Tuesday 18th June, 2013

The UK Government has taken a step closer in the drive towards universal e-invoicing transactions for public procurement and SMEs with the publication of the Information Economy Strategy. While the strategy is still more than a few steps away from mandating the use of einvoicing, the Government has not ruled that out as a possibility, stating that they will "take action at a later date, if required." The report states that the aim "is for central government to use electronic invoicing for all transactions."

Ultimately, the initiative is all about making the UK easier to do business with - speeding up the process and efficiencies for suppliers once they've won contracts. Of course several public sector organisations are already using e-invoicing to a greater or lesser extent, but the aim is to consolidate its use and make it standard practice. With countries across the world such as Mexico, Brazil and Italy taking a more direct approach, it's essential that the UK does not get left behind. As Nigel Taylor, Chair of the UK National e-Invoicing Forum, UKNeF, said:

"e-Invoicing has been widely used within supply chain sectors such as manufacturing and retail for many years now and this initiative will extend awareness of this efficiency to the wider UK business community, therefore I am very confident that e-Invoicing adoption will increase dramatically over the next few years. The government has a stated objective of being easier to do business with and they recognise that e-Invoicing will help them achieve this, while this is not yet a mandate the government is likely to set adoption targets across departments within firm timescales. Electronic invoicing is aligned with other government initiatives across procurement, shared services, late payment and access to finance for SMES and the UKNeF are working with the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills to help educate and promote its use across central government, and if successful, the wider UK public sector."

Coupled with an intended aim of promoting the use of online trading and cloud technology, the initiative represents a significant step in driving UK business towards a more compliant, efficient and interoperable future.