Everyone agrees that e-invoice saves money, makes things easier and it is good for environment. But if we think situation for SME, this makes sense but still it is hard to adjust business for this.
Good examples comes from own experience and I share my own for you. I like e-invoices but still struggle to send one. There are several reasons for this;
- There is no standard way to send it for domestic customers and
- There is no standard way to send it for crossborder customers.
- There is no one solution for sending e-invoices.
Let's tackle first issue. When I send in my case e-invoices from my ledger system, it is managed by my book keeping company. I ask e-invoice address from my customer and add it to our system. Most of the cases our system knows our customers e-invoice address
and it goes with no problem. But in few cases system itself doesn't understand e-invoice address of my customer and refuses to send it. My book keeping company says that it is up to customer first to go and register them to one common e-invoice catalogue organized
by state authority and then system would be updated and know this address. But before that I have an option either send it as e-mail attachment or by snail mail.
Second issue is when I send invoices to another country. Our system knows only domestic solution. If customer is on another country, then only options are snail mail or email attachment.
Thirdly, there is no one solution how to make invoices and not to roll a dice and wonder if this e-invoice goes thru or not. Or how to check if my customer even got invoice on time. Sometimes they tend to disappear on a way to customer. When you are SME,
you don't have too much money to spend for different options or spend too much time for several e-invoice projects.
When big market makers are planning on how e-invoice should be implemented, it would be wise to think one step closer how to send invoices for customers.