[Index]
UN/CEFACT puts its weight
behind e-invoicing
Geneva, 25 January
2005 - If well implemented, electronic
invoicing can bring very substantial savings
to large and small companies. It can facilitate
migration to paperless trade, and it could
also be instrumental to fight the “grey
market” and corruption. Why then,
if Governments have approved the relevant
laws and regulations to encourage e-invoicing,
paper bills still account for over 95%
of the total number of invoices in Europe
and the United States?
The main reason is the
lack of a common international standard
for the layout and the data elements,
the legal requirements and the XML message.
Experience shows that
it is not sufficient to have a high-level
legal framework. The continuing differences
in national regulatory requirements, even
within the European Union, or the various
interpretations of the legislation, including
technology requirements, still are a hurdle
for business to move towards electronic
invoicing. Therefore, an initiative at
United Nations level is very important
to remove the remaining barriers to expedite
adoption.
To address this issue,
the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation
and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) has
set up a new Trade Facilitation project
to revise the existing UN/CEFACT Recommendation
6 on the Invoice for International Trade,
adapting it to the business and regulatory
requirements of e-invoicing.
The revised Recommendation
will resolve the obstacles to electronic
invoicing, providing a solution that can
be easily implemented by small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs) and large companies
alike. The draft will be presented during
the UN/CEFACT International Forum*/
on "Paperless Trade: Setting a Roadmap
for Secure and Efficient Trade",
where relevant regulatory and business
stakeholders will present their initiatives
towards paperless trade and commit to
a roadmap to make it happen.
The project will define
what data elements are necessary to make
automatic invoice reconciliation possible,
and what information must be present so
that financial institutions are able to
process the invoice as effectively as
possible.
The various requirements
as to the authenticity of the origin and
integrity of the content of the invoice
will be analyzed from a legal standpoint,
to define “how” a business
should pursue its obligation to electronically
“send” and “store”
the invoice.
Finally, the Group will
analyze the data content requirements
from a VAT/Sales Tax perspective.
UN/CEFACT has called
upon the industry and government agencies
to provide their competence and support.
IATA, the International
Air Transport Association, is keenly interested
in electronic invoicing, not only as a
means to make its billing systems more
efficient, but also as a way to improve
the efficiency of invoice handling procedures
for all parties in the airline industry
(e.g. airlines, travel agents).
PricewaterhouseCoopers
(PwC) - a recognized authority in the
field of tax and legal issues linked to
electronic business – will contribute
its work to the Group. Its advice to the
European Commission was instrumental in
the drafting of the EU directives on electronic
invoicing. PwC also contributed to the
OECD initiatives aimed at achieving legal
interoperability.
CEN, the Brussels-based
European Committee for Standardization,
will also be fully involved, with the
Chair of the CEN Electronic Invoicing
Working Group appointed as Chair of the
project.
Co-chairing the Group
will be the Project Leader of Basel’s
University of Applied Sciences SwissDIGIN
initiative. SwissDIGIN aims to foster
the adoption of e-invoice by Swiss SMEs.
It is endorsed by major players and service
providers such as ABB, Buehler Group,
PayNet, PostFinance, RUAG Aerospace, SBB,
Swisscom, Swisscom IT Services, Syngenta
and UBS.
Other companies and organizations
interested in the project include the
European Commission's IDABC (Interoperable
Delivery of Pan-European e-government
Services to Public Administrations, Businesses
and Citizens) programme, FESA (Forum of
European Supervisory Authorities for Electronic
Signatures), OB10.com, Europe’s
leading third party electronic invoicing
service provider, and Arthur D Little,
a leading consulting firm that is working
with the Italian Banking Association on
a new payment services designed to support
payment automation.
For further information,
please contact:
Mr. Jean Kubler
Acting Chief, Global Trade Solutions
Branch
UNECE Trade Development and Timber
Division
Palais des Nations
CH - 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Phone: +41 (0) 22 917 27 74
Fax. +41 (0) 22 917 00 37
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: http://www.unece.org/etrades/unedocs/
___________
*/ Third International Forum on
Trade Facilitation, 20-21 June 2005, Geneva,
http://www.unece.org/forums/forum05
Ref: ECE/TRADE/05/P01