Monday 21st January, 2013

Belgium's federal government will be using Open e-Prior, the open source electronic invoicing software solution developed by the European Commission's ISA program. The government aims to use the software solution to handle a quarter of all invoices sent by suppliers before the end of June 2014.

Open e-Prior was selected primarily because it can be rapidly implemented to help meet this objective. The software should be up and running by September.

Electronic invoicing is one of the key projects planned by Belgium's federal government to help modernise public administration and to save costs for government suppliers.

"Finland, Denmark and Greece already require their suppliers to submit invoices electronically", Hendrik Bogaert, Belgium's Secretary of State for Civil Service and Modernisation of Public Services says in a press release. He hopes that by setting an example for Belgium, the government can convince the private sector. "Modernising our government should boost our country's competitiveness."

In 2012, Belgium's federal public service received over 1.2 million invoices. The government estimates that electronic invoicing can save 1.84 euro per invoice for the supplier and 6.49 euro for the receiver. That means that per year, e-invoicing can help suppliers save 2 million euros and the public sector 7.5 million euros.

Belgium's public administrations that will take up e-invoicing are allowed to invest half of the savings that they achieve to improve their services.