Electronic Business Knowledge Village

With the launch of the European Multi-Stakeholder Forum during the first meeting on 13 September 2011 in Brussels the European e-Invoicing train moves again. Personally I really hope that the people on board are going to heat up the discussion and force a breakthrough on the adoption and diffusion of e-Invoicing. It is time for a positive sound from people who are not making money of e-Invoicing but care about economical and environmental sustainability of Europe. The European Commission made the development of e-Invoicing an objective in the eEurope Actions plans of 2002 and 2005, as well as in the i2010 strategy and in the Competitive and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP). To realize these goals the European Commission, at the end of 2006, formed an informal Task Force of industry experts with the objective to pave the way for future work on a European e-Invoicing Framework (E.E.I.F.). In July 2007 the Informal Task Force reported that Electronic Invoicing could significantly ...

While analysts and investors have always focused on the financial position of companies, today environmental aspects are becoming of greater interest and importance. Financial investors are increasingly assessing the contribution that environmental issues have on intangible corporate value, such as brand value, customer loyalty and retention, and corporate reputation. With the growing attention for the principles of sustainability many companies started publishing their annual Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) achievements and/or include relevant environmental key performance indicators in their annual reports. Stakeholders want companies to disclose information about how they have performed in their value creation process, how they have maximized the value of their intangible assets and how they have / will contribute to the environmental theme of climate change. Studies of several Research Organizations and Institutions in the past years show the environmental impact of switc...

The European Commission on 28 January 2009 adopted a proposal to change the VAT Directive 2006/112/EC (from 28 November 2006) with respect to invoicing rules. The main objectives are to reduce burden on business, increase the use of e-Invoicing, support small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and help member states tackle fraud. Regulatory requirements for Electronic Invoicing will change with the advent of the measures aimed at further simplifying, modernizing and harmonizing the VAT invoicing rules. The foundation of the proposal is based on “equal treatment of paper and electronic invoices” in a technologically neutral way by removing the conditions for an Advanced Electronic Signature (AES) and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). While in the world of electronic agreements and contracts the need for electronic signatures is apparent the reasoning is that e-Invoicing is part of a larger process where every process step contributes to authenticity and integrity of the trade tran...