Welcome to the world of digital invoice! Did you know that changes are coming? The Polish Ministry of Finance has announced that the implementation of the structured invoice in Poland has been delayed by another six months. Entrepreneurs who are not yet ready for this transformation are the main reason for this decision. But that’s not all! Work is underway on a new version of the schema for the structured invoice and the implementation of several key changes.

The digitization of e-invoicing is a process that requires a great deal of determination from both the government and companies to bring the long-term benefits that have already been seen in countries such as Italy. Implementing e-invoicing requires a lot of effort, resources and the creation of new infrastructure, and governments need to provide support and investment to help companies transition to electronic invoicing, including developing regulations and standards, creating a secure and reliable network and training staff.

Companies, meanwhile, need to invest in new technologies and processes, such as integrating invoicing systems with existing financial and accounting software, adopting digital signatures and encryption technologies, and developing new processes for handling electronic invoices.

Despite the challenges of implementing e-invoicing, the long-term benefits are clear. By simplifying invoicing processes, reducing costs and improving the accuracy and speed of payments, e-invoicing can help companies and governments increase their competitiveness, strengthen their financial stability and support sustainable economic development.

While you can read about the business changes themselves on the Ministry of Finance’s news channels, we would like to point out an important issue in terms of the implementation itself in a technical sense and warn companies against waiting until the very end.

Companies that have been implementing KSeF until now have been faced with further changes in assumptions and inconsistency in declarations from the government side. It is estimated that the schema change alone is a cost increase of about 20%. Moreover, if Ministry’s declarations are to be believed, invoices in the B2C model will not be obligatory. It turns out that a large part of the functionalities developed by companies as part of KSeF implementation is simply useless. One can fully understand the frustration of companies for the reason that time and resources are wasted by the lack of a clear position.

On the other hand, the mandatory KSeF is imminent, and postponing the deadline by six months could prove to be a salvation for many companies. Our information shows that there is a huge number of companies that are not at all aware of mandatory e-invoicing from 2024. They don’t realize the complexity of implementing such a solution in-house. Of course, quite a few companies that have solutions from major accounting software vendors are simply waiting for an update, but it turns out that there are many places where invoicing is linked to internal processes in the company, and they are simply facing a revolution in how these systems will be adapted for the mandatory e-invoicing being introduced.

The process of adapting a company’s software to the new guidelines is not so much a financial challenge, but more importantly a logistical and substantive one. In the case of adapting own systems and processes under structured invoice, it is estimated that it takes about 2-3 months to build a traditional team of 4-8 people. Then it is necessary to integrate the solution with KSeF, which is quite a complex task. This can take from 6-12 months. The costs alone at this stage can be estimated at several hundred thousand PLN. On top of that, you also need to factor in infrastructure costs, depending on the volume of invoices processed or the degree of IT urbanization in the company. Plus, of course, maintenance and testing time.

It is not entirely certain whether the July 2024 deadline will be met or perhaps there will be another postponement, but it is important to remember that standardization of invoicing is a global and inevitable trend and more countries, especially in the EU, are introducing it.

A-Cube API provides solutions for B2G integration battle-tested in the Italian market, minimizing the effort required by private companies to join the digitization revolution and enjoy the benefits.

With A-Cube’s solution, it is possible to save between 6-12 months of development, where the customer gets a ready-made tool to connect to KSeF within a week at most. Of course, there are still changes needed in terms of customization of internal systems but the whole scope and headache of just integrating and handling statuses or notifications from KSeF is dropped. 

Time thus saved can be used by the team to familiarize themselves with the new changes and test the entire process.

Contact A-Cube to find out how we can help you.