I received an email from Xero today advising that in one month, eInvoicing was to be switched on automatically for my clients’ Xero accounts at no extra cost. I would, they explained, be required to fill out a form to opt my clients out.
This all seems a bit pushy and cheeky to me, but maybe there’s an upside.
I’ve been using eInvoicing for one client only for a few years. It works OK from my perspective, but doesn't seem to make much difference to my life - or to payment speed. However, it might be easier for my client!
I would be open to using eInvoicing for more clients, but the way it works in Xero is inefficient. I send many repeating invoices with monthly subscriptions. Normally, their automation is a huge time-saver, but Xero doesn’t automatically send repeating invoices when they are linked to eInvoicing customers. Even though the invoice is created automatically, to send them via eInvoicing requires user intervention.
That’s a big gap and reinforces my view of the current announcement being quite cheeky. Hey, Xero! It’s great to promote eInvoicing - but get your software sorted so it can be used efficiently!
What does one do when confronted with such a conundrum? As always at Beyond Expectations, we did the research.
It turns out there are significant upsides for clients who use eInvoicing with Xero. There are efficiency gains realised from directly connecting the accounting software to the PEPPOL network - a global standard that allows invoices to be sent and received as structured data, rather than PDFs. It makes it possible for businesses using a multitude of different systems, as is common with businesses, to speak to each other. Benefits include faster payments, reduced manual data entry, and enhanced security. All good things!
The drawbacks are the requirement for both parties to be registered, and the low adoption rate among small businesses.
Both of these are surmountable. For small businesses, registration only requires a few basic steps in Xero, which you only have to do once.
To my thinking, low adoption can actually be an advantage; it positions your business as forward-thinking, and the efficiency gains you get are yours to enjoy semi-exclusively until the rest of the world comes on board. After all, the only way to change a low adoption rate is to… start adopting.
Ready to lead the way?
Try a query like "‘What are the pros and cons of using eInvoicing with Xero in New Zealand?’ in Google and see what you get. Some of the additional pearls of wisdom we saw were:
After looking into it, I’m feeling quite positive about introducing a wider range of companies to eInvoicing. In the meantime I’m going to nag Xero about getting the software properly aligned with this useful, forward-looking tool.