The EU Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) is providing funding for the Real-Time Economy project. The first milestone linked to the funding has been set for the end of 2022. In accordance with the milestone, the project has produced a description of a viable minimum real-time economy ecosystem, and a number of development measures to strengthen it have also been carried out. Ecosystem development work has been carried out in close cooperation with companies, service providers, software houses and the public sector.
The description of the digital economy ecosystem will be carried out in two stages
The minimum viable ecosystem (MVE) existing in 2022 will be described in the first stage. This ecosystem is based on workable e-invoicing and an e-invoicing ecosystem built around it. A more comprehensive description of the real-time economy ecosystem will be produced by the end of 2024 as part of the project.
The description of the e-invoicing ecosystem verifies the goal of RRF financing
Functioning of the e-invoicing ecosystem is verified in the first-stage MVE description in accordance with the RRF goal set for the project. The description is based on jointly documented rules and standards. In this ecosystem, e-invoices can move in a structured machine-readable format so that the invoicing process can be further automated. Creation of structured data already in the invoicing stage supports the digitalisation and automation of financial administration. Automating the financial administration helps companies to make their other processes more efficient, improves data quality, reduces errors and eliminates costly manual work.
The project has increased the use of e-invoicing in companies and municipalities
The public sector has acted as the driver of change in the development of the e-invoicing ecosystem. Under the act on electronic invoicing, municipalities have an obligation to accept and process e-invoices in their public contracts, and for this reason, development work has already been launched with a number of municipalities.
Officials responsible for financial administration in municipalities and other employees in local government financial administration have been provided with advice and information on e-invoicing. For the wider introduction of e-invoicing, the Municipal e-invoicing guide has been published in the project, and it can also be used by companies.
An extensive e-invoicing campaign targeting companies has been carried out in the project, and enterprises have given advice on how to start using e-invoicing. A successful one-time e-invoicing pilot among consumers has attracted considerable interest. A service description of one-time e-invoicing was produced in the project in connection with the pilot.
In addition, the project has produced the e-invoicing metrics for the annual monitoring of the e-invoicing rate.
An external entity audits the MVE description
In accordance with the terms and conditions for RRF funding, an independent external party will conduct an audit on the MVE description. The audit will take place in early 2023. The MVE description will be published first in Finnish, and the Swedish and English versions will follow later in the spring.
A more comprehensive description of the real-time economy ecosystem 2024
The description of the minimum ecosystem will serve as a basis for a more comprehensive description of the real-time economy ecosystem. The description, produced as part of the project, will cover procurement messages, eReceipts, digital identity, business wallet and official reporting. The comprehensive description will be produced during 2024.
The basis for the real-time economy ecosystem will be built around the processes that are developed in accordance with the project goals. At the same time, the project will also create prerequisites for ensuring that the real-time economy ecosystem will continue to develop and expand after the project.
Read the MVE2022 description (pdf)
The file attachments of the MVE description are provided upon request, which can e-mailed to yrityksendigitalous (at) prh.fi.