Over the last decade there has been a progressive spread both within the EU and outside the EU of forms of transmission and management in electronic form of those documents that make up the so-called Financial Supply Chain, i.e. the financial value chain which is reflected in the flows of the respective logistic chain that makes up a transactional event between economic subjects.
At a European level, the big leap for Italy occurred in 2019, with the introduction of mandatory electronic invoicing in the B2B sector and for legal entities fiscally resident in Italian territory. In this case the model chosen by the Revenue Agency was the “Three corner model”, i.e. with the presence between the two economic entities of a third entity, the so-called Exchange System, which acts as a “postman” between the two entities economic, receiving and delivering the invoices, after formal verification, and thus intercepting the economic flows. This has led to a considerable decrease in VAT evaded, according to statements from the Revenue Agency. Certainly the recovery of a part of the undeclared VAT was a fundamental component for the introduction of the electronic invoicing system, but the real potential lies above all in the fact that considerable savings can emerge given by the efficiency of operations, therefore the introduction automatic invoice processing between different systems, for example, with or without pre-purchase ; in essence it is a question of making the well-known ” Straigh” operational Through Processing” between different systems, with automation made possible by the layered integration of semantic languages and technologies.
In the European context, other nations have moved into the field of electronic invoicing. Spain already introduced the SII system in 2017, i.e. the transmission of invoices to the tax authority, even if in this case the system does not act as a delivery and reception intermediary as in the Italian case.
Other Eastern European countries have adopted electronic invoicing systems, such as Hungary. Furthermore, also at a European level , other countries such as Greece and Portugal are introducing various systems for the electronic transmission of tax documents such as invoices to the tax authority. The operating methods vary from country to country based on the various legislations.
But this phenomenon is not limited to Europe alone. Other countries such as Mexico, India, Peru, Turkey have been pioneers in this area or are implementing electronic invoicing solutions.
Document Compliance solution , which makes it possible to respond both to the need to create the file in the required format (XML, UBL, etc. ) by obtaining the data directly from the system, and to transmit the data to the authority fiscal, where applicable, via the SCPI cloud integration layer , SAP Cloud Platform Integration. It is also possible to foresee the integration with Service Providers who mainly deal with the transmission part of the file. There are many implementation scenarios, from the Full solution to the Hybrid solution depending on the level of use of the SAP components involved in the project.
Evolutions at a European and global level will continue; in Italy the digitalisation of the order cycle is planned for next year; in other countries such as Mexico and Turkey the digitization of delivery notes and so on. The overall picture is extremely varied and complex. Lastly, it can be remembered that in Northern European countries there is a desire to spread the use of the PEPPOL infrastructure, with the related communication layers based on UBL, as well as to regulate B2G purchases at a European level also to implement electronic invoicing. Holland, Sweden and Norway already use this infrastructure, as recently as Austria, Denmark and Germany for Utilities. Ireland will also soon adopt this solution.
Obviously the PEPPOL infrastructure, based on a Four Model Corner architecture, can also be managed via the SAP Cloud Compliance solution.