Valta Technology Group

Procure to pay

Procure to pay automation

Peppol e invoicing

To use the PEPPOL network to transmit electronic invoices, you must first connect to a Peppol Access Point.

 These Access Points perform a similar function for mobile subscribers as Vodafone and T-Mobile do. Where these companies provide mobile internet connection, access points link you to the Peppol network.

 As a result of the "connect one, connect all" approach, once registered, you may communicate with all PEPPOL users, regardless of which access points - or countries - they are linked to.

You must also hold a Peppol ID. The majority of Peppol Access Points may provide these IDs to their own users.

 Which businesses are already affiliated with Peppol?

 Are you interested in determining whether your customers or suppliers are already linked to the PEPPOL network?

 Fortunately, there is a simple technique to determine this.

Browse to the new Peppol Search Portal and enter your customer's or supplier's firm name / BTW number / KvK number / OIN number.

 If the business is registered with PEPPOL, it will instantly show in the results list (including PEPPOL ID).

 Sending electronic invoices to other nations

Do you require the ability to send electronic invoices to other countries? Numerous businesses struggle with this procedure. It also doesn't help that nearly every country has developed its own e-invoicing format, including UBL, ZUGFeRD, Factur-X, FatturaPA, Finvoice, EHF, Svefaktura, and BIS V2.

 If you are a German business sending an e-invoice to the Italian government, for example, you must use FatturaPA invoices. Germany, on the other hand, uses a different e-invoicing standard known as ZUGFeRD.

 This compels businesses to devise a method for creating these invoices, costing them time and maybe money.

The Australian government believes that e-invoicing can save the economy $28bn over 10 years. Sounds great, but what are the actual benefits and why would businesses want to be able to send and receive Peppol e-invoices?  The first thing to consider about Peppol e-invoicing is how you are currently processing invoices. Our resident e-invoicing experts pulled together a detailed overview of how invoicing has evolved and assessed each evolution of that option across a number of key factors:

Depending on which invoicing method you are currently using, the benefits of shifting to Peppol e-invoicing can be huge. Typically we find that Peppol e-invoicing (and e-ordering) can help support businesses with a range of challenges they face today:

Problem: Large supplier base making invoice automation impossible and too expensive

Utilising Peppol e-invoicing, once you are connected to the Peppol network through an Access Point, you are automatically connected with every other buyer and supplier in the network - greatly enhancing your ability to automate invoice processing with all your suppliers. If your trading partner is not on the Peppol network yet, we can help onboard them which doesn’t require any investment from you or your trading partners.

Problem: High Risk of Invoice Fraud

PDF invoices can easily be intercepted mid-flight and manipulated before being received by the buyer and email compromise scams like this are on the rise, a topic we wrote about recently. With Peppol e-invoicing, the sender is validated to ensure they are who they say they are and that bank account details match your records before transmitting the data through the Peppol network.

The network itself is highly secure as only accredited Peppol Access Points providers like Valtatech can exchange the documents over the Peppol network. Access providers like us are required to meet strict security protocols equivalent to ISO27001 covering intrusion prevention, multi-factor authentication for privileged user access and data encryption to ensure the security of the network.

Problem: Cash Flow Management during the Pandemic

Businesses can be crippled when buyers pay them late, invoices can get missed when it's reliant on human intervention. Equally, buyers can miss out on early payment discounts if the invoice is lost or not processed quickly. E-invoicing speeds the whole invoice processing piece up for both sides, removing the worry of whether an invoice has been received and processed or not. In Australia, Commonwealth and NSW government agencies guarantee 5-day payment terms for e-invoices which makes e-invoicing even more attractive.

Problem: Meeting ESG Commitments

Peppol e-invoicing is far more friendly to the environment compared to paper and PDF invoices helping to support your sustainability goals as an organisation.

How can we get started with Peppol e-invoicing?

Enabling Peppol e-invoicing for your organisation should be simple, value driven and cost effective. We offer a range of different solutions to get your business ready for Peppol e-invoicing. If you’re considering Peppol e-invoicing, why not speak with our experts today?

Accounts Payable Automation | Valta Technology Group

Accounts payable automation is a hot topic right now - a simple google search for “AP automation” returns over 80m results. A recent report from the Tungsten Network identifying that automating and optimizing the procure-to-pay process was regarded as the highest priority in the near term. It’s not a surprise, the pandemic threw many core business processes into disarray as people were unable to get into offices and follow their manual processes.

So, it begs the question - who now is the time for accounts payable automation?

For most businesses, the pandemic exposed the holes in their processes, policies, supply chains, and overall business resiliency. Adapting to this challenge has been a mixed bag for organizations, some taking drastic action to secure supply chains, cash flow and jobs. Many businesses are facing increasing tougher market conditions and improving profitability has to be a focus for every business right now.

The traditional business thinking has been focussed on increasing revenue and reducing the costs of getting new customers as a way to improve your overall profitability and as such these processes and procedures are typically, already, optimized and efficient as possible.

In the current business environment, it's far easier to save a dollar than it is to earn a dollar. Whilst ‘selling more’ seems like the logical approach, there are sustainable savings that can be achieved by focussing on back-office excellence, optimization, and automation.

Why Accounts Payable Automation?

Accounts payable is actually an area that is easier than others to automate, with new technologies making the data capture, validation and workflow much easier. With 72% of organizations spending as much as 520 hours per year on manual accounts payable tasks the opportunity to drive real-time cost savings is huge.

AP Automation has become cheaper

AP automation technology has evolved and so have the deployment options and business models available to businesses. Many of which are far less capex heavy and work on a subscription-based model.

Accounts Payable as a function is often overlooked

AP is often seen as a ‘black box’ which serves their business well, by many executive teams. A report from Inspyrus identified that while 93% of front-line staff identified several faults, half of C-suite execs thought their AP process worked “just fine”. Businesses are overlooking an area that can drive real savings, simply because they lack the data and insight to identify the issue.

Accounts Payable Automation can help battle invoice fraud

A paper-based invoice process consists of several manual activities that can be automated. This enables greater control and visibility within the finance function. Especially at a time when AP fraud continues to be a growing concern. According to MineralTree, 68% of executives reported that they had received a fake invoice or experienced some other attempted form of payment fraud. AP automation eliminates invoice fraud, utilizing set digital approval workflows and automated data checks.

Accounts payable automation that drives costs down and charged on a pay-as-you-go model is available to businesses of any size.