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The world has changed more in the last fifty years than in all history and continues to change at an unimaginable rate. Changes have become every day and what once seemed impossible has become our daily routine. Information travels the world instantly and the world has become one big, global village.
What every modern company strives for is to create as many loyal consumers as possible. This is achieved by linking data from different sources, processing them, and converting them into useful information needed by the management structures of each company to measure the effectiveness of their e-business, but also other employees in everyday business decisions.
Modern technology makes it easier to do business in various fields on a daily basis. E-business is Sending invoices to customers is an important step in the billing process, which you know very well. But if you are in a hurry to send an invoice, you may experience some of the common errors that may delay your payment.
An electronic invoice is not (only) a PDF and JPEG file
Many business owners identify electronic invoices (eInvoices) with invoices generated in PDF format, which is wrong. An invoice sent in PDF format to the recipient’s email without XML structure and without electronic validation is not considered a digital invoice, ie, an electronic invoice.
(Not) sending an invoice on time
Mistakes are often stolen when you do something in a hurry. Make sure you send them on time and that clients don’t warn you. This will affect the reputation of your business, and the payout will arrive on time.
Omitted date
A common mistake is to omit the date by which payment is expected. It is always a good idea to indicate the date if you expect payment within 7 days. This way, the other side will understand you more professionally.
Sending an invoice to the wrong person
Yes, this can happen too. We usually notice this when the other party is late with the payment. To prevent this from happening to you, check twice before sending.
Models and formats
The invoice sample and format are very important. Today it is possible to find many invoices samples. Invoicesimple are offering you the possibility to choose the right one. We essentially distinguish between two models of electronic invoices: direct (exchange of electronic invoices without an intermediary) and indirect (exchange of electronic invoices with an intermediary). The direct model involves sending via email, SMS, and other channels, or provides a portal through which customers can view and download in the appropriate format or formats provided by the supplier (PDF, EDI, XML, (). When it comes to the indirect model, a specialized service for exchanging electronic invoices is used. Specialized service ensures exchange, sending and delivery, archiving, authenticity (via qualified electronic signature), and integrity.
Savings
To be able to calculate savings, we must first identify costs. Many do not think that electronic invoices actually save a lot of money for both parties. On the one hand, the costs of printing, enveloping, commissions, and shipping are avoided, and on the other hand, we will avoid the costs of receiving, entering, paying, and archiving. In other words, electronic savings of 60% of total costs are made.
Structured electronic invoice exchange systems are constantly evolving and their advantage over previous traditional invoicing and billing systems is immeasurable. Digitalization of business and the transition to the exchange of electronic invoices provides great advantages over the paper exchange.
Incomplete data
An electronic invoice is subject to the same legal rules as a paper invoice and is also subject to some rules that are crucial for its implementation, to which a paper invoice is not subject.
The electronic invoice should contain all important information, namely: the business name together with basic information such as an address, telephone number, tax identification number, ID number, ordinal number with the date and place of issuance of the invoice, the amount of advance payments, instructions for payment, amount of tax, and so on.
The application of information systems for the exchange of electronic invoices primarily enables the simplification, acceleration, and automation of the process of purchase, sale, delivery of goods and services, and payments between business parties, ie customers and suppliers.
The electronic invoicing system is designed as a system through which all activities of sending, receiving, processing, and storing invoices will be performed. The positive side of the transition to e-invoicing includes the reduction of input errors, reduced processing time, and better control of cash flow. E-invoicing is a legal obligation.
The e-invoice is tailored to every company, regardless of whether the company has an accounting program. E-invoicing includes a number of different input technologies and options and is used as an umbrella term to describe each method by which an invoice is electronically presented to a customer for payment.
Final thoughts
The implementation of e-invoicing is an important step in the digital transformation of business operations, which achieves significant savings and speeds up business processes in terms of reducing administrative costs, increasing productivity, and transparency.
Electronic business is the digitalization and automation of business processes of an organization that uses information and communication technologies to reduce business costs, facilitate networking with business partners around the world, reduce the time required to establish business communication between businesses, and automate the exchange of goods and services and automated billing. The introduction of e-business increases the competitiveness of business entities in the national and global markets.
Large companies, for the most part, already operate in the system of electronic invoices. The term invoicing means issuing invoices, ie invoices for delivered products or services. In the past, invoicing was done manually, ie it was necessary to print the invoice manually and the client would receive one copy, and one copy would remain with you. The development of computers has simplified this work and today electronic invoicing is the most widely used.
