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Portugal and its Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira, AT, have been working on implementing eInvoicing in the country for many years as part of their move towards an eProcurement strategy. The entry into force in 2004 of the Decreto-Lei no. 256/2003, of 21 October 2003 laid the foundations for eInvoicing in Portugal; establishing the technical conditions for the sending, processing, receiving and archiving e-invoices, as well as recommending their use in the country's public administrations.

The implementation of eInvoicing in France has been work in progress for several years. In 2014, the French Ministry for the Economy and Finance published Ordinance No. 2014-697 of 26 June 2014 for the development of eInvoicing, and with this it was established that eInvoicing had to be used for French public procurement. In other words, the companies issuing invoices to French public administrations must issue electronic invoices, and the French public administrations must receive and accept them electronically as well.

The Italian Council of Ministers, at the proposal of the President Giuseppe Conte and the Minister of Economy and Finance, Giovanni Tria, in consultation with the Minister of Economic Development, Luigi Di Maio and the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Toninelli Danilo, approved on 27 June 2018 a decree-law that introduces some urgent provisions on the obligations for electronic invoicing in Italy for companies in the fuel sector.

Despite eInvoicing not being mandatory in the United Kingdom, in contrast to the situation in many countries across Europe and Latin America, a major boost has been given to its voluntary use in recent years. The UK National e-Invoicing Forum was set up in 2010 in order to promote eInvoicing in the country’s public and private sectors. Later, in 2015, the publication of the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act established the possibility of regulating the use of eInvoicing in B2G relations in the United Kingdom, and VAT Notice 800/63 of 22 May 2015 gave British economic operators the option to choose between paper invoices and e-invoices.

In April 2018, the German National IT Planning Council, IT-Planungsrat, decided to establish the mandatory use of the eDelivery PEPPOL network for the issuing of electronic invoices to the public administrations in Germany. The application schedule will be decided in October, but the decision made in April already establishes the first step for eInvoicing in the German public sector.

Electronic invoicing in Italy was first promoted through the Finance Act of 2008 (Italian Legge 24 December 2007, no. 244), which established the issuing, transmission, storing and archiving of invoices issued with the public authorities (B2G) in electronic format, with the aim of simplifying the process for invoicing and registering tax operations.

PEPPOL is a set of standards and specifications enabling cross-border eProcurement among the various European countries. The use of this network is governed by a multi-lateral agreement structure born during the development of the Pan-European Public Procurement Online project, which took place between May 2008 and August 2012. These requirements are currently owned and maintained by OpenPEPPOL; an international non-profit association which emerged in 2012 once the PEPPOL project concluded.

Electronic Document Interchange, EDI, is turning into an essential solution for companies as it generates many benefits, improves competitiveness and boosts the efficiency of businesses.

The standard format used in electronic data interchange (EDI) for administration, commerce and transport is defined by the United Nations and is known as UN/EDIFACT. It consists of a set of internationally agreed standards, directories, and guidelines for the electronic interchange of structured data, between independent computerised information systems.

Starting to use EDI means adapting your procedures and programs in areas such as invoicing, warehousing and accounting, to a new language and coding that most of the ERPs on the market do not cover. Why? The main reason is that it is a type of relationship that takes into account both the sender and receiver, while ERPs usually focus only and exclusively on organising the customer and not so much on the relationship between that customer and their commercial partners - customers and suppliers.