receiving the e-invoice.
- Do … check in a consistent & frequent manner by sending account statements on a regular basis to your client to avoid any unpleasant surprises.
- Do … ask for a specific e-mail address: invoice@..., finance@.... so your customer can easily retrieve the invoices (once he figures out the invoices are not entered in the accounting software).
I’ll get back to you in a few weeks to report on where we are after 9 months in this process.
