Electronic invoice is more commonly referred to as e-invoice. As the name suggests, these are invoices prepared electronically and sent to individuals’ e-mail addresses, usually in pdf or xml formats.
An electronic invoice system is used by many government agencies and private organizations. Billing preferences are generally left to the consumer. The consumer can choose to receive their invoice in print or electronically. For e-invoice viewing, it is sufficient to log into the system with information such as subscription number or username. A pdf reader or a web browser is required.
What is an Electronic Invoice System?
Electronic invoices may reflect the cost of a service offered by a provider, such as electricity, water, or natural gas. It can also be an invoice for a product purchased online. In e-shopping, invoices are often sent both in print and electronically. It is foreseen that all organizations soon will use e-invoicing.
E-invoicing is not just for individual consumers. It is often preferred between companies. This simplifies the inter-company invoicing process. The time allocated to the cargo process is reduced. An e-invoice is not just a forwarded e-mail. These invoices are also stored on the servers of the sending company or organization.
The e-invoice system is actually directly related to the concept of e-transformation. E-transformation can be defined as the realization of information, assets, values or needs in a digital environment. The key points here are speed and economy.
Examples of e -transformation systems are e-accounting, e-ticket, e-invoice, e-receipt, and e-archive applications.
What Are Some Benefits of an Electronic Billing System?
When invoices are produced in print, it creates unnecessary paper costs and is not environmentally friendly due to increased logging. For these reasons, organizations try to encourage individuals to only use e-invoicing.
Here are some of the advantages of e-invoices:
- Reduced cost of materials such as printer, toner, and cartridge.
- Postal and archiving costs are eliminated.
- Environmentally friendly, more trees mean more oxygen and more green space.
- Compared to paper invoices, less likely to contain errors or false information. These invoices are controlled automatically through various software.
- Since the invoices will be protected on the internet, the risk of losing them is eliminated. This way it is possible to create an e-invoice archive. E-invoices can be easily found with a simple web query or in folders such as downloaded files.
- In terms of legal validity, e-invoices are no different from printed invoices.
- Creating an e-invoice is a very quick and practical process compared to printed invoices.
- In e-invoices, it is possible to search for specific information quickly.
In today’s world, where information technologies and data security are developing day by day, the use of e-transformation systems such as e-invoicing continues to increase globally.