We have already spoken in the blog about the steps that are being taken, at a European level, to normalize and standardize the use of the electronic invoice in the public sector. After the directive in January, another was announced in April, giving form to the European rule with which all EU governments will have to comply with regards all invoices received in the context of public contracts.
This document, which was published in May, requires the Member States of the EU to accept electronic invoices which comply with the European regulation for the semantic data format for the key elements of an electronic invoice (or rather, what information the invoice should contain) and with a limited number of syntax (rules about how to write this information).
This document, which was published in May, requires the Member States of the EU to accept electronic invoices which comply with the European regulation for the semantic data format for the key elements of an electronic invoice (or rather, what information the invoice should contain) and with a limited number of syntax (rules about how to write this information).
At the same time, in the new directive, the maximum period for this new obligation to enter in effect is specified, which is the 27th of November 2018 for central governments and the 27th of November 2019 for regional administrations.
Electronic invoice standardization
The Spanish government has already started to implement this new obligation o emitting invoices to the administration in an electronic format, with an adaptation period until January 2015. It seems they do not want to wait for the European regulation, nor the periods fixed by the EU, which may mean that there will be changes later, forcing its providers to adapt when the new regulation is published and the the European deadline is approaching.
Due to the rapid advancement of the digital environment in the business world, administrations in different countries have already begun to accept the fact that electronic invoicing is now a reality and that it is important to regulate it in parallel with its implementation in business processes. In addition, the possibility of saving resources is a point of great value for a government such as Spain's in the current economic situation. The agility in management thanks to automation will reduce the administration's late payments, which is an important factor in the recovery of the business sector. And, in particular, the ability to work with data and information that is extracted in a clean and orderly manner by completely digitizing the process of receiving and managing payments provides essential visibility for drawing conclusions about the state of the economic engine that is the country's businesses.
Due to this, it is not surprising that the government has been ambition with the setting of January 2015 as the deadline for the electronic invoice in Spain. It is also easy to assume that, sooner or later, steps will be taken to include private contract between companies also.
Our advice with this panorama is that one should use an electronic invoicing process management and invoice workflows, managed and with the capacity to adapt to all changes that may happen.
