Cost efficiency

Direct and indirect costs fully under control - the major benefit of e-invoices

Direct and indirect costs fully under control - the major benefit of e-invoices

Cost efficiency with e-invoices

Trade is great, the order books are full. Also, invoices are sent every day. These must be written, checked, corrected if necessary, packed, stamped and sent.

Incoming invoices come too: The data on these invoices is typed up and errors are corrected. They are then approved with a stamp, manually posted and archived in paper format.

On top of this, there are orders, delivery notes, order confirmations, etc. These all cost time and money, both incoming or outgoing.

Most of these processes are simply not needed with electronic documents. This helps you save between 60-80% of costs. And this is with such a small investment that it pays for itself in a matter of weeks

Up to 80% cost savings with electronic invoices

Most of these processes are simply not needed with electronic documents. This helps you save between 60-80% of costs. And this is with such a small investment that it pays for itself in a matter of weeks.

These figures are not based on projections under ideal conditions, but come from a Billentis study from February 2017. This shows that many companies, whether large or small, have immense savings potential that is currently untapped. This potential arises from three components:

Reduce costs

On average, a paper invoice costs the issuer €11.10. In fact, when taking everything into account, it costs the recipient €17.60. This includes all steps such as printing, envelopes, dispatch, recording, payment, payment matching, cash management and archiving. E-invoices lower these sums to €4.50 and €6.40 respectively - a saving of around 60%..

Improve working capital 

In particular, supply chain finance solutions ([crossinx e-financing]) are suitable to ensure the financing of products and services along the finance supply chain (from the order to the invoice). This means working capital can be improved for both the buyer and the supplier.

The worldwide market for such solutions is valued at approx. $1.3 billion. 43% of German companies plan to use this service to optimise liquidity within their delivery chain.

One example of such a solution is the auction service from crossinx [credit auction], via which invoice recipients can generate additional discounts and suppliers can be paid faster.

Increase cost elasticity

Often, considerable fluctuations in turnover occur during a year and this is not just with seasonal products. As a result, most companies are now increasingly trying to switch from fixed to variable costs. This means that on the one hand, payment is only for actual usage and on the other, simple scaling of services is possible.

This also applies to e-invoicing services. Instead of maintaining resources for invoicing processing in terms of hardware, software and personnel, there is increasing demand for plug-and-play solutions for companies of all sizes. As part of concentrating on core business, it is rare for in-house solutions to be developed by the IT development and preference is given to pre-produced solutions.

Ultimately, the business case depends on whether and indeed how quickly the switchover to electronic documents can take place. Contact with in-house clients and suppliers is therefore decisive. To do so, crossinx offers various alternatives to accelerate the process and ensure success.

Read our article on how to quickly and easily connect your business partners to your electronic accounting system.

Connecting Business Partners →

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