Standard Invoices vs. e-Invoices
Standard Invoices vs. e-Invoices
Standard Invoices have three integrated characteristics, often overlooked due to their inherent connection. Paper invoices include detailed data related to the total price, the amount, and other descriptions related to the product or service. It also presents the data in a way that is designed for manual reading. They also possess a tangible form that allows people to manage it manually.
An e-Invoice is an electronic document (in an .xml format) that contains, in a standardized and codified format, all the information that can be found in a standard invoice, allowing for its electronic processing. An e-Invoice includes the necessary data structured in a way that is easily machine-readable to be automatically processed and imported into the enterprise resource planning (ERP) and Accounts Payable (AP) systems.
For an e-Invoice, the purpose is not to be readable and understandable by a human but rather by an automated system. In this case, e-Invoices are structured in a way that is efficient for data transfer and digital processing.