Serbia gets e-invoincing system - Asseco sent the first, as of June 1st Halcom to implement e-bills for banks, companies and physical entities

Invoices filling, processing, check whether recipient received it could soon become history. Invoices sending costs could decrease up to 75% while non payers could “say goodbye” with an excuse that they did not receive their bill.

Electronic invoicing system will provide all of this.

- More than 12 million invoices in telecommunications, energy, services and insurance are exchanged every month in Serbia. Our research of the Serbian market and visits to more than 60 most important companies, we realized that Serbia is ready to implement electronic exchange and invoice paymenys and to increase business efficiency and decreases paper processing costs. Since e-invoicing sistem enables sending and receiving even to the smallest companies, without investments, we believe that this project will soon be national - Miha Culiberg, Business Development Manager of Halcom Goroup said. The company yesterday announced implementation of e-invoices as of June 1st as the first company in our country.

Asseco announced that competition and market battle will be serious. Only few hours before that the company announced that the first e-invoice was sent.

- irst e-einvoice distributed via e-banking service in Serbia is a step forward when it comes to modern business. Also, this invoice standardized with EU legislation is nearing us to the way of doing business in developed countries – Bojan Platisa, Electronic Banking Department Manager of Asseco SEE said.

As Asseco representatives explain , regardless of the fact whether it is an order, a pro-invoice, receivers or a standard invoice, a new channel covers the whole range of documents and provides new dimension to business. Clients also have the option to make business in import or export automatic through this channel and it is easier to do archiving.

Senders and recipients of invoices, regardless of the fact whether it is a small or big company, in the processing of their issuing and sending, they could save even 75%, Halcom estimates. When sending an e-invoice, pdf or any other format can be attached which will enable easer archiving.

According to Halcom research, an average invoice processing costs EUR 30 where one fourth is spent on paper. Although EUR 7,5 seemed a lot for one invoice , it has been explained that the price includes paper, processing, an envelope and postal services.

E-invoicing will be available for all e-banking users and physical entities who have access to Internet and mobile phone.

Halcom representatives say that 12 banks in Serbia has already submitted request for the usage of this advanced system.

(Miha Culiberg)

How do we pay?

Paying habits in Serbia are a bit different compared to EU citizens, the Associations of Banks of Serbia statistics showed that only 2% of citizens has a permanent payment order for paying utility services and that 6% uses e-banking. 90% is still paying in the most expensive way, at the post office. Therefore, Serbian companies and banks are very interested in e-invoicing implementation.

For example, Slovenia has already implemented e-invoice model in 18 banks covering 95% of the market and with the transfer of e-invoices processing to the biggest processing center Bankart in 2011.

Adria Mobil, one of the biggest and the most famous European producers of campers and holiday houses, is also positive about this.

- Adria Mobil in the beginning of e-invoicing and exchange with the largest suppliers in only a few months, increased electronic invoices share in its business by 44% - Mira Setina, Manager of the Controlling and Informatics Department said.

The country is ready

(Nebojsa Vasiljevic)

The Assistant at the Ministry of Trade and Telecommunications, Nebojsa Vasiljevic, reminded that a few days ago, the Law on electronic document was passed.

It was, according to his words, systematically set up law and its final effects would be visible through

Vasiljevic said that Serbia has a minimum of legal requirements in this segments and that the next step is their implementation in electronic services development.

He said that in the following period the interoperability issue would be actual and that, after things become implemented, an initiative to define standards would start so that everybody would be able to exchange e-invoices uninterruptedly.

Vasiljevic said that an important chain is the country itself and it should accept e-invoices in business with companies.

J.DJ.