Eneco on e-Invoicing: “Less manual work, fewer errors, faster payments”

“The market demands it,” Ilse Bouwman, Customer Service Manager for Corporate Accounts at Eneco, a large Dutch energy producer and supplier, has noticed the growing interest in eInvoicing.

This is due to national and European legislation stipulating that public sector parties or organisations that work for the government must receive and process electronic invoices in UBL format as per April 2019. Because this regards a significant number of Eneco’s corporate accounts, it also affects the energy company itself. That is why Eneco has started a trajectory for implementing eInvoicing in 2018. Bouwman also notices an increased interest due to other reasons: “Customers ask questions about the potential advantages of electronic invoicing”, she says. 

The move to eInvoicing does in fact offer all kinds of benefits, says Sonja Thissen, Business Technology Consultant at Eneco. But first, she would like to clear up a common misconception. eInvoicing is somewhat different to sending an invoice digitally, she says: “A digital invoice is sent by e-mail in a PDF, CSV or other format, for instance, and is processed manually in the bookkeeping. With eInvoicing, there is a network connecting the sender and receiver, and invoices are processed automatically in the recipient’s bookkeeping.” This results in: “Less manual work, faster payments and fewer errors due to automatic processing. Furthermore, it reduces quibbles about the accuracy of invoices because you both have the same facts. The chance of an invoice getting lost also reduces. It is a genuine improvement in efficiency for both us and the customer”, says Bouwman.

e-Invoicing removes complexity 

Some of Eneco’s customers work at hundreds of locations. In the paper world these were all on one invoice at the request of the client, states Thissen. “If there was a problem with one location’s details, the entire payment stalled. With e-Invoicing, the invoices are sent per location, which eradicates this problem.” 

Indirectly, it also has a significant effect on the financial side, says Bouwman. “We reduce our internal costs. Furthermore, we get paid quicker and payments are more reliable. We have greater security that invoices will be paid on time. That is beneficial to our working capital.” Furthermore, the project is in line with Eneco’s sustainability goals to reduce the use of paper and CO2 emissions. Plus: many parties have not yet started with eInvoicing, says Bouwman: “We identified this trend and picked up early on.”

How did Eneco tackle the challenge?

Eneco started the project on a small scale with a large Dutch municipality and one retail company.  Although it might seem small scale, Bouwman emphasises:  “You’re still talking about hundreds of invoices being sent per month.” This allowed the energy company to get some experience under its belt.

The implementation of the system was smooth, in cooperation with the Dutch eInvoicing service provider Storecove. Eneco was connected to the PEPPOL network within a few days. PEPPOL enables businesses across Europe to communicate electronically with public buyers in various stages of the procurement process. The energy company delivered test invoices to kick off the test process in collaboration with Storecove. “It’s important that customers understand that they will have to dedicate time to this phase, says Thissen. “It requires good coordination between Eneco, the customer and Storecove.” Furthermore, the service provider guided Eneco through the necessary steps: “They kept us continually updated with each step, so we could follow it and learn from the process.”

What will the future bring?

Now that the energy company can see that eInvoicing is running smoothly, Eneco soon wants to offer more customers the possibility to receive and send invoices through the network. Thissen: “Now we see it is successful, we can point out the advantages of eInvoicing to more parties. We can show them how we do it and that it works.”

Bouwman thinks that it is only a matter of time before eInvoicing gets even bigger. “This will become the standard in the energy market, partially due to the new legislation, but I also strongly believe that more customers will start seeing the benefits that we experience.” She foresees increased interest and expects that other sectors will pick up on it. “I believe that it will spread like an oil spill. Customers from retail, for instance, are already asking about it specifically because it can help them increase internal efficiency. That’s the best thing; that companies are not prompted by legislation, but that they themselves can see the advantages.”

CEF eInvoicing

Learn how you can digitalise your services with Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). The CEF programme offers eight building blocks, including eInvoicing, that can help anyone build European digital services. CEF eInvoicing helps businesses and public administrations to comply with the European standard for sending, receiving and processing electronic invoices. CEF supported PEPPOL in upgrading their message exchange protocol within the PEPPOL network. PEPPOL is a non-profit association of both public sector and private members. It enables European businesses to easily communicate electronically with any European public sector buyers in their procurement process, read the full story here. 

Learn more about CEF Invoicing here

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