By: Editorial Staff, Date: January 20th, 2021
With the fast advancement in a combination of scanning, accounting software, databases, and enterprise capabilities, as well as many available tools for finance online and with cloud support, the ability to bill and invoice parties electronically has become exponentially easier. Broadband access has contributed as well, allowing both senders and receivers to enjoy easy communication of e-files fast and accurately. No surprise, invoicing online has been growing at a rate of at least 20 percent annually in most industries.
A key factor in invoicing capability has been the widespread free ability to read PDF documents. Controlled by Adobe, the owner of the PDF format originally, the format has now become commonplace. It ensures untampered documents are sent and received, and the free reader availability makes it possible for anyone to “read” an invoice and print it from their computer.
Electronic invoicing comes with added benefits of savings too. The avoidance of mailing costs, paper, printing, photocopying, and related workload all return valuable funds back to a business’ budget so they can be used for growth instead of paper-processing. Further, since the data to generate an e-invoice is already captured in the accounting software used to create it, the same data is automatically entered into ledgers and available for instant reporting and aging. This too avoids double-entry workload after the fact as invoices are paid or collected on.
By 2025 the idea of paper invoicing should be practically non-existent. The current COVID-19 virus environment and its current telecommuting experiment will push many agencies, companies, and businesses deep into the digital world out of necessity, proving once and for all the modern world can function without paper. Businesses were already marching in this direction as governments realized electronic invoicing was far easier to monitor for tax collection than paper, but COVID-19 may very well be the catalyst that changed the future once and for all. We imagined a digital world in the movies; now we may very well be life imitating art.
