Avalara Unveils E-Invoicing and Live Reporting API for Multinational Businesses

Avalara, a provider of cloud-based tax compliance automation for businesses of all sizes, today unveiled Avalara E-Invoicing and Live Reporting, a new compliance API designed for multinational businesses to streamline their compliance with e-invoicing mandates around the world.

“While many businesses are investing in e-invoicing, they’re finding that the requirements are complex, vary by country, and are resource-intensive,” said Jayme Fishman, EVP and GM of Indirect Tax at Avalara. “Avalara has spent the last two decades addressing the complexity around indirect tax compliance for businesses and their trusted partners with our industry-leading compliance platform that makes tax less taxing. Now with Avalara E-Invoicing and Live Reporting, we’re extending that simplification to help clients and partners manage the new challenges and additional complexities of rapidly evolving e-invoicing mandates around the globe.”

E-invoicing mandates create new complexities for businesses

Today, more than 60 countries worldwide have announced or already have mandates for e-invoicing — a number that could more than double by 2030. Additionally, a growing number of countries have introduced other digital reporting requirements, including live reporting of invoice data and e-reporting of international sales and purchases.

While many businesses have implemented e-invoicing as a part of their digital transformation initiatives, the surge in government-driven and country-specific e-invoicing initiatives presents a unique challenge for businesses selling goods and services internationally. Governments view e-invoicing as an effective tool to enforce tax laws by increasing data visibility and further shoring up tax gaps.

As e-invoicing mandates grow in number, complying with them globally becomes more challenging and expensive. Local solutions are no longer sufficient for multinational businesses to meet compliance requirements efficiently. To keep up with the constantly evolving tax compliance environment, businesses must adopt a centralized approach to international compliance.

A single API to simplify and automate global e-invoicing requirements

Avalara E-Invoicing and Live Reporting helps businesses streamline international e-invoicing compliance, optimize payment and cash collection cycles, and save costs and resources. This flexible and scalable e-invoicing solution can be integrated into accounting, ecommerce, enterprise resource planning (ERP), and other invoicing systems via a single API that enables businesses to deploy e-invoicing simultaneously in multiple countries. The API is designed to adhere to evolving legislative requirements, helping businesses stay e-invoicing compliant globally. Avalara E-Invoicing and Live Reporting also allows partners to enhance their platforms by seamlessly addressing global e-invoicing requirements within their customer experience.

Avalara E-Invoicing and Live Reporting lets businesses quickly and securely:

• Set up global e-invoicing capabilities in their ERP, ecommerce, or accounting systems. Businesses can purchase Avalara E-Invoicing and Live Reporting from their ERP or accounting app store, set up their credentials, and configure the app based on their reporting needs.
• Access e-invoice exchange networks and government platforms. Businesses can connect to national (FACeB2B in Spain, for example) and international (e.g., Peppol) networks, as well as government e-invoicing platforms (KSeF in Poland, SDI in Italy, etc.).
• Support e-invoicing models by country or region. Businesses can connect to Avalara’s global API to fulfill e-invoicing mandates, including digital signatures, QR codes, digital archiving, and tax authority clearance and approvals.
• Monitor the status of e-invoices. Businesses can monitor the status of all their e-invoices from a single reporting console, providing real-time visibility on the life cycle of the e-invoice and any messages or errors returned by tax authorities.
• Set up archiving. Avalara E-Invoicing and Live Reporting can archive e-invoices to comply with data localization, security, and retention policies.

“The breadth and variation of e-invoicing requirements globally require a single solution that can automate and address e-invoicing in any country — regardless of rules or models,” said Kevin Permenter, Research Director at IDC. “Businesses stand to streamline their e-invoicing compliance by adopting a cloud-first solution that can easily integrate into the systems powering their invoices. Avalara’s e-invoicing API makes it possible for businesses to integrate e-invoicing into their finance functions and address global e-invoicing requirements from a single solution, saving them time, money, and resources.”

“E-invoicing is the clear direction of travel for tax authorities globally. The pace and quantum of new mandates is unprecedented and causing a huge headache for multinational businesses,” said Alex Baulf, Senior Director of E-Invoicing at Avalara. “Tax and finance functions now need to look at e-invoicing and live reporting of transactional data strategically — this is no longer a local compliance issue, it’s a critical global business issue. Avalara is offering a single way to help comply with a myriad of complex and changing e-invoicing requirements.”

Avalara has an extensive partner ecosystem comprised of more than 1,200 signed partner integrations, as well as a long history of providing tax compliance integrations with technology platforms across accounting, ecommerce, ERP, and more. Avalara will extend this strategy to provide out-of-the-box integrations that will make global adoption of e-invoicing truly a one-click experience for multinational companies. Earlier this year, Avalara announced the company’s expanded collection of e-invoicing certifications across Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and the European Union, as well as its involvement as a technical committee contributor for the Business Payments Coalition’s E-invoice Exchange Market Pilot in the U.S.

For additional information on Avalara E-Invoicing and Live Reporting, please click here and here.