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Request a no-obligation demonstration now! - [Home](/en/) - [Inspiration](/en/inspiration/) - [Blog](/en/inspiration/blog/) - Beyond traditional OCR: how structured data extraction accelerates the transition to Peppol and e-invoicing Blog written by: Vincent Buijs 5 minutes **Work smarter, not harder:** Automate your financial processes and stay in control, even as your business grows and you face staff shortages. **From manual to effortless:** Save time, prevent errors and speed up your invoice processing with smart digitisation. **Always stay on top of your accounts:** Real-time insight, less manual work and a single digital overview of all your invoices. # Beyond traditional OCR: how structured data extraction accelerates the transition to Peppol and e-invoicing Anyone working in financial administration can sense it: the invoicing landscape is changing at breakneck speed. Whereas just a few years ago we were still talking extensively about ‘scanning and recognition’, today the focus is on standardised, electronic data exchange. Driven by the European ViDA initiative (VAT in the Digital Age), more and more countries are making the move towards mandatory e-invoicing. Our neighbours to the south in Belgium have already officially introduced the B2B requirement via the Peppol network with effect from 1 January 2026. France will follow suit from September 2026 with mandatory receipt and e-reporting via special Partner Dematerialisation Platforms (PDPs), whilst Germany is continuing to roll out the standards surrounding XRechnung and ZUGFeRD. In the Netherlands, invoicing the government (B2G) via Peppol has been the norm for years, and we are seeing the B2B market follow suit at a rapid pace. These are positive developments, but if we take an honest look at day-to-day administrative practice, we can still see a significant gap. For although the future is digital and structured, the inboxes of most organisations are still overflowing with static PDF documents, scans and sometimes even Excel spreadsheets. This presents a practical dilemma: do you wait until every supplier submits their invoices neatly in digital form in accordance with the standards, or do you ensure today that every invoice, regardless of format, is processed intelligently and automatically at line item level? ### Why traditional OCR doesn’t help your administration Many accounts departments have been using traditional OCR (Optical Character Recognition) for years. This works fine for simple invoices: the system reads the supplier, the invoice date and the total amount, and turns this into a single neat accounting entry. But as soon as invoices become slightly more complex, traditional OCR reaches its limits. And those are precisely the invoices that take up most of your time: - **Recurring collective invoices**: Think of invoices for lease cars, telecoms, energy or accommodation. A single PDF, but containing dozens of lines that all need to be posted to a different registration number, project or cost centre. - **Repetitive manual calculations**: Fuel surcharges, waste collection charges or volume discounts that you currently still have to break down and check manually, line by line. - **Matching against purchase orders**: Invoices for goods that you have to compare line by line with purchase order and goods receipt lines [to reconcile differences in prices and quantities]. As a result, you still end up manually retyping lines and carrying out calculations. Not only does this take an enormous amount of time, but it’s also prone to errors. ### The smart switch: turn every PDF into a fully-fledged e-invoice with Elvision To ensure you can start enjoying the benefits of e-invoicing today, we at Elvy have developed the Elvision platform. With Elvision, you’re not dependent on how your suppliers submit their invoices, yet you can still immediately benefit from the advantages that e-invoicing offers. Elvision combines OCR with smart AI and machine learning technologies. The platform acts as an intelligent translator that automatically converts unstructured documents (such as PDFs, scans, Excel and CSV files) into structured e-invoices at line item level. This is done in five straightforward steps: 1. **Import**: Invoices are automatically imported into Elvy via various channels. 2. **Smart line recognition**: The AI engine not only scans the header details but also instantly recognises all individual invoice lines and data. 3. **Data mapping**: Elvision links the line items directly to the correct general ledger accounts, cost centres, cost objects or classifications in your accounts. 4. **Automatic validation & calculations**: The system checks that the amounts are correct and performs pre-set calculations, such as automatically allocating surcharges across the line items. 5. **Processing**: The complete entry, including line item details and any order matching, is automatically (or with a single check) ready in your ERP or accounting system. ### What are the practical benefits? Automation at line item level is not an abstract theory; it delivers immediately measurable time savings and reduces workload in the department. Two familiar examples: **1. From typing out 90 line items to a single check (Fleet Management)** An organisation with a fleet of around 90 leased cars used to receive one large consolidated invoice from the leasing company each month as a PDF. Previously, this meant manually creating 90 accounting entries, entering the registration number for each entry and manually allocating surcharges to the correct cost centres. With Elvision, all 90 entries – including registration numbers and surcharges – are automatically recognised and prepared directly from the PDF. What used to take hours of monotonous typing is now checked and posted in a matter of seconds. **2. From 35 minutes to 30 seconds (Recurring services)** For a business service provider with a weekly flow of fixed-rate service invoices, the manual booking process caused a weekly peak workload. By setting up fixed recognition and calculation rules in Elvision, the weekly processing time for this flow fell from 35 minutes to less than 30 seconds per cycle. ### Ready for the future with maximum control Ultimately, we are moving towards full e-invoicing across Europe. But why wait until the entire supply chain is ready? With Elvision, you can lay the foundations for automated invoice processing at line item level today, regardless of how your supplier submits their invoice. This saves you time, prevents errors and keeps you in control of your administrative processes. **Want to see how this works for your administration?** Curious to find out how much time you could save on complex invoice flows, summary invoices and other time-consuming invoices? Request a no-obligation live demonstration and discover how Elvy and Elvision can effortlessly automate your invoice processing. ## More articles & inspiration [Elvy blog](/en/inspiration/blog/beyond-traditional-ocr-how-structured-data-extraction-accelerates-the-transition-to-peppol-and-e-invoicing/) [What is Peppol and why is it relevant to finance teams? Every finance team has to deal with it: Peppol. But what exactly is Peppol? And why is it relevant to you? In this blog, we’ll explain it clearly, including the benefits it offers and how Elvy can support you.What is Peppol?Peppol stands for Pan-European Public Procurement Online. It is an international network that enables organisations to exchange e-invoices and other business documents quickly, securely and efficiently. Peppol is not a software platform, but a kind of digital motorway along which standardised electronic messages, such as e-invoices, are sent.**Why was Peppol developed?**Peppol was established in 2008 as part of an EU initiative to standardise digital document exchange. The aim was to make business more efficient and transparent, particularly in the context of public procurement at the time. It provides a single, uniform infrastructure for exchanging electronic documents, such as invoices, in a standardised, secure and efficient manner.**Who manages Peppol?**Following the successful completion of the EU initiative, the network has been managed internationally by the OpenPeppol Association since 2012. This non-profit organisation delegates its tasks at country level to national authorities. In the Netherlands, for example, oversight and management are entrusted to the Dutch Peppol Authority (NPa). The National Inspectorate for Digital Infrastructure independently supervises the NPa and this vital digital infrastructure for digital business.**Why is Peppol important to me?**The network has now grown to become the global standard for the digital exchange of e-invoices, and Peppol is increasingly being used for B2B transactions. However, despite the many advantages Peppol has to offer, adoption has been slow; but this is now changing as a result of legislation and regulations.**Legislation and regulations as a key driver for Peppol adoption**Although Peppol itself is not a law, but rather a framework of agreements and a network standard, it has a direct impact on legislation and regulations concerning e-invoicing, as Peppol is often regarded as the designated infrastructure in this context. For example, EU Directive 2014/55/EU and the 2012 Public Procurement Act have long imposed obligations regarding e-invoicing on central government bodies and contracting authorities. Future regulations such as ViDA (VAT in the Digital Age), aimed at modernising the VAT system in the European Union, are accelerating the uptake of B2B e-invoicing.In various neighbouring countries, such as Belgium – where B2B e-invoicing via Peppol will become mandatory from January 2026 – there are already existing or planned requirements for B2B e-invoicing. Work is also underway in the Netherlands on future requirements. For example, e-invoicing based on the European Directive will be mandatory from 1 July 2030 for cross-border B2B transactions within the EU. The Netherlands aims to extend this requirement to all domestic B2B transactions as well.**How does Peppol work from a technical perspective?**Peppol is a global network of Access Points that act as the technical gateways to the secure network. Access Points thus provide the technical functionality to securely transmit messages from one Access Point to another. In doing so, they validate whether messages sent over the network comply with the applicable standards.Access to a Peppol Access Point is provided as a service by Peppol service providers. Among other things, a service provider is responsible for the technical connection and registration of organisations on the network. Peppol service providers may only offer these services if they have been certified for this purpose by a national Peppol authority, such as the Dutch Peppol Authority (NPa). Many suppliers of invoice processing software, ERP and accounting software are themselves Peppol service providers or are affiliated with one, so that invoices can be sent and received via their software.**Service Metadata Publisher**To send and receive e-invoices via the Peppol network, your organisation must be registered in the Peppol address book. This is known as an SMP (Service Metadata Publisher). You arrange registration on the Peppol network via your service provider. This gives you a unique Peppol ID, which is your address on the network. For Dutch companies, the Peppol ID is often based on a prefix followed by the organisation’s Chamber of Commerce number or VAT number.The infrastructure of the Peppol network is based on the 4-corner model. This means that, unlike the current practice where messages are often exchanged directly between sender and recipient, communication always takes place via the service providers (Access Points) to which the sender and recipient are connected. Thus, communication always proceeds from the sender (corner 1) to their service provider’s Access Point (corner 2), which delivers the message to the Access Point of the recipient’s service provider (corner 3). This service provider then ensures that the message can be processed by the recipient (corner 4). This model therefore prevents organisations from having to make individual agreements with one another each time regarding how and in what format information is exchanged. Instead, you connect to Peppol once, and messages can then be exchanged with any organisation connected to the network worldwide. Peppol is therefore based on the ‘connect once, reach all’ principle, making it much more efficient and reliable.What are the benefits of Peppol for finance teams?For finance professionals, it’s all about control, speed and reliability. Peppol helps with this directly.**Less manual work**Invoices received via Peppol are already digitally structured. The Peppol network uses the BIS (Business Interoperability Specifications) format, which is based on UBL but includes additional requirements for validation and fields. Thanks to this digital and structured data, processing e-invoices is much easier for you as the recipient compared to unstructured PDFs. This saves time and reduces errors.**Faster processing**E-invoices are automatically delivered via the Peppol network to your invoice processing software. Simple, straightforward invoices can be posted almost automatically. But even when it comes to more complex invoices, an e-invoice offers far greater scope for automation, saving time and improving quality. For example, with Elvy’s software, you can automatically perform 3-way matching of e-invoices at line item level against purchase orders and goods receipts, or map the source e-invoice to the correct, itemised entry in your accounts. This helps you keep track of itemised details and prevents invoices from being left unprocessed or processed incorrectly.**Better for compliance**Peppol requires structured data and always shows who the sender is. This makes fraud virtually impossible and ensures a complete audit trail. Ideal for organisations that want to operate in an audit-proof manner and comply with legislation and regulations such as VIDA.How does Elvy support this in practice?Elvy is fully Peppol-ready. When you activate Peppol in your Elvy, you’ll quickly benefit from the advantages of Peppol and the features that enable truly automated invoice processing.**Peppol integration in Elvy**E-invoices you receive via the Peppol network become immediately available in Elvy Invoice Processing for (automatic) processing.Using the features in Elvy, you can easily process received invoices into the correct entry in your accounts, approval workflows are automatically initiated, and a comprehensive audit trail gives you insight into the status and events for each invoice at any time. A single process for all invoices you receive, whether they arrive as PDFs via email or via Peppol;Advanced features for truly automatic invoice postingAutomatic recognition and classification of data Matching against purchase orders, goods received and payablesMapping data to the correct entry for your organisationSmart procurement workflows based on, amongst other things, the supplier, the entry code and the amount, with automatic blocking or unblocking of the outstanding item Full archive, complete audit trail and integration with your accounting and ERP softwareReady for the future of e-invoicingPeppol is not just a trend, but an international standard that finance teams – driven by legislation and regulations, developments in other countries and, above all, the benefits it brings them – must already be anticipating. Are you still relying too much on manual processes, and is your workflow not yet geared towards this hybrid era? Then now is the perfect time to take the next step, and Elvy is here to help you do just that. Read more](/en/inspiration/blog/what-is-peppol-and-why-is-it-relevant-to-finance-teams/) [Growth, workload and staff shortages? Here’s how to keep your finance department running smoothly. Your organisation is growing. That’s good news – it means more customers, more opportunities and a thriving business. But as the organisation grows, so does the volume of documents. Incoming and outgoing invoices, contracts, expense claims… and all that information needs to be processed. The finance department is getting busier, whilst the tight labour market makes it difficult to find extra staff.The result? The workload is increasing and staff shortages are looming. Fortunately, there’s a solution that not only provides relief but also creates scope for improvement: smart automation.With the right digital support, you can keep a firm grip on your processes. You’ll prevent errors, save time and make work more enjoyable for your team. In this blog, we’ll show you how smart automation can help keep your finance department agile, even when the workload increases and it’s difficult to find extra staff.Achieve more with less effortFinance is all about precision. But when the workload increases and there aren’t enough staff available, the risk of errors and absences grows. You often notice this straight away: delays in payments, errors in the accounts and increasing pressure on the team.Processing invoices manually simply takes a lot of time. Staff spend hours retyping data, matching invoices with purchase orders and following approval procedures. Meanwhile, the risk of data entry errors, duplicate payments and missed discounts is ever-present – and that not only costs money, but also wastes a great deal of valuable time.Without automation software, it also becomes difficult to keep a firm grip on your financial position. Questions such as:Which payments are still outstanding?At what stage of the approval process are invoices?What is our current cash flow situation?These questions are not easy to answer. Yet quick and comprehensive insight is essential for effective management.And everyone carries out tasks in a slightly different way. This makes processes prone to errors and leads more quickly to inconsistencies. What’s more, bottlenecks often arise when invoices have to pass through several departments or individuals for approval. The result: longer processing times, frustration amongst colleagues and delays affecting customers and suppliers.Smart digitalisation: your key to efficient financeDevelopments in digital technology are happening at breakneck speed. This is good news, because within finance in particular, there are plenty of opportunities to make work smarter, faster and easier. Nowadays, more and more steps and sub-processes can be automated very effectively. This allows you to scale up easily without putting extra pressure on your team, whilst ensuring your processes are carried out more reliably and consistently.Automation software works tirelessly, day in, day out, and does exactly what you expect it to – provided you implement the technology properly. That’s why a well-thought-out approach is essential to really get the most out of smart automation.**1. Seek expert advice** Explore the options on the market and seek expert advice. This will give you an insight into which tools, technologies and functionalities are available, and, above all, which solutions are truly well-suited to your existing IT landscape, processes and the way your team works. You’ll often discover additional benefits along the way that you might not even have considered beforehand.**2. Take a critical look at your processes** Successful digitalisation starts with a thorough analysis of your current working methods. Where are the biggest bottlenecks? Which manual tasks take up an unnecessary amount of time or lead to errors? And what do you want to achieve: time savings, cost reductions, or greater job satisfaction? By clearly defining your goals, you can make targeted choices that have an immediate impact.**3. Don’t** **forget your staff** New technology requires new routines. By actively involving staff in the changes – for example, through workshops, training courses and inspiring knowledge-sharing sessions – you’ll boost engagement and harness the full potential of your new systems. After all, the people behind the controls remain just as important as the technology itself.Smart and hassle-free invoice processing? Here’s how it works in practiceEvery organisation has to deal with it: processing invoices. And whilst you naturally aim for clarity, speed and error-free processing, the reality is often quite different. Fewer and fewer companies still follow the traditional route, where digital invoices arrive as PDFs in the inbox, are printed out, checked manually and then circulated through the organisation by post or email for approval. Only after a number of manual intermediate steps are they posted and paid.This not only takes time, but also increases the risk of errors, backlogs and frustration. Fortunately, most companies are already realising that there is a different, much smarter way of doing things.With a digital invoicing process, you not only save valuable time but also gain greater control and reliability. The software does the heavy lifting: it automatically scans your inbox, recognises the relevant invoice details and matches them with the information from your accounting system. Is everything correct? Then invoices are posted automatically or at the touch of a button. In the meantime, the system monitors the approval process with an automatic hold, which is only lifted once the invoice has been approved in the digital portal. No more printing, no invoices lying around, no unnecessary phone calls or emails. Just clarity, certainty and speed.What are the benefits?**1. Constant insight and control** Incoming invoices are processed immediately and can be viewed in real time. Your accounts are always up to date and you know exactly which invoices are still pending.**2. More time for what really matters** Manual data entry is a thing of the past. The software recognises the details on the invoice and automatically suggests an entry. Less manual work = less chance of errors.**3. No more searching through filing cabinets** All invoices are digitally archived in a well-organised system. You can always find them, wherever you are – without cluttered cupboards or lost receipts.**4. Reliable verification** The system recognises whether an invoice has already been processed and automatically checks whether the account number matches the details in your ERP or accounting system. This helps you avoid ghost invoices or duplicate payments.**5. Flexibility in invoice flows** Do you receive PDF invoices, XML or UBL e-invoices by email? Do your suppliers already send e-invoices via PEPPOL? No problem. The software effortlessly processes different formats and streamlines everything into a single digital process. Read more](/en/inspiration/blog/growth-workload-and-staff-shortages-here-s-how-to-keep-your-finance-department-running-smoothly/) [Everything you need to know about OCR software We regularly come across OCR software, which stands for Optical Character Recognition software. It simplifies many business processes across various sectors. But what exactly is it, and how can you use it?What is OCR software?OCR software is a technology used to convert printed text in images or documents into machine-readable text. This allows you to easily copy text from images or hard-copy documents, carry out searches, or use it for other purposes. It’s useful if you want to convert large stacks of documentation into a digital archive. But this is just the basics of OCR technology. Nowadays, you’ll find this feature in various scanners. If you want to use OCR software for, say, invoice processing (or ‘Scan and Recognise’ software), you’ll need smart OCR software.**What is smart OCR software?**Smart OCR software goes a great deal further than simply converting an image into an editable document. This software actually recognises the relevant information on a document. When it comes to invoice processing, the software recognises invoice numbers, dates, amounts, supplier details and other essential information from the invoice. The technology can recognise this data based on how it is presented on the invoice. But smart OCR software can also incorporate even more advanced technologies. For example, built-in validation rules to ensure that the data on the invoice matches the data in your financial system.**History of OCR technology**If the history books are to be believed, the earliest forms of OCR emerged as early as around 1950. An American inventor developed machine-readable fonts at that time, which formed the basis for later OCR systems. Since then, various inventors have further developed this technology. Looking at the application of OCR in financial administration, software designed for use in the financial sector was first introduced in 1990. The accuracy of these systems improved considerably.**The importance of OCR software in the modern world**Nowadays, OCR tools have become indispensable. Many business processes operate far more efficiently because printed documents are quickly converted into digitally editable documents. In the modern world, it contributes significantly to improving information processing, automating processes and the shift towards a more digital and connected society. It remains an essential technological tool across a wide range of industries and fields of application.How does OCR software work?You have a document that has been converted into a digitally editable document by OCR software. But how does this actually work? In the initial stage, the software converts the pixels of the image into blocks of text. The software then uses pattern recognition and machine learning to identify the shape and structure of characters, enabling it to distinguish between letters and numbers. Key factors that influence the performance of OCR applications include the quality of the input (the documents), the accuracy of the algorithms used, and the training data employed to develop the OCR system. The recognition rate for a crumpled and faded receipt will be significantly lower than for a digitally generated document.Applications of OCR softwareOCR software has various applications across a range of sectors and industries, from healthcare to the financial sector. We’ll highlight two examples of how OCR software is used in (financial) administrative processes**Automatic data entry in invoice processing**Do you want to process invoices quickly in your financial administration? Then OCR software is an indispensable part of your invoice processing workflow. This software recognises the data on the invoice. With invoice processing software, this technology can generate a suggested entry for the financial administration staff member. This prevents typing errors and is much more efficient. As a result, the staff member takes on a checking role rather than a data-entry role.**Searchable archive**Do you still have filing cabinets full of paperwork? Have these documents digitised using OCR software. When you digitise hard-copy documentation using OCR software, it becomes searchable and editable. This is useful for digitising archives and managing documents efficiently. It makes it easy to search for documents based on their content. So, get rid of those physical filing cabinets!Benefits of OCR softwareWhy do so many organisations use this software? There are various possibilities and, consequently, benefits. But we can say that, in general, OCR software helps to improve processes, boost productivity and supports organisations in realising the value of stored information. Here are the key benefits:**Time savings and efficiency**Let’s start straight away with the most important benefit: time savings and efficiency. By using OCR software, the software ‘reads’ the text for you, so you don’t have to transcribe it manually or search for it. This means you can easily copy the text, carry out a search, or let the software automatically generate a text suggestion for you. And that really is a lot quicker!**Faster turnaround time**Companies that use OCR for invoice processing have a much faster turnaround time for processing invoices. After all, more invoices can be processed because the process is much more efficient. Faster processing ensures quicker payments to suppliers and can reduce any penalties for late payment.**Searchability and accessibility**OCR makes it possible to quickly digitise printed documents, such as paper archives. This facilitates the storage, searchability and accessibility of information. No more leafing through piles of documents; instead, the software searches through all the documentation with a simple search query. Providing a list of documents containing your search term.**Accuracy and reduction of errors**Modern OCR systems have a high recognition rate when identifying characters. This reduces the likelihood of human errors that often occur during manual data entry.Factors to consider when choosing OCR softwareYou’re probably well aware that OCR software has a lot to offer. But what should you look out for when you start using it?**Document types**Make a list of the types of documents you wish to process. Some OCR software specialises in specific document types, such as invoices, forms or books. Do you want to digitise handwritten text using OCR software? If so, check first whether the software can also recognise handwritten text.**Text recognition accuracy**The accuracy of OCR software varies. It’s important to choose software that offers high accuracy. This will only make things easier for you. For example, is the software updated regularly?**Pricing models**Consider the costs of the OCR software, including licence fees, any subscription charges and any additional costs for support or upgrades. Whether it is worth the investment will likely depend on the number or complexity of the documents you wish to process.**User-friendliness**The OCR software’s interface must be intuitive and user-friendly, particularly if it is to be used by different user groups within an organisation. Feel free to request a demonstration from a supplier to experience the software’s user-friendliness for yourself.**Processing speed**The speed at which the OCR software can process documents is important, particularly for large-scale applications. Fast processing times can improve the overall efficiency of your workflow.ConclusionOCR software offers a number of benefits for your financial administration processes in today’s world. Many business processes run much more efficiently and are also far more accessible. Match OCR-processed invoices with your procurement data and/or approve them digitally! We’d be happy to give you a demonstration of our software. Who knows, it might simplify your business processes too, allowing you to automate manual tasks and free up time for your core business! Read more](/en/inspiration/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-ocr-software/) [A step-by-step guide to effective contract management In my previous blog, ‘Contract administration: a weak link in many organisations’, I discussed the pitfalls that many SMEs face when their contract administration is not properly organised. In this blog, I’ll provide a practical step-by-step guide to organising your contract management more effectively.Why you should optimise your contract administrationOptimised contract administration provides insight into the contracts you have entered into and gives you the tools to manage them more effectively. This saves you time, helps you avoid unnecessary costs and makes the administration and management of contracts more enjoyable – or at least less of a chore.The first 4 steps towards efficient contract administrationSo how do you take the first steps and avoid running into the same problems time and time again? Below are a number of practical steps you can take straight away to set up an effective contract management system:**1) Map out all your contracts**An essential first step towards effective contract management is creating a comprehensive overview of current contracts. Make sure you gather all your current contracts; you’ll often need your colleagues’ help with this.**2) Decide how and where you will register your contracts**The main cause of a lack of visibility within organisations is the decentralised recording and management of contracts. For many organisations, the solution is therefore simple: ensure centralised registration. It is crucial that information is easily accessible to the right people, but also that certain information is restricted. Bear this in mind when setting up a contract archive.**3) Standardise your working methods**In addition to a central contract archive, it helps to establish standardised working procedures for registering contracts. This not only simplifies the administration of contracts but also their management. Agree on what information you wish to record. This includes the signed contract and any annexes, but also details such as the start and end dates, the notice period, whether there is automatic renewal, the financial obligations associated with the contract, and who the contract owner is.**4) Consider contract management software**Do you want to kill two birds with one stone and manage your contract administration as effectively as possible? If so, it is advisable to consider using contract management software. This software helps you to record all contracts in a clear and centralised manner and to make them accessible or, conversely, restrict access to them. This enhances the user-friendliness of recording and managing contracts. It enables you to set up a standardised process. For example, by specifying the minimum information that must be recorded and who is authorised to do so, but also by using digital workflows to ensure that submitted contracts are approved by the appropriate people. By recording contract terms, notice periods and contract owners, you can automatically trigger smart notifications, ensuring staff pay attention to a contract at the right time.Greater control over financial contractual obligationsWhilst for many companies the lack of a central contract archive is the reason for optimising the process, finance departments also have a driving force to record the financial obligations arising from contracts in a liabilities register. This provides insight into the value of contracts and the costs still to be expected. By recording these liabilities, you are better able to report on them.Efficiency through reconciling invoices with liabilitiesRecording liabilities makes the processing of invoices arising from contracts much more efficient, as you can reconcile incoming invoices with the recorded liabilities. This ensures that recurring invoices can be processed more quickly and do not need to be approved again each time if the commitment has already been authorised. When your contract registration software is integrated with your invoice processing software, this process can be automated.Would you like to find out more about the benefits this software offers? Then take a look at the features of Elvy Contract Registration now. Read more](/en/inspiration/blog/a-step-by-step-guide-to-effective-contract-management/) [Contract management is a weak link in many organisations Does this sound familiar? Contracts that are automatically renewed when you’d actually wanted to cancel them. That’s certainly not what you’re hoping for. What’s more, there are plenty of other reasons to store contracts digitally in a central location. Our colleague Remco wrote a blog post about optimising contract management.Optimising contract management: the next logical step for many organisationsEvery day, I speak to SMEs that are struggling with their contract management. They often face the same pitfalls, which means they lack control over the contracts they’ve entered into and the financial obligations that go with them.I’ve noticed that this topic is coming up more and more often in conversations and is on the agenda of finance departments as an area for optimisation. I’ve noticed that many organisations, now that they’ve got their digital invoice processing in order, see optimising contract administration as the next logical step. So it’s time for a blog post to get you thinking too.Why you shouldn’t delay optimising your contract administrationI see the same pitfalls recurring in many organisations: the registration of contracts leaves much to be desired. This is often because whilst the signing of a contract receives the attention it deserves, the administrative follow-up does not. In most organisations, contracts are signed by different departments and individuals. If there is a lack of working agreements or a standardised approach to recording contracts, you’ll see the same problems cropping up everywhere. This leads to inefficiency and unnecessary costs.Most common problems with inefficient contract registrationAs described earlier, there are a number of problems experienced by most organisations when their contract registration is not in order. Do you recognise yourself in the situations below?**1) It all comes down to human factors**Without agreed working practices or a process supported by software for registering contracts, your organisation is at the mercy of staff discipline. This often means that not all contracts are archived in a central location, making information difficult to access.Insight into current contracts determines the extent to which you are able to evaluate contracts in good time based on their terms. If you are unnecessarily tied to automatically renewed contracts and the receipt of an invoice is the moment when you discuss this with one another, these are signs that you lack control over your contract registration. And what if someone leaves the organisation? How is the information then transferred?**2) You’re burdening each other with unnecessary work**Cutting back on administrative work by failing to record contracts properly often results in a much greater workload. For example, it takes longer to track down contracts, and important information often has to be looked up manually in contract documents in order to act on it. Similarly, processes involving the processing of related incoming invoices that have to be approved time and time again, obtaining up-to-date insight into budgets and drawing up financial analyses often take far longer than necessary.**3) Lack of control and insight**Above all, poor contract administration means a lack of control and insight. You need a centralised overview of all current contracts, including the underlying agreements and the financial obligations arising from them. This overview ensures you gain much greater control over contracts and enables those responsible to focus on the contract at the right moments.In practice, unfortunately, we still too often view the registration of contracts as an administrative burden. Yet the disadvantages of this are abundantly clear, so why don’t we handle it more efficiently? Solving this is actually easier and cheaper than you might think.Here’s how you can help your colleagues set up a centralised and structured contract registration system in just a few stepsIn my blog ‘Step-by-step guide to effective contract administration’, I’ll show you how you can quickly improve your contract administration processes and what benefits this will bring to your organisation. Are you curious about our software? Then take a look at the information on Elvy Contract Registration. Read more](/en/inspiration/blog/contract-management-is-a-weak-link-in-many-organisations/) [Everything you need to know about the scheme for work-related personal mobility Does your company employ 100 or more staff? If so, from 1 July 2024, you will be required to report on both your employees’ business travel and their commuting. This requirement, known as the work-related personal mobility reporting obligation (WPM), is intended to measure CO₂ emissions. This new requirement could have significant implications for the way your company collects and reports mobility data. But what exactly does this obligation entail, and how can your company prepare for it?Where does the reporting obligation come from?The reporting obligation stems from the Climate Agreement and forms part of the targets for reducing CO₂ emissions. The Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management therefore wishes to gain an insight into the volume of CO₂ emissions resulting from this. The aim is to reduce emissions from passenger transport by 1.5 megatonnes by 2030.What does this obligation entail?From 1 July 2024, as an employer, you will be obliged to report on your employees’ business travel and commuting. As a company, you are required to report not only the number of kilometres travelled, but also the mode of transport used and the type of fuel.The report must be submitted via the digital form provided by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO). The report must be submitted to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management (IenW) by 30 June of the following calendar year at the latest. For example: the data collected for the year 2024 must be submitted by 30 June 2025 at the latest. It is important to retain all records relating to the report, even after it has been submitted. A retention period will also apply to this report in the near future.What must be reported?For the report, you must provide the following information, amongst other things:Type of vehicle: car, (moped) bicycle, scooter and public transportType of fuel: applicable only to cars, mopeds and scootersNumber of kilometres travelled per journeyActual public transport costs incurredWhen must reports be submitted?The work-related personal mobility scheme applies to companies with 100 or more employees. This refers to employees with an employment contract or a public-sector appointment of twenty hours or more per week. From 1 July 2024, checks will be carried out for each company to determine how many employees meet these criteria. The number of employees is determined by adding together all employees at branches with the same Chamber of Commerce (KVK) number. This also applies to employees who live abroad but work in the Netherlands.The date used to determine the number of employees is for the year you are reporting on. It does not matter if the number of employees changes during the year. If your company has fewer than 100 employees, this scheme does not apply to your company.Automated work-related staff mobilityKeeping track of all the necessary information can be a challenge for your company, particularly as it involves more than 100 employees. Automated solutions, such as digital expense claim processing, streamline this process. Expense claim processing simplifies the entire business expense claim process.Elvy Expense Claim Processing is one such solution for recording business mileage. Employees can easily record the mode of transport and the type of fuel for each journey via the expense claim app. They also enter the start and end points, after which the number of kilometres is calculated via integration with Google Maps. The data is automatically recorded in a dedicated reporting list, making it much easier to complete the RVO report. Elvy Expense Processing therefore ensures that the collection of mobility data is much more efficient!ConclusionIf your company employs 100 or more staff, you are obliged to report your employees’ business travel and commuting and submit this information to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management. Keeping track of this manually takes up an unnecessary amount of time. With Elvy expense claim processing, you can easily submit all the data. Read more](/en/inspiration/blog/regulations-on-work-related-staff-mobility/) [How long do you keep your records? Do you also have overflowing filing cabinets full of folders containing bank statements, letters from the tax authorities and receipts? But do you have to keep all of this, or can it go in the waste paper bin? In this blog, we explain which financial records you need to keep, how you should keep them and for how long.How many years’ records should you keep? What does Dutch law say?Under Dutch law, as a business or self-employed person, you are required to keep your financial records for a specific period. How long you are legally required to keep these records as a business depends on the relevance the tax authorities attach to various elements of your records. The statutory retention period for your financial records is 7 years. But which records must you always keep? This is set out below:Accounts receivable and accounts payable: outstanding or paid invoices from customers and suppliersPurchasing and sales records: all purchase and sales invoicesGeneral ledger records: all financial transactionsCash records: all invoices and receiptsContracts, agreements and arrangementsStock records: details of all stockPayroll administrationIn some cases, specific administrative records must be retained for longer. Records relating to immovable property, such as business premises, land and storage facilities, must be retained for 10 years. If you cease trading within the retention periods, you remain obliged to retain your records in accordance with those periods.When does a retention period begin?The retention period only begins once the data is no longer current. Example: suppose you are granted a planning permission for a new office building, and the construction process takes 3 years. During this construction period, you must keep the planning permission in your records. It is only after the 3-year construction period that the statutory retention period of 7 years begins.Why must a business owner keep records for 7 years?As a business owner, you must keep your records properly and retain them. This is not only necessary for submitting your tax return, but also for any audits by the tax authorities. Good records also provide insight into your business’s financial resources. That is why there is a statutory retention period of 7 years for financial records in the Netherlands, and for certain documents – such as those relating to property – the period is even 10 years.How do you store your records?An important aspect of the retention obligation is the way in which data is received and stored. According to legal provisions, you must retain the data in its original form, exactly as you received it.Invoices or other documents that you receive digitally must also be retained as digital files. This means that printing out this data does not count as the original. In addition to retaining digital invoices or other documents digitally, there is a further requirement. The Tax and Customs Administration requires you to be able to demonstrate that the data has not been altered manually. You can do this not only by saving the data itself, but also, for example, by saving the email to which the data was attached.Invoices or other documents that you receive on paper by post may be digitised and stored digitally, as permitted by the Tax and Customs Administration. You thereby replace the source file with a digital file.Digital solutionBy linking a solution such as invoice processing to your accounting system, this process is handled digitally and efficiently. If you receive paper invoices, Elvy ensures that, using OCR software, you can quickly process them into your accounting system. The invoice is automatically saved as a PDF in Elvy and in your financial software. This eliminates the need for overflowing filing cabinets, allows you to easily retrieve all your invoices digitally, and ensures you comply with the Tax and Customs Administration’s retention requirements. A win-win-win! You can also store and easily retrieve other documentation using a digital archive.ConclusionYou must keep your records for many years. You may do this on paper, but also digitally. By doing this digitally, you can not only comply with the statutory retention period, but also save money, space and time. Are you curious about what digitisation could mean for your business? We’d be happy to give you a demonstration of our software. Read more](/en/inspiration/blog/how-long-do-you-need-to-keep-your-records/) [Reconcile purchase invoices with purchase data Do your processes also lack system integration, meaning you have to spend an unnecessary amount of time processing purchase invoices? Then this blog is for you!Automate the reconciliation of purchase invoices with data from your (customised) ERPWould you like to automatically reconcile and process purchase invoices, but don’t have invoice processing software that integrates with both your accounting software and your ERP, WMS, TMS or bespoke system? This often results in inefficient processing of purchase invoices.Staff have to manually collect data to perform a 3-way match on an invoice, and this takes up an unnecessary amount of time. What’s more, human interpretation increases the risk of errors. Fortunately, there’s another way!APIs make it possible to integrate with any (ERP) systemThe previous generation of invoice processing software often integrated exclusively with an accounting package, but fortunately, technology is constantly evolving. As a result, there are increasingly sophisticated techniques that simplify what were previously complex integrations. This opens up new possibilities, including in the field of invoice processing.By using an API (Application Programming Interface), two applications can communicate with each other and exchange data. It works as simply as a question and answer. One application asks a question; the other sends back a reply. This is straightforward because the format for asking questions and providing answers has been agreed in advance. This makes it easy to exchange and interpret information.What does this mean for your invoice processing workflow?A great deal of good news! System integration speeds up digital invoice processing by presenting and applying information from the various systems (such as your procurement system and your accounts) at the right moments.Based on the recognition of the supplier and purchase reference on the purchase invoice, the purchase order and receipt information is automatically retrieved from your system. This makes it possible to reconcile the invoiced items, quantities and prices with the ordered items, quantities and prices, as well as with the quantities received. You can process purchase invoices much more quickly thanks to this automation. In addition, invoices that have been successfully matched are automatically posted and approved. This really boosts efficiency!Invoices that do not match one-to-one, or fall outside the set margins, are also automatically forwarded to the relevant colleagues for processing. They can take appropriate action, and you always have a clear overview of the invoices currently being processed.Through integration with your accounting system, purchase invoices are processed correctly based on the reconciliation data from your operational system. Your system can then be updated with the invoice processing data, ensuring that your operations team always has access to the correct information and, for example, the digitally archived invoice.The benefits of automated purchase invoice processingSystem integration reduces the number of manual steps, thereby saving timeThere are fewer manual steps, making the process less prone to errorsInvoices that have been successfully matched are automatically approvedFocus on the invoices that do not match; the rest is handled automaticallyControl over and insight into invoices in circulationUp-to-date accounts and operational systemConclusionBy implementing an additional integration, information can be exchanged automatically between the accounting system and a (customised) ERP system. This results in faster processing of purchase invoices. What’s more, you’ll prevent human error and keep your financial records up to date! Would you like more information about this integration? Discover how Elvy can help you match purchase invoices with procurement data, or get in touch with us to discuss this in more detail, tailored specifically to your organisation! Read more](/en/inspiration/blog/reconciling-purchase-invoices-with-external-data/) [Losing control of your admin: why it happens and how to prevent it In many SMEs, the financial administration faces the same bottlenecks on a daily basis: invoices that pile up or go missing, missing receipts and an inefficient approval process, resulting in late payments or delayed insights into, amongst other things, the cash flow positionFor finance teams, control, oversight and predictability are crucial prerequisites for effective management. Yet in practice, that overview often slips away.The cause? A combination of outdated processes, fragmented information and an over-reliance on manual work. In this blog, we’ll explain where things go wrong, what this means for your organisation’s financial effectiveness, and how you can regain control through targeted process automation.1. Too much manual work, too little process automationMany administrative teams still rely heavily on manual processing steps: for example, having to sift through the invoice inbox, print invoices, code them and enter them manually. Invoices are also often still sent physically or by email for approval.This entails three structural risks:Human error: invoices are overlooked in the inbox, or are entered incorrectly or duplicated.Wasted time: Processing and checking invoices takes longer, whilst the approval process is unnecessarily time-consuming and lacks clarity.Limited scalability: the process cannot keep pace with an increasing flow of invoicesThe greater the volume, the greater the risk of errors and time wasted – and the greater the potential for improvement.**Solution:** implement automated invoice processing. Let smart technology automatically recognise your invoices, classify the data and code the invoice correctly. In this way, invoice processing software – integrated with your accounting and ERP systems – ensures that entries are created automatically with far less manual work and are reconciled with purchase order and goods receipt information from your ERP. Combine this with digital workflows that automatically request approval from the relevant approvers, along with automated blocking and unblocking of outstanding items, and you have a streamlined and highly automated process offering greater control and insight than you have ever had before. It shortens processing times, improves data quality and makes your administration scalable. 2. Insight comes too lateWhen invoices get held up or data is scattered across multiple systems, an information backlog arises. As a result, cash flow statements fall behind, payment obligations are not fully visible, and there is no way to anticipate financial risks or opportunities in good time.For finance managers, this means that decisions regarding investments, liquidity planning or supplier payments are based on outdated or incomplete figures.**Solution:** implement a central financial cockpit with real-time dashboards and reports. By integrating your invoice processing software with your financial software package or ERP environment, you create a single source of truth. As a result, cash flow forecasts, supplier liabilities and KPIs such as DPO (Days Payable Outstanding) are always up to date, enabling you to manage proactively rather than reactively. 3. The process relies on peopleIllness, holidays or the departure of a key member of staff can significantly disrupt the process of processing and approving invoices. Documents go missing, and payment discounts and due dates are missed. Not because people aren’t doing their jobs properly, but because the process itself isn’t robust enough. In a manual environment, approval and payment cycles often consist of personal emails, physical signatures and ad hoc to-do lists. This is not scalable, not predictable and poses a risk during audits.**Solution:** digitise and standardise the workflow. With automated routing rules for invoicing, you ensure that invoices always end up in the correct approval workflow. With clear roles, permissions and delegation options in the event of planned absences, you ensure that the process continues to run smoothly regardless of staffing levels. 4. Finance operates in isolation from other departmentsInvoice processing affects not only finance, but also, for example, procurement and project management. In many organisations, these departments do not collaborate digitally to a sufficient extent or operate in separate systems.This leads to unnecessary and often manual research, miscommunication and incomplete data. Consider, for example, invoices that need to be checked to ensure they match purchase orders and delivery notes. Invoices that need to be reconciled with contractual obligations, or invoices where costs need to be allocated to the correct cost centre and projects. A lack of integration means that data from other systems has to be compared manually or information has to be obtained from colleagues. This takes an unnecessarily long time and often goes wrong.**Solution:** integrate invoice processing with your ERP system. This allows, for example, 3-way matching (checking the invoice against the purchase order and goods receipt) to be automated. By reconciling the invoice with your procurement, project or accounts payable records and using the data from these to code the entry, you can save a great deal of time and make incorrect entries virtually impossible. All departments involved work with the same structured information, which speeds up collaboration and improves data quality. Greater control starts with better tools and process disciplineTechnology is only one side of the story. Without clear process agreements, good master data and a culture in which everyone understands why compliance and data quality are important, automation remains underutilised.At Elvy, we see every day that organisations which invest in both technology and process discipline make the fastest progress in terms of clarity, speed and reliability. Our software automates invoice processing from start to finish, offers seamless integrations with accounting software and ERP systems, but more importantly: we help organisations to truly understand and optimise the process. We know the bottlenecks and help organisations understand and resolve them – even when the reality on the ground is a bit more challenging. Because only when you play the game the right way will technology really work for you. Conclusion: moving from reactive to proactive financial managementLosing control of your financial administration is not a matter of incompetence, but of processes that have failed to keep pace with the complexity and speed of the business or the state of technology. By automating invoice processing, digitising workflows and integrating your accounts with the rest of the organisation, you transform finance from an operational cost centre into a strategic business partner.Would you like to know how your organisation can regain and maintain its effectiveness? Get in touch with us! Read more](/en/inspiration/blog/losing-control-of-your-admin-why-it-happens-and-how-to-prevent-it/) [Never pay a fake invoice again You’re seeing them more and more often: fake invoices. These are bogus invoices that are almost impossible to distinguish from the real thing. Criminals tend to strike during holiday periods, assuming that temporary staff lack the experience to spot a fake invoice. Fraudsters make a quick profit from this, and your organisation ends up bearing the brunt of it. How can you prevent this?Sooner or later, every business owner will receive a fake invoice, or a ‘ghost invoice’. These invoices are often indistinguishable from genuine ones, for example because the wording or logos resemble those on other invoices. There are two types of ghost invoices you need to watch out for:**1. The invoice turns out to be a quotation**In this type of fraud, the invoice turns out to be a quotation. You’ll find this stated in the all-too-familiar small print. You are therefore not obliged to pay this invoice, but if you do so by mistake, you’ll be entering into a contract with the sender. Naturally, this is a criminal offence. The document must clearly state that it is a quotation, what the total costs are and what the duration of the contract is. Yet this form of fraud still occurs.**2. An invoice without any service rendered**A common type of fake invoice is one issued without any service provided in return. For example, you might receive an invoice for a service you regularly use, only this time the sender is a fraudster. These are often invoices that appear to come from reputable companies, but with a change to the bank account number.How can you prevent this type of fraud?Ghost invoices often involve relatively small amounts, as you might check these invoices less thoroughly than those for larger sums. Still, you certainly don’t want to fall for it! And to read all the small print, check the sender and verify the bank account numbers on every single invoice… That’s not very efficient if you receive a lot of invoices.**– Check the features in your invoice processing software**If you receive a lot of invoices, you’re most likely using a software package for your invoice processing. Check whether the software can be set to alert you if the bank account number differs from previous invoices. If you receive this alert from the software, it’s up to you to check the invoice carefully or, if necessary, contact your supplier.**– Set up a proper approval workflow**Two heads are better than one – that’s a fact. If you have your invoices approved before they are paid, there is less chance of a ‘ghost invoice’ being paid. Ensure your invoice flows are organised through an efficient approval workflow, for example based on specific accounting data. This will also help you continue to work efficiently.**– Reconcile orders and receipts**Set up your invoice processing system to match orders, goods received and invoices. This 3-way matching can often be done within the invoice processing software. This allows you to see whether specific orders have actually been placed and received. If there’s no match, you can then investigate where the problem lies. 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