Why it’s time to embrace e-invoicing

From the smallest enterprises to multinationals that span continents, the global business community sends hundreds of billions of invoices a year – and every organisation is impacted by government mandates to go digital.

E-invoicing isn’t new, but 2026 sees voluntary up-take move to compulsory adoption in some of the most material markets across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Designed to increase compliance, combat fraud and reduce the VAT gap, it entered force in Poland and Belgium earlier this year, with France due to go live in September. Other jurisdictions – UAE, Germany and Ireland, for example – are laying the groundwork for a full switch-on in 2027 and 2028, with the UK following in 2029.

With most countries now set to adopt e-invoicing or reporting by 2030, the ripples will reach beyond these nations, affecting any business that trades across their borders.

For multinationals, getting to grips with what’s happening where, and when, is business critical. Because non-compliance doesn’t just mean penalties or fines; it can halt the flow of payments in and out of the organisation. And getting it right could be transformational.

Navigating international complexity

E-invoicing is not emails and PDFs. It’s the requirement for invoices – primarily B2B, but also B2G and B2C – to be sent, received and stored in a structured digital format.

As with many tax initiatives, it comes with complexities.

“Jurisdictions are doing things differently, both in terms of the requirements and timescales,” explains Giuseppe Ciampa, Director, Indirect Tax. “The challenge for businesses is to make sense of all these different local obligations and get ready. And it’s not just the volume of transactions they have to deal with; it’s the number of stakeholders they’re having to bring to the table to address this in every country in which they operate.”

For businesses, there are big wins in getting ahead of this, including enhanced compliance, cost savings, efficiencies and new data insights. For governments, there are opportunities to smooth the whole tax process. For both, there are the green benefits of going fully digital.

It’s easy, therefore, to see why so many global companies are looking for guidance from an expert provider.

“With momentum building, and the potential to harness these opportunities, large organisations are asking whether doing this on a piecemeal basis, as mandates happen, is the right approach,” says Demian de Souza, Indirect Tax Partner. “A lot of them are now turning to us and asking whether there’s a more scalable way to do it. Can they engage with us, then switch on services seamlessly as a new country goes live?”

The answer is yes.

Insight, expertise and a tailored solution

Deloitte is providing peace of mind through new tax services that offer clients support at every stage of their e-invoicing journey. That might mean help to understand obligations, assistance to identify the best in-house tech, an interim solution until a client completes their own finance transformation, or a full global outsource.

In fact, Deloitte and Thomson Reuters have come together to deliver an end-to-end service that helps organisations address the operational challenges of e-invoicing and e-reporting. Using Thomson Reuters’ market-leading ONESOURCE Pagero platform, we can manage these processes alongside clients’ standard indirect tax compliance requirements.

By integrating our services with a global technology flexible enough to respond to future developments, enable operational efficiency and deliver strategic insight, we can help businesses respond confidently to regulatory change – leaving leaders to focus on their own priorities.

A travel tech brand with a worldwide footprint had already contracted Deloitte to manage their data alongside their global compliance. For them, only having to provide their data once was extremely attractive, and having already seen up close what Deloitte could bring it was a natural fit to extend the service to support their e-invoicing requirements.

Meanwhile, a global technology, media and telecommunications company had differing degrees of activity across its markets, and didn’t want to invest in an in-house solution in every jurisdiction. Engaging Deloitte to provide services in smaller geographies made much more economic sense.

Another client had been grappling with how to navigate the complexities and made a long-term commitment to a tech provider. Not wanting to be tied in for so long, they came to Deloitte looking for a better solution.

“Often, organisations don't have the expertise or the people on the ground in local markets to figure out an answer themselves,” continues Demian. “One of the things they really value is the insight we bring to the conversation. So, looking beyond the regulation to what’s happening in the country. For example, how are businesses responding in Germany? What technologies and approaches are they adopting? How practically is this being interpreted in the jurisdiction? These are the questions clients have in their minds.”

A new dawn for data

Access to the latest tech is a huge draw for companies considering outsourcing.

In this space, client environments can be complicated, so integration has to be thoughtful. Middleware, for example, can simplify the flow of data between the company and Deloitte’s Tax Operate systems to avoid disruption.

Addressing any gaps in the data is another area where Deloitte can offer support. “When companies go out into the market to look for solutions, big assumptions are often made regarding what the business can deliver – principally, that the data exists and is good quality,” says Giuseppe.

“You can find out further down the road that there’s a whole bunch of problems, and then it’s a bit late in the day to start fixing things. We’re not just tax; we’re tax, technology, process and data governance. And bringing the whole spectrum of what’s needed for e-invoicing frequently starts with data, because without it everything can quickly fall over.”

There’s a real opportunity for organisations to improve the quality of their information. With e-invoicing, there’s no one in the process correcting and packaging up data before it’s sent to the tax authority, as it goes out the door automatically. Getting it right is imperative and while that presents challenges, it will open up new insights that include a real-time picture of the customer base.

For governments, getting data sooner and from the source will help them monitor tax liabilities, business activity and economies, and that could change compliance and audit processes as we know them. In Poland, where e-invoicing became mandatory on 1 February, there’s no longer a traditional tax return. Instead, we see a more connected ecosystem between the authority and taxpayers.

“I think we're going to end up in a world where compliance data is not a defined subset of wider business data,” continues Giuseppe. “E-invoices are really just financial documents that connect to wider business lifecycles such as business contracts, delivery documents and payment terms – all of which are helpful to tax authorities to tap into when trying to understand a business’s tax compliance position.”

Compliance may be the immediate driver here, but the benefits extend much further. As well as harnessing high-quality data, there are opportunities to make processes far more efficient, reduce costs and improve transparency across tax and finance. For businesses that embrace e-invoicing, it can be the foundation for long-term transformation.

Set your strategy and act now

With the UK mandating e-invoicing in 2029, domestically headquartered companies have some breathing space. But no business can rest on its laurels.

Those that have worked hard to address e-invoicing have consistently spoken of not fully realising the effort required to set everything up. There’s a lot to plan for, from agreeing budgets and securing technology licences, to managing the impacts on internal IT and business teams and external stakeholders, including customers and suppliers.

“If there’s one thing leaders should do, it’s think about this now,” says Demian. “Figuring out what your strategy is, and working out how you’re impacted and when, is imperative.”

Having that understanding can also take companies from worrying about the risks of non-compliance to re-imagining the tax function of the future. With greater automation, will skillsets change? Will tax professionals previously engaged in compliance become custodians of governance instead?

“This is a glass-half-full opportunity,” Giuseppe concludes. “E-invoicing has been around for decades but that’s because it provides value back to a business. When authorities say there are benefits in e-invoicing, they mean it; this isn’t compliance for compliance sake.”