E-invoicing
What is e-invoicing?
E-invoicing means issuing, sending and storing an invoice in electronic form. The format decides what it is worth: a PDF in an email is read by a person, while a structured e-invoice — XML built to the European standard EN 16931 — is read by the recipient’s system with nobody retyping it. EU VAT rules ask that the origin stays authentic, the content unchanged and the document readable from issue until the end of the storage period.
Example
A company issues about 300 invoices a month to retail chains. Each one is printed, scanned and emailed, and at the other end a person types it into their system. At four minutes an invoice, that is 20 hours a month on the receiving side, and every mismatch comes back as a phone call and a late payment.
In a structured format the same invoice travels as a file the recipient’s system reads on its own: supplier, number, date, lines, taxable amount and VAT. The accountant opens only the ones where something does not match the order or the goods received.
A PDF and a structured invoice are not the same thing
In everyday conversation an electronic invoice is anything that is not paper. In contracts and audits the meaning is narrower: a structured record built to a standard that a machine reads unambiguously. The two can travel together — a file for the system and a readable document for the person. If you supply a public buyer in the EU, that buyer must be able to receive and process invoices in the European standard; large retail chains often ask for the same in their contracts. For business-to-business trade across EU borders, a timetable has been agreed: structured invoicing and digital reporting become mandatory on 1 July 2030.
Why it matters for a business
How you invoice belongs in the contract, not only in the accounts: in many contracts the payment term starts when the invoice is received, and a structured format removes the retyping on both sides. Fewer arguments over lines means a more predictable month-end. Which VAT regime you work under, and how long documents are kept, is your accountant’s decision — the system only issues the document that decision calls for.
What to ask
- What format does the other side accept, and how does the invoice reach it — email, an exchange network, or their portal?
- Which system issues the document — the shop, the warehouse system or the accounting software — and which one owns the numbering?
- How are credit notes and corrections issued, and how are they tied to the original?
- How are invoices stored, and how are they exported for the accountant or an audit?
- Who is allowed to issue an invoice, and is it visible who issued what?
- How is the electronic format agreed with the recipient when no law requires it?
Issuing usually belongs to the system the order already lives in rather than to a second program, which is a common piece of the web software we build.