After a year and a half of mandatory electronic invoicing, the first benefits are beginning to be seen in the fight against tax evasion. According to the data processed by the Digital B2b Observatory of the School of Management of the Politecnico di Milano, which in the meantime refer to 2019, it is already possible to ascertain that between January and November they were identified and blocked false VAT credits for 945 million euros out of 104,7 billion euros of payments. In the 11 months under review, payments increased by 3,6% compared to 2018, with an increase attributable to electronic invoicing estimated at between 0,9 and 1,4 billion euros in the period between January and June 2019.
The data from the Polytechnic were presented during an online conference with the significant title: "Digitalize to (r)exist". In fact, the Covid-19 crisis has demonstrated the importance of digital in order to guarantee business continuity. The trend is therefore destined to grow, but the results of recent years are already encouraging. Meanwhile, electronic invoicing is the most widespread Digital B2b solution: in the past twelve months, 2,09 billion electronic invoices have passed through the Exchange System (SdI), sent by 3,9 million businesses, equal to 78% of the total. 55% is intended for private subjects (B2b), 44% for final consumers (B2c), 1% for the Public Administration (B2g).
Nearly 60% was issued by firms in Northern Italy (34% in Lombardy) and 47% came from the wholesale and retail trade and utilities sectors. Large enterprises sent 57% of the invoices, SMEs 23%, micro enterprises and sole proprietorships the remaining 20%. The regulatory obligation related to electronic invoicing has also driven the growth of B2b eCommerce, i.e. the value of orders exchanged via digital tools between Italian companies, which reaches a value of 410 billion euros, equal to 19% of the total turnover between companies (2.200 billion).
2016 (the year following the introduction of electronic invoicing to the PA) and 2019 are in fact the periods that recorded the highest growth, respectively +19% and +14%, against an average annual increase of 11% . The automotive sector is confirmed as the most digitized sector, with 24% of the exchanges generated, followed by consumer goods (19%) and pharmaceuticals (5%). Digital transactions between Italian and foreign companies are instead worth 134 billion euros, 27% of foreign B2b transactions (500 billion), with the automotive sector as the leading sector (26%), followed by textiles-clothing (15%) and mechanics (11%).
“In B2b – he comments Riccardo Mangiaracina, Scientific Director of the Digital B2b Observatory - digitization has progressed above all on the push of regulatory obligations and, today, 78% of companies Has at least implemented e-invoicing within your organization. Investments in integration and collaboration are also spreading to smaller and less structured companies, but we are still far from full digital maturity".
The benefits of electronic invoicing identified by companies, according to the Polimi Observatory, concern both the passive cycle, with time and cost savings, reduction of errors, improvement of the quality of information and processes, and the active cycle, with benefits in terms of efficiency (less costs related to consumables and less time for carrying out activities). However, 16% perceive burdens on the passive cycle, such as a lack of fluidity in the process of reconciling the invoice with other documents of the order cycle, and 28% on the active cycle, for example due to the need to personalize a lot of information within of invoices at the request of customers.
Electronic billing it can also bring indirect benefits, improving the activities related to the billing process, but only one out of three companies receives them (34%). Among large companies, the percentage rises to 40%, with the most significant improvements concerning the monitoring of outstanding loans (50%) and tax management (49%), while among SMEs, one out of three sees benefits, especially in cost accounting (33%).
