E-Invoicing: Solutions for public administrations and suppliers

Electronic invoicing is currently a major challenge for the public administration and local governments in Germany. The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) project “Invoicing for local authorities” (iFLOAT) was created to make this challenge easier. The iFLOAT project goal is to widely introduce e-invoicing in German municipalities and small and medium-sized enterprises that operate locally with limited resources. Both public administrations and suppliers need to understand the changing e-invoicing requirements and their impact early and need to be supported in the transformation process to a fully digital and interoperable process. The iFLOAT project raises this awareness among stakeholders and ensures a rapid, straightforward and comprehensive transition to electronic invoicing. Three main goals are addressed:

  1. Connect municipalities and provide appropriate solutions for receiving and processing electronic invoices.
  2. Connect small and medium-sized suppliers through cost-effective solutions for creating and sending electronic invoicing.
  3. Provide best practices to enable eInvoicing and eDelivery compliant solutions.

Throughout the project, suppliers and buyers will be enabled to access a helpdesk service operated by the Metropolitan Region Rhine-Neckar (MRN) to answer questions about electronic invoicing, national infrastructures, applicable legislations and tools and methods provided by the project. As one of the most widely used electronic invoicing solutions, B2Brouter supports the project as an e-invoicing technology partner, customizing the B2Brouter solutions for the German market and therewith facilitating the connectivity of public administrations and suppliers in Germany.

E-Invoicing solutions for suppliers

To ensure wide use of e-invoicing at local and regional level, B2Brouter provides its free e-invoicing solution to all German suppliers. The B2Brouter solution complies with relevant German and European invoicing requirements. It supports various e-invoicing formats and includes all relevant elements for creating and sending invoices via PEPPOL eDelivery network to the public administrations or any other buyer in Europe. If you are a supplier and want to send e-invoices simply sign up for our Basic Plan which comprises the following features:

  • Create and export e-invoices in relevant formats such as PEPPOL BIS Billing, XRechnung und ZUGFeRD.
  • Visualize, download and print e-invoices as PDF.
  • Send e-invoices to German public administrations through electronic channels like PEPPOL eDelivery.
  • Receive status updates from buyers on the processing status of e-invoices.
  • Retrieve statistics about invoiced amounts, cost flows and clients.

E-Invoicing solutions for public administrations

iFLOAT collaborates with the e-invoicing initiative of the Ministry of Interior and Sport (MdI) in Rhineland Palatinate. In this respect, all iFLOAT solutions (including B2Brouter) are designed for public administrations and are enabled to communicate with most central invoice reception platforms in Germany through direct interfaces. The B2Brouter webportal enables public administrations in Germany to receive electronic invoices via the PEPPOL eDelivery Network or through corresponding central invoice reception platforms from any supplier in Europe. If you are a public administration and want to purchase B2Brouter for invoice reception we recommend to sign up for our Business Plan or to contact us. Among others, the Business Plan comprises the following features:

  • Support for multi-formats (PEPPOL BIS Billing, XRechnung and ZUGFeRD) invoice reception.
  • Export and import of e-invoices.
  • Download and print of e-invoices in PDF formats.
  • Changing invoices’ status and inform suppliers of the processing status.
  • Archiving e-invoices according to the legal periods.
  • Internal routing according to the Leitweg-ID.
  • By arrangement: Connectivity with central invoice reception platforms in Germany.

Overall, iFLOAT ensures rapid take-up and use of e-invoicing among suppliers and buyers. However, another goal of public administrations is to establish fully automated invoice processing. Therefore, the iFLOAT project establishes integrative invoice solutions in the cities of Koblenz and Neustadt an der Weinstraße. These integrative systems will be based on a document management system (DMS), which is used to introduce electronic record management (E-Akte) in the public administration. Both systems are connected the central invoice reception platform and the respective financial software through appropriate interfaces. The B2Brouter API may also assist other public administrations, suppliers or service providers to adapt their IT-landscape to national and European e-invoicing requirements. If you want to integrate your solution with B2Brouter please contact us.

Summary

Both German public administrations and suppliers should understand the need to transform their e-invoicing processes to fully digital ones. The iFLOAT project will support this process in every step to ensure a straightforward transition to electronic invoicing. B2Brouter ensures fast on-boarding process by making its free e-invoicing platform available to all suppliers in Germany and by providing invoice receptions and management capabilities to public administration which sign-up for our business plan or which decide to create an integrated e-invoicing solution with B2Brouter.