The goal of the future is that when you place orders, invoice a customer or generate a receipt, the documents and vouchers would be structured, i.e. machine-readable, and transferred digitally. When digital, orders are called procurement messages, invoices are called e-invoices, and receipts are called eReceipts. Digital vouchers are transmitted between companies and systems via interfaces. In the future, information can also be transmitted between digital identity wallets. Read more about procurement messages, e-invoices and eReceipts.
Here you have an example of how digital vouchers would function in the future:
- When concluding a contract, trading partners prepare a catalogue of the products and services covered by the contract and the prices agreed for them.
- When a company places an order, a machine-readable, i.e., structured procurement is generated according to the agreed catalogue. Because the order data is in machine-readable format, the data is immediately transmitted to the trading partner’s systems (such as accounts receivable, inventory system or the enterprise resource planning system), automatically and securely.
- In the same way, a machine-readable order confirmation is transferred from the supplier to the customer.
- Once the product or service has been delivered, an invoice is created based on the structured information in the order and order confirmation.
- When the invoice arrives at the customer, it is automatically posted in the purchase ledger.
- In principle, a pre-defined, structured product and service catalogue created in connection with the offer, procurement decision and contract enables the verification of the invoice information – whether, for example, the hourly or daily prices and the unit or lot prices of the products correspond to the prices agreed in the catalogue.
- The company can determine how the validation checks and approval of invoices should be carried out.
- With trading vouchers in a structured format, the accounting information of the vouchers is automatically transferred to the accounting of both partners and also to various reports.