1. Results of the Expert Group on
e-Invoicing
Bo Harald
Chair
EC Expert Group on e-Invoicing
Electronic invoicing in Europe – Madrid, 27-28.4.2010
State Secretariat of Telecommunications and the Information Society

2. Expert Group on e-Invoicing - Mission
Defined in Commission Decision of 31 October 2007:
§ Identify shortcomings in current regulatory framework
§ Define e-Invoicing business requirements
§ Address relevant e-invoicing data elements (and linkages)
§ Propose responsibilities for standardisation bodies and time
schedule
§ Propose a European e-Invoicing Framework - a common
conceptual structure

3. Definition and components
of the European e-Invoicing Framework

4. Results
1. Awareness of fundamental
importance of e-invoicing for:
- Competitiveness of EU enterprises
- Cost savings in public sectors
- Service innovations
- Learning
2. Recommendations
3. Next layer visibility
- e-Invoicing is not dematerialization
only – but an enabling platform for
automating administrative processes at
large – a new paradigm

5. Reasons for fast adoption
1. Value of information in structured form
apparent
2. Productivity improvement potential – 250bn >
business case for service providers and
customers (Deutsche Bank Research report –
54bn€ pa in Germany alone)
3. Demographic challenges – liberating for more
productive work much needed

6. Dilemma nbr 1: EU workforce nose-diving
2020
Digitalization key to automation. Productivity
35
million
improvement potential 250bn with e-invoicing
smaller
Automation liberates much needed resources
for productive work
25 m
large
r
Automation leads to real time completion
of processes
6

7. Reasons for fast adoption
4. SME-opportunities
- “eliminating” half of administrative cost – less
economy of scale disadvantages of being small
- becoming integrated e-parts of value chains
- improved cash flow, cheaper financing and real
time visibility
5. Very large savings and service improvement
potential in public sector

8. Reasons for service ramp-up
1. Massive cost savings and service improvement –
income potential for service providers – business
case for investments
2. Innovation platform for further layers of services
3. Reasons for building the network – key to win-
win
4. Reasons for taking responsibility for Society at
Large

9. 2. Key Recommendations Progress made
1: Meet the needs of SMEs as a priority focus. Banking sector could do more
2: Harmonise and clarify the legal and VAT framework based on equal
treatment of paper and electronic. VAT-directive for equal treatment
3: Maximise interoperability and reach. Much work needed
4: All actors to adopt a common invoice standard and data model- the
UN/CEFACT CII v.2. Great progress in ISO
5: Establish an organisational process for implementation
of the EEIF. EC to establish PAN-EU Multi stakeholder Forum and
recommend member states to do same
6: Widely promote and communicate the benefits.
Much work needed in
SME and public sector

10. Time for EU to address the needs of SMEs
• Small enterprises cannot afford to invest in advanced
ERP systems
• Small enterprises cannot afford to communicate in x
number of standards to their counterparts
• Small enterprises cannot afford to support
connectivity to x number of counterparties
• Service providers should take all this in account –
provide the simplest interfaces

11. 3. Vision and next stages
• E-invoicing becomes predominant within 5-8 years, in some
countries earlier.
• Harmonised and clear legal environment will exist across the EU.
• Trading parties have wide choice of convenient solutions and
services- bilateral, 3-corner and 4-corner models in use.
• Standards adopted based on single data model- UN/CEFACT CII.
• Investments made in ERP and supply chain systems and in low
cost and user friendly solutions. For SME’s no investment in IT
solutions or IT skills needed.
• Expected dematerialisation of other processes.

12. More than dematerialization – cutting
administrative costs in all dimensions
Very important to demonstrate full potential for
SMEs:
1. Automated accounting
2. Automated and real time cash flow estimates
3. Automated and real time VAT
4. Automated invoice financing
5. Automated and unified reporting to public sector
All achieved by moving to e-invoicing.

13. Target: Cut enterprise administrative
cost in half
v Build on DG Enterprise 25% target by 2012. 50%
suitable next target for EC, Member state and MSH
Forum. How soon? 2014?
v This would speed up migration to e-invoicing and
make it voluntary (deadlines for unstructured
invoicing and transparent pricing still needed)
v Corresponding cost saving and fraud elimination
targets could also be set for report handling and
supervision in public sector

14. Summary
• E-invoicing is just one step – but the foundation for
wide scale automation of administrative processes
• SMEs should be given more time for business – less for
administration
• Cutting administrative costs in half is possible
• If we start now we may be ready by the time work force
shortage sets in in earnest
• The questions to ask:
• Are we helping enterprises – aggressively enough?
• Is the public sector acting in a model role
• Should this not be the next milestone for the Single
Market?