2019, a record year for electronic invoicing!

2019 recordjaar

More and more companies are moving away from paper-based invoicing in favour of paperless invoicing. However, the majority of invoices are sent by e-mail rather than using e-invoicing as such.

On 14 May this year, the Agency for Administrative Simplification (ASA) published its annual report on the use of electronic invoicing in Belgium.

The good news is electronic invoicing is on the rise! Almost 70% of invoices sent to businesses and almost 60% of invoices sent to private consumers are transmitted electronically.

Electronic invoicing in Belgium in 2019E-invoicing still has a way to go

However, on closer inspection, sending invoices by e-mail is experiencing particularly strong growth: it accounts for 54.63% of the 69.22% of B2B invoices sent electronically.

This means that only 14.59% of these invoices can actually be described as e-invoices, i.e. invoices in the form of a structured electronic file that can be processed automatically by the recipient's invoicing software.  

While e-mail invoicing is gaining popularity compared to 2018 (+7.79% for B2B and +7.74% for B2C), structured electronic invoices show a slight decrease (-0.39% for B2B and -1.09% for B2C).

Greater savings with e-invoicing!

However, as the ASA notes in its report, companies can save up to €5.77 per incoming invoice if they receive a structured electronic invoice instead of a paper invoice. An invoice by e-mail only saves €0.36.

Thanks to the increase in electronic invoicing in 2019, Belgian citizens and businesses have saved more than €129 million in administrative expenses, the Agency notes. It is clear that e-invoicing still represents a largely untapped savings potential! 

 

Read the full report on the ASA website.

Share this article

Nos partenaires