The growth of e-Invoicing compliance (Part 3): Buyer and supplier functional checklists

Just what defines “compliant electronic invoicing” continues to be one of the least understood areas of procure-to-pay (P2P) solutions. One of the reasons for this is that many technology providers — not limited to just P2P providers but also accounts payable automation vendors — hawk compliance as if it were a bag of peanuts in the hand of a vendor at a baseball game. In reality, however, few single solutions even approach “full compliance” on a global, or even localized, basis.

The challenge for buyers of technology or managed services e-invoicing solutions is that when we address the topic of e-invoicing compliance, we’re talking about a complex barrel of goodies (the metaphorical equivalent of nuts, candy and fruit), not just a ballpark freshly roasted (or generically bagged) special. Further complicating the topic of e-invoicing compliance is that we must fully address both buyer- and supplier-led compliance depending on whether someone is on the issuing or receiving side of an invoice — the two are not the same.

This Spend Matters PRO research brief succinctly cuts to the chase (we hope!) of what a compliant solution must contain. It provides both a buyer and supplier diagnostic checklist to ascertain whether a provider is offering a compliant solution. Also see the first installment (E-Invoicing Compliance, Globally: Beyond TrustWeaver’s “Seal of Approval”) and second installment (The Growth of E-Invoicing Compliance: Exploring Vendor Capabilities and Approaches (Part 2) in this series.