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Executive summary

Most of the large firms in Belgium have many years ago implemented electronic invoicing as part of the logistic process with their partners. The exchanging of invoices was promoted by some of the main industry sectors, such as the automotive-, the electronical-, the chemical industry and the retail sector, towards their first tier suppliers. This exchange was set-up using Electronic data exchange and propiertory invoice formats, specific industry formats or later the international UN/EDIFACT standard.

Due to the advantages of e-Invoicing, the emerging Internet technologies and XML (eXtensible Markup Language), the large firms have taken over the last years, initiative to set-up e-Invoicing projects with SME’s acting as customer or supplier.
Beside the initiatives taken by large firms a number of Billing services providers in Belgium provide to a large number of companies a platform allowing to exchange electronic invoicing with their customers.

Although an increasing number of companies have moved from the paper invoice to e-Invoicing, a recent study has shown that still a lot of work should be done, to convince the Belgian companies to take up e-Invoicing. A survey carried out amongst large companies should that still 80% of their invoices are still paper invoices. But this can be change very quickly, because 70% of the middle size companies are considering to move into a maximum of 3 years from the paper invoice to the electronic invoice.

When 15% of the 36.000 middle size companies in Belgium are using e-Invoicing, it is expected that a lot the other companies will follow. This could be the beginning of an explosive grow of e-Invoicing, but still the small size enterprises must be convinced about the advantages of e-Invoicing for their company.

Legal aspects