Norway joining the elite

Norway: “The transition to electronic invoicing is a major milestone on the path to complete digitisation of invoice management by the Norwegian public sector. By 1 July this year, almost half a million Norwegian companies will have to start sending their invoices to the State in electronic rather than paper form”

What is needed is a sufficient number of service providers for the SMEs (banks especially important) - and then the deadlines (not only - but especially in the public sector - to save tax payers' money). Deadlines because the SME sector have small immidiate benefits (1% of a small turnover may not be enough) and do not have time to realize that sizeable benefits that are enabled by structured invoicing (real time view of financials, lower risks, easier and cheaper financing, better cashflow,automated VAT reporting etc) - while the immidiate benefits for larger enterprises and the public sector are huge.

Some 15 countries have set public sector deadlines and more are on their way.