Does a heap of paper invoices overwhelm your accounts payable team?

What about lost invoices or duplicate payments caused by manual errors? Electronic invoicing eliminates these problems while accelerating payments to improve cash flow. Read this guide to understand what e-invoicing is, how it works, and why leading organizations are using it to transform efficiency.

E-invoicing refers to the digital exchange of invoice documents between suppliers and buyers. This eliminates the need for paper invoices sent via mail or digital copies via email. Instead, e-invoices containing key data can be seamlessly delivered through integrated systems for validation and payment. The result? Faster payments, fewer errors, improved visibility, and massive time savings.

What is Electronic Invoicing and How Does it Work?

Electronic invoicing, or e-invoicing, is the digital transfer of structured invoice data between a supplier and buyer. This eliminates traditional paper invoices, allowing transactional data to flow electronically between procurement systems.

There are two common technical standards used:

– EDI (Electronic Data Interchange)

– XML (Extensible Markup Language)

Both enable key invoice, payment, and remittance data to be exchanged as digital files or transactions. This eliminates manual data entry, improves accuracy, and accelerates processing.

E-invoicing solutions centralize all invoices arriving via email, EDI, or an online portal. Robust optical character recognition (OCR) extracts invoice data and maps it to requisite fields. Configurable business rules validate invoices against purchase orders and goods receipts per your approval policies.

Once validated, invoices funnel into integrated ERP and payment systems for posting and settlement. This sync avoids ledger errors and duplicate payments resulting from manual re-keying.

Major Benefits of Electronic Invoicing

Research shows that best-in-class AP teams are 75% more likely to use e-invoicing. The benefits are immense:

1.70% Faster Processing

E-invoicing slashes manual invoice processing by over 80%. OCR eliminates data entry while validation rules provide touchless processing. Teams handle exceptions faster by resolving disputed line items directly with suppliers.

2.Improved Compliance & Control

With 100% digital audit trails, it’s easy to demonstrate invoice approvals comply with procurement policies during audits. E-invoicing also reduces maverick spend by enforcing purchasing controls.

3.Early Payment Discounts

Accelerated approvals allow buyers to capture early payment discounts from suppliers – improving margins from 1-2% up to 5-10% on purchases.

4.Better Supplier Relationships

By speeding payments, suppliers have fewer requests on invoice status. This strengthens the buyer-supplier relationship.

Key E-Invoicing Features to Look For

Here is a more detailed explanation of the key e-invoicing features to look for in an advanced automation platform:

1.Supplier Network

Having suppliers connect directly to submit electronic invoices removes the hassles of receiving paper invoices or unstructured invoice attachments via email. Structured e-invoices feed seamlessly into automation workflows. This ensures 100% of invoices flow digitally into the system.

2.Invoice Automation

Robust optical character recognition (OCR) software should intelligently scan invoice images and PDFs to instantly extract all key data. No manual data entry should be needed.

Configurable business rules then validate extracted data against purchase orders and goods receipts to match quantities, prices etc. This automates the entire 3-way matching process for touchless invoice approvals.

3.Dashboards

Real-time interactive dashboards provide transparency into:

Pending invoices needing approvals
Invoice processing volumes and efficiency KPIs
Early payment discount potential to improve cash flow
Cash forecasting to optimize liquidity
Integrations
Besides standard accounting system integrations, the platform should connect bidirectionally with payment gateways, bank API interfaces, supplier EDI networks, and other procurement systems.

This seamless interoperability avoids any gaps or manual rework between platforms.

4.Self-Service Supplier Portal

Onboarding suppliers onto a portal to submit invoices and check status reduces inbound calls and queries to your AP team. Suppliers can access a complete history of past invoices, payments, disputes, and more.

5.Scalability

As your business grows, the system should fluidly scale up transaction volumes, connected suppliers, operating entities, currencies, and geographies while delivering the same performance. This avoids outgrowing the software’s capabilities.

Choosing an advanced automation platform with these comprehensive features takes e-invoicing and AP efficiency to the next level. Let me know if you need any other details!

Why IQInvoice Delivers Powerful E-Invoicing?

Here is why IQInvoice delivers powerful e-invoicing capabilities:

1.Procure-to-Pay Automation

IQInvoice is not just an e-invoicing point solution. It provides end-to-end procure-to-pay automation spanning procurement, inventory, invoice processing, payments, and analytics. This integrated suite eliminates gaps between standalone systems. Invoice data seamlessly flows from purchase orders to supplier invoices to payment settlement without manual rework.

2.Supplier Onboarding

IQInvoice makes it easy to onboard suppliers onto a self-service portal for 100% e-invoice submission. Suppliers can log in to submit invoices with the needed structured data, avoiding unstandardized email attachments.

This portal also lets suppliers track invoice status, payment timelines, and dispute resolutions – reducing inquiries to your AP team.

3.Rules-Based Automation

IQInvoice comes pre-configured with over 120 business rules to enable touchless invoice processing. As invoices are OCR scanned, rules auto-validate things like quantities, prices, tax amounts against purchase orders for 3-way matching.

Users can also customize these rules for unique approval workflows like enforcing spending limits, budget checks, approval chains and more.

4.ERP Integrations

With turnkey connectors for Oracle, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, Sage, Infor and 100+ other ERPs, IQInvoice seamlessly integrates invoice data bi-directionally.

Transactions from PO to receipt to invoice appear in your financial system without manual duplication.

5.Mobility

Managers can access reporting dashboards, take approval actions, and view analytics on native iOS and Android apps. This enables processing and decision making on-the-go.

With end-to-end automation across procure-to-pay processes plus mobility, IQInvoice delivers the next generation of AP efficiency.

By automating validate-to-pay cycles, IQInvoice customers accelerate purchase cycles by 80% or more. Early payment discounts add 2-4% to annual purchase margins. And AP teams focus on value-add work rather than manual processing.

IQInvoice has been a game-changer for our large-scale operations. Processing 80,000 invoices used to be resource-intensive, but with IQInvoice, we’ve streamlined our payments. Our team has transitioned from a 7-day process to just 1 day, and the benefits are evident – a 75% reduction in processing costs. The flexibility of the platform and the automation features have made IQInvoice an indispensable tool for managing our vast network of vendors. Highly recommended!” – Finance Manager, Leading Footwear Manufacturer

Let IQInvoice show you how leading organizations maximize electronic invoicing to transform efficiency. Schedule a Free demo today to our platform in action tailored to your specific processes.