What is e-invoicing or EIPP?

It is worth understanding what EIPP (or e-invoicing) means if you are thinking of stream-lining your Accounts Payable (A/P) and/or Accounts Receivable (A/R) function(s). Unfortunately, wikipedia does not have a definition or information on EIPP or e-invoicing yet. Google search defines EIPP as follows:

Electronic Invoice Presentment and Payment (EIPP). EIPP refers to the invoicing and payment process between businesses, or B2B applications, over the Internet and typically via a third-party EIPP vendor. See EIPP under Technology in the Main Topics section.

EIPP is an American term now used in UK and stands for Electronic Invoice Presentment and Payment. Its definition includes three functions; an electronic invoice (sending an invoice electronically from A/R system), presentment of the sent invoice (on line and/or on the recipient's A/P system) and a facility for handling payment for the approved invoice. Modern EIPP solutions use internet technologies to achieve these three functions cost effectively.

On the other hand e-invoicing means sending an invoice electronically. This could be through a number of mediums (e.g. via e-mail). Most accounts and ERP systems can easily achieve this functionality without using a third party provider, e.g. Sage's Transaction E-mail.

ebdex Document Exchange or more accurately, ebdex EIPP, is such an EIPP solution. There are only a handful of players in the UK market offering innovative EIPP solutions.

Tags: ebdex, ebdex Document Exchange, Sage