By Aihedan Dimulati, Global E-Invoicing Lead, Quadient
Across the globe e-invoicing is becoming mandatory. In Europe, countries such as France, Germany and Belgium have already set their timelines. Others are accelerating reforms under the EU’s VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA) initiative. These changes are not just legal updates, they signal a deeper shift in how tax data, business transactions and financial operations are structured, validated and analysed.
UK businesses might not be directly affected yet. But the assumption that e-invoicing is a future issue is a risky one. Many businesses are already feeling the impact through cross-border trade, supplier obligations, and changing customer expectations. E-invoicing is no longer a compliance detail. It represents a gateway to financial automation, operational control and competitive agility. Waiting for a UK mandate may mean missing the bigger opportunity and getting caught flat-footed when it arrives.
Fragmented regulation, universal direction
One of the reasons e-invoicing feels complex is because it is. While the EU is working toward harmonisation, every country is setting its own rules.
In France, from September 2026, all B2B invoices must be exchanged via certified private platforms, now formally referred to as Plateformes Agréées (PAs), but previously known as PDPs. Businesses are required to use one of three approved structured formats—UBL, CII or Factur-X, which combines machine-readable XML with a visual PDF. Germany mandates e-invoice reception from 2025, with phased issuing obligations in 2027 and 2028. Belgium’s mandate begins in 2026 and will be fully integrated into the Peppol network.
While this landscape is fragmented in execution it is aligned in intent. Governments want visibility into business transactions in real time. Finance leaders will need systems that can interpret multiple standards, validate data on the fly, and scale across borders. The ability to manage invoices is fast becoming a proxy for the ability to manage compliance risk.
As someone who works closely with regulators, standardisation bodies and multinational businesses, I can say with confidence: the real challenge is not adoption. It is adaptation.
While HMRC is “organising”, global business can’t wait
HMRC’s recent consultation on e-invoicing drew more than 350 responses. While the UK has not yet announced a formal mandate, the trajectory is clear. Digital tax reporting is progressing, and e-invoicing is widely seen as the logical next step in the government’s Making Tax Digital agenda.
The reality for many UK businesses is that the timeline is already being set externally. If you are selling into France, buying from Germany or operating subsidiaries in Belgium, you will soon be required to receive and send structured e-invoices, regardless of UK policy.
This has created a tension that many CFOs are now feeling: global operations are subject to local rules. For finance teams, that means building systems that can flex, standardise, and scale without duplicating work or adding operational drag.
E-invoicing is about compliance and control
Too often, e-invoicing is framed as a back-office IT upgrade, when it is actually a finance strategy decision.
Businesses that treat e-invoicing as a tactical compliance fix often end up rebuilding their processes 12–18 months later (at far higher cost) when new mandates or geographies come into scope. In contrast, those who approach it as a cornerstone of financial automation are realising lasting gains: better cash flow control, cleaner audit trails, improved forecasting, and faster reconciliation cycles.
Research supports this. Ardent Partners reports that automated invoicing can reduce the total cost of processing by 50 to 80 percent compared to manual, paper-based methods. The Institute of Finance & Management (IOFM) found a 60 percent reduction in invoice processing time and a 50 percent cost saving for companies using AP automation. These are not marginal improvements, but structural advantages.
Structured invoice data is also critical to broader initiatives, from ESG reporting to AI-driven analytics. It delivers the clean, real-time inputs needed to optimise working capital, reduce Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) and improve supplier relationships. In short, e-invoicing is not the end goal. It is the foundation layer of a modern, insight-led finance function.
Trust and interoperability will define the winners
From discussions with customers across Europe and North America, two themes dominate: confidence and connectivity. Finance leaders want solutions they can trust, not only to comply with technical standards, but to safeguard sensitive financial data. And they want those solutions to work across complex ERP environments without creating silos or shadow systems.
Quadient’s recent research with 350 French CFOs revealed that security, not cost, is the number one barrier to e-invoicing adoption. These concerns are valid. The risk of cyber-attack, data leakage or system incompatibility is real, and businesses are right to demand end-to-end security and transparency.
What we’re seeing in the market is a shift toward platforms that offer both deep compliance coverage and broad integration flexibility. Solutions must be able to plug into SAP, Oracle, Microsoft and mid-market systems alike. They need to support structured data formats, validate transactions in real time and ensure full visibility across finance, tax and audit teams.
Without this, automation is fragile, and finance teams remain reactive.
Finance’s chance to lead (not just comply)
UK businesses now face a strategic choice. They can treat e-invoicing as a low-priority IT project, bolted on at the last minute. Or they can prepare for the future and use it to re-engineer their finance operations, starting with invoice data and building outward toward end-to-end automation.
Those who have acted early are already seeing results. They are cutting costs, accelerating payments, and surfacing insights that manual systems simply cannot deliver. More importantly, they are future proofing their finance stack ready for the next compliance change and the next competitive shift.
Waiting for a UK e-invoicing mandate may feel like prudence, but it risks being a missed opportunity. The global rules of finance are being rewritten. E-invoicing is just the first chapter.
