This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
the UK consumes around 12.4 million
Waste paper is a big environmental concern for offices around
tons of paper each year
the world and paper invoicing contributes significantly to this.
Stefan Foryszewski, Co-Founder and Senior Vice President of
60-80% of all office waste is made up
e-invoicing network OB10, examines the implications for the
electronic alternative.
of paper
E
lectronic Invoicing networks are helping to save business
customers vast amounts of paper each year by completely
although nearly 47% of paper is
eliminating the need for printed invoices. e-Invoicing networks currently recovered for recycling,
help to simplify and streamline the invoice-to-pay process by
another 40% is used just once
extracting invoice data from a supplier’s billing system and sending it
to their customer’s accounting system – eliminating the need to print,
mail, process, manually key-in and store paper invoices.
Paper now accounts for more than
The sending and receiving of paper based invoices causes
50% of the contents of an average
organisations to waste high volumes of paper. Invoice processing office dustbin
also causes business process and payment issues. Think about it;
a computer or billing system prints the invoice on paper – it is sent in
the post, a human being then takes the computer generated output
and enters it in to another computer, the payables system. Errors
can occur not only through human data entry error but numerous
other reasons too, such as using different formulae for dates or VAT which inhabit them. The World Conservation Union’s Red List has said
codes. Paper invoices also get lost. Industry figures suggest that that more than 12,000 species (out of 40,000 assessed) faced some
anywhere between eight and 20 per cent of invoice transactions extinction or risk. This amounts to 1 bird species in 8, 13 per cent of all
regularly have errors in them, and with paper invoices this means flowering species and 25 per cent of all mammal species.
that the whole process from printing and sending is repeated. With
electronic invoicing this whole issue is avoided, as inaccuracies are Paper invoicing also raises the issue of storage and the ensuing
picked up straight away in the electronic processing so there is no implications for the environment. e-Invoicing removes the need for
need for sending paper duplicates. It even eliminates the late payment storage space by providing digital copies of each invoice. Without
notification that is also sent out when problems occur. In addition, it however, each invoice must be archived for a minimum period of
e-Invoicing networks have the ability to archive and store invoices 6 years (depending upon which country you are in) and ultimately
electronically so further remove the need for paper based invoices. disposed of. Space within the UK for disposal is fast becoming
limited. In the UK, the Local Government Association has warned that
Many companies worldwide - including HP, GM, DSGi, GSK, Barclays, if the current trend continues, the UK could run out of landfill space in
Kellogg’s and others in the UK Public Sector – have also adopted an under nine years. Although the UK has one of the worst records in
e-Invoicing solution to save valuable environmental resources and the EU, this is not just an issue in Europe but across the globe.
improve on their corporate responsibility mandates.
A perhaps less obvious concern, but no less important, is the
The numerous ways in which e-Invoicing can assist companies to reduction in fuel and energy used to process invoices. Electronic
advance their corporate responsibility and environmental management invoicing dramatically cuts fuel consumption, and by doing so helps
are impressive. Significant and calculable improvements can be conserve limited fuel resources. OB10 has calculated that in the last
made by switching to e-Invoicing, by reducing paper usage, fuel year, its customers have saved 120 barrels of oil, 246,000 kilowatts of
consumption, and storage space. electricity and 1,633 kilograms of air pollutants through their adoption
of electronic invoicing.
The amount of paper currently being wasted is staggering; the
UK consumes around 12.4 million tons of paper each year, and By eliminating the need for printed invoices, e-Invoicing is addressing
approximately 60-80 per cent of all office waste is made up of paper, environmental concerns by helping to save trees, conserve energy,
according to Envirowise, a Government-funded programme that and reduce waste at the same time.
helps UK businesses to increase profitability whilst reducing their
environmental impact. Although nearly 47 per cent of paper is currently Old-fashioned printed invoices actually only represent the tip of the
recovered for recycling, another 40 per cent is used once. As a result, iceberg of what e-Invoicing can achieve. Accounts become more
paper now accounts for more than 50 per cent of the contents of of a streamlined and simplified process when companies switch to
an average office dustbin. Paper invoicing significantly contributes to e-Invoicing. As a result, with the reduced hassle of manual tasks,
the UK’s office waste. Each invoice takes an average of three sheets transactional costs are also noticeably reduced, typically by 60 per
of paper, which rapidly becomes an extortionate number of sheets cent. It is alarming how much extra waste is caused by paper invoicing.
wasted, when the amount of daily transactions is taken in to account. By replacing printed invoices with electronic ones, companies can
make a significant impact on the environment every single day,
Furthermore, the global impact of wasted paper is a serious concern. and in a number of different ways. Electronic invoicing aims to help
According to recent statistics, within 15 years some 20 per cent of companies improve processing for themselves, but also to help them
Africa’s forest will be gone, which has fatal consequences for the wildlife make a contribution in an effort to help the environment. n
75 | ecoexecutive
Paper invoicing.indd 75 18/4/08 16:38:08
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101
Produced with Yudu - www.yudu.com