Koch analysis: e-invoice volume to quadruple by 2035
Global industry analyst Bruno Koch - who is behind the Billentis e-invoicing report - has released a new study on the expansion of e-invoicing in the international market.
Koch predicts that invoice volume will quadruple worldwide by 2035.
For Europe, he expects the big boom to start in mid-2024 and last for four years.
Why Bruno Koch expects a sharp rise on our own continent, and also sees this growth for e-invoicing in the near future, he justifies with four observations:
- The market is in a transitional period with average growth and a lot of preparatory work for the next big milestone.
- This landmark initiative is more precisely "VAT in the Digital Age" (ViDA) whose legal and operational environment EU Member States are currently preparing at their best. The key factor to build a cross-border and digital real-time reporting is that it is based on the e-invoice.
- Although not strictly necessary, most Member States should take this as an opportunity to make the e-invoice mandatory for all B2B invoicing nationally.
- Unlike most other regions of the world, many European countries also use the option of requiring the buying party to be prepared to receive the e-invoice before the supplier needs to act.
Fourfold
Bruno Koch's worldwide quest, and the quadrupling of e-invoices he believes will be a reality by the middle of the next decade, is based on the fact that the flood of small invoices, orders and receipts looks set to increase in the years ahead. Today, the total quantity of these various forms of confirmation is ten times greater than complete A4 invoices sent by letter.
"Due to new legal requirements and digitization, a significant proportion of these receipts are gradually being upgraded to full content invoices and exchanged electronically between trading parties," writes Bruno Koch in justifying the said prediction.
In his overview and forecast, the Swiss author shows with a sketch how the upgrade is likely to take shape. Today's data will slowly but surely be filled with more detailed information such as authentication number and address and at the same time expanded with anything from eight to 16 mandatory invoice fields.
Promising in Asia and Oceania
Looking out at the rest of the world, Bruno Koch sees a myriad of signs that e-invoicing and digital tax reporting are on the rise, albeit at different speeds. He describes developments in Asia and Oceania as very exciting.
"It's the most promising market in terms of invoice volume," he claims.
Bruno Koch's insightful analysis is methodically developed from a wide range of sources. He has drawn on over 750 key sources, including reliable official statistics from several countries and industry-specific user surveys. In total, Koch has taken into account results from surveys with over 20,000 companies and over 15,000 consumers in these statistics and forecasts.
HERE is the eBilling Market Overview report in full.
Caption: Bruno Koch, advisor and author of the Billentis e-invoicing report, predicts in a recent report that e-invoice volume will quadruple globally by 2035.
Photo: E-RECHNUNGS-GIPFEL