In the business-to-business (B2B) payments space, there has been great progress toward establishing a more modern, electronic payment process. Much of this can be attributed to a market pilot that is working to develop and implement an exchange framework. The work of the Business Payments Coalition’s E-invoice Exchange Market Pilot will enable businesses of all kinds in the United States to connect and exchange electronic invoices (e-invoices) with others.
An exchange framework is a virtual network that addresses the many efficiency challenges caused by the manual processing of invoices and remittance information. A feature of this framework is that it allows for businesses to continue using their current accounting system.
But how does an e-invoice travel from point A to point B in an exchange framework? In other words, how does a supplier connect with and then exchange an e-invoice with the buyer and what steps do both parties need to take to automatically exchange and process an e-invoice?
View this video for a step-by-step overview of how an e-invoice moves through an exchange framework from supplier to buyer.
The success of the e-invoice exchange framework will propel the B2B industry toward its ultimate goal: the automation of the entire payment process, including invoice, payment and remittance information, referred to as straight-through processing of B2B payments.
For more information, join the FedPayments Improvement Community (select “E-invoicing” and “Electronic Payments and Remittance” under the interest preferences). Follow FedPayments Improvement on LinkedIn (Off-site) and Twitter (Off-site).