Tag Archive - Electronic Invoice

The Impact of Celtrino Express on Cash Flow

 

For a successful business, a healthy cash flow is essential. Delayed payments can prove catastrophic, so anything which can be done to prevent late payments becomes a business priority. Here are a few potential payment protractors and how Celtrino Express can help negate them:

Processing issues

Celtrino Express and Cash Flow

Every paper invoice your business sends out needs to be entered manually into your customer’s accounts system. Unfortunately, any process which requires manual intervention introduces the chance for human error to creep in. A typing error can quickly become a payment dispute, which then delays payment. Delayed payments often create cashflow problems which then have a much larger impact on your business.

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Posted on June 6, 2012 in Cash Flow Management, Celtrino Express, e-Invoicing, eBilling, Electronic Billing by
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Eliminate duplicate invoices

 

Eliminate Duplicate Invoices

Ask anyone in accounts payable what takes longer to process than an invoice, and they will give a simple answer: a duplicate invoice. A standard invoice takes an unexpectedly long time to process from receipt in the post to despatch of payment, and it is this time factor that makes the entire procedure so costly. However if a second, identical invoice is received, the cost is further increased.

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Posted on June 1, 2012 in Celtrino Express, e-Invoicing, eBilling, Electronic Billing, Supply Chain Performance by
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PDF Invoices saving you time and money? Think again!

 

Many providers and even some governments have been touting PDF versions of invoices as a genuine form of electronic invoicing. Whilst PDF attachments sent via email are certainly electronic, many of the benefits available through automated e-Invoicing systems are lost.

PDF Invoices saving you time and money? Think again!

A study published by AIIM (http://www.aiim.org/Research/Industry-Watch/Paper-Free-Capture-2012) reveals that PDF file attachments are in fact costing more than they are saving. How is this possible? Consider the following findings:

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Posted on April 26, 2012 in Celtrino Platform, e-Invoicing, Smart Admin by
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EU eProcurement Framework Agreed

 

In early February, in a further boost to electronic trading across the European Union, the Competitiveness Council created a set of goals designed to promote online trade and electronic invoicing. Meeting in Denmark, various ministers laid out a timeline promoting several web-based trading systems with a view to doubling online sales by 2015.

The push for greater use of business technology is also reflected by attempts to grow online public markets until 2016, and e-Invoicing until at least 2020. The Danish EU presidency presented figures to ministers suggesting that growth of the digital single market would undoubtedly grow European GDP, perhaps by as much as four per cent over the next eight years.

EU eProcurement Framework AgreedThe European Commission recognise that at present digital public procurement markets remain a relatively niche sector of the wider marketplace, but the well documented benefits of switching from manual to digital processing should benefit member states in the long run. Factoring in reductions in manual administration should also help reduce costs and foster a greater degree of competition between suppliers at the point of tender.

During the same meeting, ministers backed the findings of the European Commission publication ‘e-Invoicing: Reaping the benefits of electronic invoicing for Europe’, which suggests increased adoption of the technology for cross-border e-Invoicing for member states. The report suggests that introduction of e-Invoicing between Eurozone members will significantly improve international supply chains across Europe creating working capital gains in excess of £300 million.

The move towards greater use of eProcurement systems and increased online trading comes in the same week that the European Union legislated for the new Single European Payments Area (SEPA), designed to facilitate easier banking across the region. Although the EU still trails behind several South American countries in their use of e-Procurement and invoicing, these recent changes will finally start to see that change.

 

Sources
http://www.sharedserviceslink.com/file/94290/eu-ministers-set-out-online-billing-and-procurement-plans.html


Posted on March 26, 2012 in Digital Single Market, e-Invoicing, eProcurement, EU, European Union, SEPA by
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EU Sets SEPA Deadline for February 2014

 

SEPA. The 32 member states of the Single Euro Payments Area and two non-members

The 32 member states of the Single Euro Payments Area and two non-members. Source: Wikipedia

In a busy week for The European Union’s law makers, an agreement has finally been put in place to increase the ease with which businesses and consumers can make and receive bank payments across member states. The Single European Payments Area (SEPA) legislation has been agreed and will come into force on February 1st 2014, forcing banks to be more transparent about international payments and eliminate hidden charges.

The changes brought about by SEPA are intended to save around €123 billion in bank charges over six years through cuts in transaction fees billed to businesses within the EU. The major benefit of SEPA however will be the reduction in the number of bank accounts required for a business to trade effectively with the Eurozone to just one.

SEPA will allow companies or individuals to maintain a single bank account in any European country of their choice and make Euro transactions to any other account, anywhere in Europe. Individuals working ‘abroad’ will also benefit as they will no longer be required to open a new bank account in the host country; payments can still be made to their bank at home minimising the problems associated with setting up a new account in a foreign country.

MEPs are also expecting the efficiencies created by SEPA to encourage further use of electronic invoicing across member states. The bulk of the estimated €123 billion in savings is predicted to come from the ease of making and receiving electronic payments coupled with e-invoicing. This will create a more efficient, inter-operable framework.

Technically SEPA has been in force since January 2008, but a low take up has forced legislators’ hands. This latest decision by MEPs ensures that the February 2014 deadline is legally binding.

 

Sources:

http://www.sharedserviceslink.com/file/94302/february-2014-sepa-deadline-set.html


Posted on March 20, 2012 in e-Invoicing, European Union, SEPA, The Single European Payments Area by
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e-Invoicing Up 20% Globally According to New Report

 

A new study commissioned by e-Invoicing provider Basware in conjunction with consultancy Billentis has found that the use of electronic invoices for B2B transactions rose by 20% during 2011. The report found that although many businesses elected to implement e-Invoicing for their own benefit, legislative changes in several countries also had a large part to play in the increased rates of adoption.

e-Invoicing Up 20% Globally

Mexico led the way with legislative changes, mandating that any business trading over a certain threshold must exchange electronic invoices – an approach set to be adopted by Greece, Spain, Norway and Kazakhstan during 2012. The Scandinavian countries, the Benelux union and German also introduced legislation designed to encourage the uptake of e-Invoicing, although most adoption throughout these states was as a result of businesses identifying their own economic benefits for doing so. Finland went one step further by insisting businesses submit invoices to state bodies electronically.

The study also found that the legal status of electronic invoices still varies between countries. In Japan and China, although electronic invoices can be exchanged, they are regarded legally as a copy requiring a paper invoice to be raised for regulatory purposes. Singapore, South Korea and Malaysia however grant electronic invoices the same legal status as a paper version.

Commenting on the results of the report, Karri Lehtonen, Vice President of Basware said, ‘Legislation regarding financial records varies between regions. Paper based invoicing requires a business to understand these legal variants to trade globally. e-Invoicing technology removes this headache as it automates compliance with countries’ different legal requirements.’

Further to Lehtonen’s observations, the use of an outsourced global platform for electronic invoicing has the potential to transcend diverse national legislation allowing businesses to focus on their customer’s requirements, without constructing complex EDI systems to cross borders. As more countries make e-Invoicing mandatory, the process will become more complex for businesses operating in multiple markets; a cloud-based platform such as Celtrino’s Smart Admin reduces the technical and regulatory burden on a business whilst allowing them to trade anywhere and everywhere.


Posted on February 24, 2012 in Cloud Computing, e-Invoicing, EDI, Report, Smart Admin by
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5 Ways to Reduce Administration Costs

 

Despite the turn of the year, 2012 looks set to be another year of austerity and cost reductions. Several well known names from the UK high street have set the tone by reporting less than impressive Q4 results and some are even entering administration.

Here are five suggested ways to reduce operational costs through increased backroom efficiencies.

Administration costs, Smart Admin, e-Invoicing

  1. Adopt e-Invoicing
    By converting to digital invoicing, a business can make immediate savings on staffing, stationary, postage. Factor in slightly less tangible factors such as time and the argument for e-Invoicing is hard to ignore when investing to make greater savings.
  2. Create dynamic pricing and discounting structures
    Offering customers discounts for settling payments early may reduce profits, but a healthy cash flow and balance book is preferable to a sheaf of outstanding invoices. A scale of sliding charges and fees can require intensive intervention to oversee however, so companies introducing such a system should look at implementing our third recommendation simultaneously.
  3. Automate your workflow
    To combat costly human error, introducing automation can speed each step of the payment process by removing the need for manual intervention. The less manual processing that is required, the smaller the margin for error and the less workforce required for accounts payable.
  4. Centralise
    Bring your financial operations into one department. Managing finances across different departments is time consuming, and if time is money, delays in financial processing cost your business. Cut the delays by bringing financial control into a single centralised location and you will recognise associated cost savings.
  5. Digitise your paper
    Your clients may not have an electronic invoicing and payments systems and so they will continue to return physical paperwork. As a result you will need to find a way of capturing this information and getting it into your own accounts system.

Using an electronic invoicing platform like Celtrino’s Smart Admin can help achieve each of these goals and thereby slash costs as a result. Interested? Get in touch to find out more!


Posted on February 22, 2012 in Accounts Payable, Business Process Automation, Cash Flow Management, e-Invoicing by
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e-Invoicing – Environmentally Friendly Invoicing

 

More than ever before, businesses are being asked to prove their environmentally friendly credentials by both customers and suppliers in an effort to help prove the business’ green credentials. Local government and international carbon reduction targets are beginning to bite, and the threat of increased green taxes are forcing businesses to reconsider their business processes to make them as eco-friendly as possible.Eco-friendly Invoicing

Paperwork has long been recognised as a cause of inefficiency, but less well known is the environmental impact bureaucracy can have. It therefore follows that a reduction in paperwork will also result in a reduction in the environmental impact a business may have.

Paper-less

Paperwork, particularly that which requires transportation between each member of a supply chain, is a significant contributor to the carbon footprint of a business. The production of paper in itself uses energy, a by-product of which is carbon dioxide. Factor in processing of the paper, transportation to supplier and then onto the end user and the carbon footprint is again increased. And all this before the paper is even printed and used by a business.

Sending paper invoices and remittance advice further exacerbates the problem, with each postal transaction involving mechanical or automotive transportation – another significant producer of carbon dioxide, and thereby a contributor global warming. Reducing the toing and froing of paper between each link in the supply chain helps reduce environmental impact along the way.

By replacing traditional paper invoicing systems with an electronic equivalent, the carbon costs associated with the production and transport of paper can be immediately negated.

Power-less

The move to e-Invoicing is only the start of the potential environmental benefits. By outsourcing invoicing and other supply chain management systems, additional savings can be made through a reduction of the need for in-house IT systems. A reduction in physical computers and servers results in reduced electrical consumption. Less energy used equates to less carbon produced, which in turn means a more eco-friendly business.

To find out more about how e-Invoicing and outsourced business process management could help reduce your business’ carbon footprint, please contact Celtrino and ask about our Smart Admin platform.


Posted on November 14, 2011 in Business Process Outsourcing, Celtrino Platform, Cloud Computing, e-Invoicing by
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Electronic Invoicing and the Brazilian Problem

 

The Brazilian Government logoThe potential problem of electronic invoicing is perhaps best exemplified by Brazil, reputed to have the strictest e-invoicing regulations in the world. The Brazilian government has the final say on any purchase and delivery – if the paperwork is not in place, no project goes ahead.

Implemented at the beginning of this year, the Nota Fiscal Electronica (NF-e) regulations require electronic bills of lading to be received and approved by the Brazilian Ministry of Finance before goods can be moved, let alone delivered. As soon as approval is granted, an NF-e file is sent to the manufacturer by return. The final recipient of the shipment also receives an email copy of the file.

A printed copy of the NF-e file must also be sent along with the shipment so that Police and customs officials can scan the associated barcode. The government can verify the paperwork associated with a shipment at any point between despatch and final delivery using the electronic audit trail. Delivery vehicles can even be stopped by Police en route, and then scanned using mobile devices. Non-compliance is quickly identifiable and consequently ill-advised.

Although this system provides a number of efficiencies for the Brazilian government, it also causes headaches for businesses looking to trade in Brazil but who do not have a suitable method of interfacing with the NF-e compliant system. Small businesses particularly are believed to struggle in this way.

It is however becoming clear to businesses based in South America that the optimal way to interact with the complex NF-e system is to outsource the lion’s share of the data processing and interfacing to a third party. Using a cloud based electronic invoice presentation and payment (EIPP) gateway such as Celtrino’s Smart Admin system, businesses need only worry about manufacture and delivery of goods; a proper EIPP service will ensure full compliance with the local e-invoicing legislation, regardless of how complex the rules may be.


Posted on November 7, 2011 in B2G e-invoicing, Cloud Computing, e-Invoicing, EIPP, Smart Admin by
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US Government Suppliers are running out of time to join the race to e-Invoicing

 

Businesses dealing with the US Treasury Department will need to begin integrating electronic invoicing into their accounting systems or face the prospect of losing their supplier status. Announced as part of President Obama’s “Campaign to Cut Waste”, e-Invoicing will be enforceable by fiscal year 2013.

United States Dept Of The Treasury

The Treasury Department is expected to have their e-invoicing system in place by the start of the 2012 financial year to give suppliers 12 months to get their affairs in order and to test whether the new system works. It is hoped that implementation of electronic invoicing methods wills reduce current processing costs by half, saving $7 million a year.

A US-based provider of electronic invoicing services carried out a report to identify how well-used the technology was and found that at least one-third of respondents did not use it at all. From these results it is suggested that as much as 33% of US businesses still use manual, paper-based invoicing as their primary method of billing. The survey did however show a marked increase in e-invoicing as in 2010 58% of respondents were still relying on manual invoice processing.

The upcoming change in invoicing at the Treasury Department was not the main reason for businesses adopting the methodology however. 72% of respondents said that they used Electronic Invoice Presentation and Payment (EIPP) to increase operational efficiency, thereby reducing their business running costs. 55.7% also stated that e-invoicing allowed them to optimise their cash flow.

Respondents also reported that manual invoice processing wasted company time when entering and scanning invoices, approving payments and tracking down lost paper work. The introduction of EIPP helped eliminate all of these resource drains, reducing delays and removing the chances of human error creeping into the system.

As yet, details of the Treasury Department’s e-Invoicing system are still unclear and industry experts are warning of potential problems for companies looking to implement their own systems. However by using a hosted system, such as Celtrino’s Smart Admin, businesses can transfer the responsibility for initial investment and interoperability development to the service provider, allowing them to focus on their core business and fulfilling Government orders.


Posted on October 10, 2011 in B2G e-invoicing, e-Invoicing, EIPP, Electronic Invoice Presentment & Payment by
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