E-Invoicing User'S Manual - European Commission - Europa: Fill & Download for Free

What is Accounts Payable Automation?Accounts Payable automation, also referred to as ‘AP Automation,’ streamlines all activities performed by the Accounts Payable department. From the purchasing of products from vendors and suppliers to approving and paying invoices, automation creates efficiency, which translates into higher levels of productivity and a lower cost of invoice processing.Your AP department handles massive amounts of data, such as purchase orders, financial reports, supplier and client contracts, and customer invoices. The department’s effectiveness, as well as its efficiency, directly impacts your cash flow position, credit score, and, perhaps most importantly, your vendor and supplier relationships.Accounts Payable automation takes the hassle out of repetitive tasks. The traditional AP workflow—including manual processes, such as paper invoices—can be time-consuming, creating a wide-open space for errors and a long and winding audit trail that can devastate even the most-seasoned accounting professionals.Automation eliminates manual data entry and can cut down invoice processing expenses by as much as 80 percent. Plus, a software solution will capture all pertinent data and store it in an organized way, allowing the AP department to streamline the entire invoice approval process. But that’s not all—AP automation solutions also have these added benefits:Online trackingSupplier network categorizationE-invoicingPayment submission capabilitiesReporting capabilitiesBuilt-in OCR scanningPayable workflow monitoringSpending analyticsIntuitive invoice user interfaceMultiple payment methods, including ACH & credit cardWhy Should You Automate Your Accounts Payable Processes?The traditional AP workflow—including manual processes, such as paper invoices—can be time-consuming, creating a wide-open space for errors and a long and winding audit trail that can devastate even the most-seasoned accounting professionals. While Accounts Payable automation has been a fascination for some time, not many companies have embraced the tool well enough to improve their overall payable process. But make no mistake about it, AP automation is no passing trend. Over half of today’s AP teams predict that, by 2021, their companies will eliminate paper invoices.Your Accounts Payable department is an essential part of your company’s success. If you’re unsure what you owe and when, you could miss out on growth opportunities with your vendors, such as early payment discounts. They also provide an accurate representation of the company’s financial status. You might have $50,000 coming in every month, but what if you owe $60,000 per month to your vendors and suppliers? With AP automation software, you can run reports that give you invaluable insights that can be used to strategically refine not only your AP processes but your overall operation.In short, AP automation helps businesses streamline the Accounts Payable department’s most tedious tasks, saving the company hours of labor, and freeing your AP team to focus on more strategic work.Tipalti provides a complete end-to-end workflow that ensures efficient, accurate processes and finance-protecting controls. Learn more about how Tipalti works to elevate your finance team.

Bureaucracy and stupid procedures!WARNING: The following content is extremely boring and annoying. Read at your own risk.Treasury has started to implement E-Invoicing system for the last 2 years. Government is pushing companies to use the system as it will improve tax collecting as well as making the daily business life more integrated with digital world. I find it as a good idea and wanted to apply for it for my own company.Basically e-invoicing system will let you get rid of hard copy invoices (which is a good idea because if you want to issue a hard copy invoice, you need to deal with certain printing houses which have an approval from treasury. And from time to time you need to renew your seal etc. Anyway, thats no fun and we are happy going with the digital way)I knew nothing is easy if state is included. So I was ready to dedicate my few hours for this job. I was happy and motivated. Sat in front of my computer and tried to apply to e-invoicing from government website. It is written that they have built a Web Portal in which I can issue e-invoices. Cool!But it didn’t take 3 minutes for me to get angry: if you want to apply for e-invoicing first you should get something called Electronic Financial Seal Certificate from treasury. Hmm, what’s that? I read a bit more and it is a usb stick with a special sim-card for you. Which lets you to e-sign your documents. Ok, makes sense. So, how do I get it?You need to pay money (of course!) to this xxx bank account. Ok. Let me go into my internet bank account and transfer the money… But no! You have to go to that specific bank personally to place the payment. Why the fuck is that?? Why I just can’t send the money to a dedicated bank account and treasury collects it?Anyway, I went personally to that bank. (nowadays only old people are going to banks personally. And idiots like me) Anyway, I waited for my turn and went to counter. I said that I am going to pay for Financial Seal. The guy looked at me as if I was talking about the future of genetic engineering. I insisted: “I want to pay for Digital Electronic Something Financial Seal Fucking Certificate! Money transfer is not allowed, so please ask your managers if you are not aware of this kind of payment”Anyway, I was able to pay the money and left the bank. After a while I received an email from treasury saying that my digital certificate is in production and will be sent to me in 2 weeks.10 days later I received the device. And I went to the official website to continue to the procedure. Now, as I have received the digital seal, I can apply for e-invoicing. That’s great! Ok, let’s quickly finish this process. I have customers waiting me to issue invoice.But hold on young man! Relax. After I submit my application for e-invoicing I need them to verify it and give me access to that portal I mentioned earlier. Ok Onur.. be cool.. relax..My application got confirmed the next day. Then I sat in front of the computer, plugged in the digital seal and went to portal. It is using Java.. fine. But.. ups.. it is not working properly (not surprised uh?) There is nothing wrong with the system, it is up. The problem is it is not compatible with certain browsers like Chrome, Firefox due to Java settings. So users need to change some settings to be able to use the system. That’s fine. I am quite competent with computers and I like troubleshooting. This will be easy!Look, I am earning my life mostly with software and coding. And I am very familiar with stupid computer issues. But this was the most stupid troubleshooting I have ever dealt with. It took half a day for me to be able to find out what the problem is. First, Internet Explorer was ok but it got stuck after certain progress. I googled, read articles, tried 32 bit- 64 bit browsers, change Java settings for browser and OS but nothing helped out. In the end I solved it with a browser called Maxthon Cloud Browser! Have you ever heard of this ?? Neither did I. (later on I found that the issue is not browser relevant. But nevermind..)Anyway, in the end I am now in the portal. I am able to use it. Ok I’m done, right?? No. Why is that? Because you can only issue e-invoice to a company which is using e-invoice. If they didn’t apply for e-invoicing then we have another system for these cases or you can issue hard-copy invoices to them! NOOOO :((( FUCK!Ok, what will I do? I strugled this much in order not to print paper invoices. So, tell me about that “other system”. What is that? It is called e-archieve. How can I use its portal? Is it integrated with e-invoicing portal? No. e-archieve does not have a portal! You need to either call specialists from treasury IT to integrate it to your own company or use a Special Integrator.. bla bla bla…WHY THE FUCK IS THIS SUPPOSED TO BE THIS FUCKING COMPLICATED?!!!!What is that Special Integrator? How can I find some? Can I eat it? Ok, relax young man.. relax… everything is fine.. Some companies can give you this Special Integration services. For example this xxx. Call them, they will help you out.I called them. Yes, they told me they can help me with that “e-archieve” system. If I pay xxx for subscription (of course!). In a few days, I finalized all the procedure that company requested. And finally I’M DONE!Today I issued the first e-invoice. That’s what annoyed me today :)