B2B Electronic Invoicing Continues Growth Across the Globe

The days of paper invoices continue to decline, as electronic invoicing proliferates. In 2011, the use of e-invoicing jumped by 20 percent, according to an estimate from Basware and Billentis. One reason for the growth is legislation mandating or encouraging its use in several countries, including Finland and Mexico. In the U.S., the Department of the Treasury last year announced that it was “mandating that all Treasury Bureaus implement the Internet Payment Platform (IPP), an electronic invoice processing solution, by the end of fiscal year 2012. Additionally, in fiscal year 2013, Treasury will require that its commercial vendors submit their invoices using IPP.”

The Treasury says that adopting IPP across just that department will save $7 million annually. If IPP were adopted across the Federal government, the savings would hit $450 million annually, the U.S. Treasury estimated.