From GWH (Motor Vehicle Tax) to full e-invoicing with Van der Velden Sewerage Management
Working in the public sector with a service that is often invisible, yet indispensable, Bjorn Vorstenbosch from Van der Velden Rioleringsbeheer takes us through the process and his experience with e-invoicing. Why is this even more complex at Van der Velden Sewerage Management? There are no fewer than 21 entities. In addition, as of April 1 this year, a number of finance activities will be facilitated from the Shared Service Center Finance (SSCF). So not only a process change, but also a major organizational change.
Bjorn, who has been working at Van der Velden Rioleringsbeheer for over 8 years and fulfills the role of Financial Administration Employee for Group Services, says that they were initially not looking for a solution for e-invoicing. It started with something completely different.
GWH – PHASE I
The reason for the collaboration was the fleet, which consists of almost 400 vehicles. “In 2018, we received a letter from the Tax Authorities indicating that they no longer facilitated the delivery of specifications for the Motor Vehicle Tax for the Large Vehicle Fleet Holder scheme (GWH) on CD-ROM.” Bjorn indicates.
Bjorn Vorstenbosch, Financial Administration Employee for Group Services: “We only had one workstation in the office where we could read this out. So this was the time to do something different. Collecting it yourself via Digipoort was far from ideal. I came across eConnect via Google. They had the necessary PKI certificate and it worked well from the first moment. The Tax Authorities' invoices were first downloaded manually from the eConnect Platform. We started working with the CLI tool from eConnect to receive and process invoices in Syntess. The entire process then ran automatically and smoothly. Our issue regarding Motor Vehicle Tax was therefore resolved satisfactorily.”
Bjorn Vorstenbosch, Financial Administration Employee Corporate Services
E-invoicing - PHASE II
As a finance professional responsible for group-wide innovations, e-invoicing was the logical next step for Bjorn.
Incoming invoices – from paper to PDF
“Most invoices already arrived digitally by email (PDF). These were entered manually into our software package, whereby the PDF was added as an attachment and the change was visible.” explains Bjorn. “There are still a few invoices per month by post. Not all our suppliers can already send invoices digitally or electronically. This takes us more time than necessary. We work with all branches in 1 relationship file, where the new relationship is visible to all our branches. Entering the Chamber of Commerce number is very important. This sometimes went wrong in the past due to the many manual steps. This created different relationship codes for ultimately the same customer, which in turn influenced our Business Intelligence (BI) where the reports were created. One of the major advantages of e-invoicing is that it is based on a Chamber of Commerce and VAT number check. Once your supplier is in good standing, you don't have to look at it anymore. In addition to reducing errors, an enormous increase in efficiency has been achieved with more than 27,000 invoices per year!”
Internal process
In the spring of 2020, at the request of Van der Velden Rioleringsbeheer, the automated responses from the Platform were customized by applying the look & feel of the various entities of Van der Velden Rioleringsbeheer. For suppliers, this contributes to recognisability and makes it accessible. Subsequently, e-invoicing (incoming invoice flow) was officially started.
Because e-invoicing has been taken up group-wide, the lines of communication were short. After the management's approval, Bjorn was responsible for the implementation. “IT has arranged the entire technical part. We work with servers, so our branches did not notice the preparations and they received a signal from us when it was ready for use.” said Bjorn. When asked what challenges were encountered in this process, he answers, “The fact that we could not make a direct link with our financial software (Syntess Atrium) was a setback. As a result, the process did not go smoothly and not quickly enough. eConnect has solved this excellently with their Platform. As soon as Syntess has a direct link with Peppol, there is still profit to be made here.”
Supplier Onboarding - PHASE III
In the summer of 2020, we started informing suppliers, because to make e-invoicing a success you also need cooperation from your suppliers.
“What struck me in practice when contacting our suppliers is that they did not understand the difference between a digital and electronic invoice.” Bjorn indicates. “That was a clear signal to me that we needed help with this. After internal consultation with our management, we chose to use WeConnect®, eConnect's supplier onboarding approach, for this purpose.”
WeConnect®
Due to the many branches that were able to work independently in the relationship file in recent years, the file turned out to be outdated and incomplete. In addition to dual organizations, there were many private parties and there was a mix of creditors and debtors. Ultimately, approximately 25% of the relationship database turned out to be usable for supplier onboarding. “So far it's been a great success!” says Bjorn enthusiastically. “We will start the second phase in April. So we are on the right track.”
Shell as the biggest success
Bjorn is unstoppable and says that the branches are very happy with it so far. “Take the example of Shell. The big advantage is that the invoices no longer have to be downloaded individually onto the Shell platform and subsequently entered manually. This saves us so many actions. In addition, it now works very accurately and completely automatically. Shell also indicated that we are their first customer to receive Peppol invoices through the GLN registration. We were their pilot and that felt fantastic!”
Impact of COVID-19
Colleague Linda Gebben has been working at Van der Velden Rioleringsbeheer for over 12 years and indicates that e-invoicing has started just in time for them. “It's so nice to receive everything so quickly and accurately via e-invoicing. Due to all the guidelines surrounding COVID-19, working from home suddenly went very quickly. We have a schedule for who needs or wants to be present in the office. The difference lies in our operational colleagues (executive branch) who actually work on the sewer on location and our colleagues who provide support (administrative branch). We have all the resources for this last group to work from home, so that is going well.”
Digitalization progress
“By the way, we were already quite digital. All technicians have tablets instead of paper work orders, which was one of the most extensive internal digitization steps we have done.” says Linda enthusiastically as a committed Project Employee. “We have implemented this upgrade at a different branch every month, including course evenings and some aftercare. In the beginning it was a lot of searching for our colleagues, you have to outsource something.
“Now they are lyrical, fantastic! Everything runs smoothly, there are no more manual actions, with the exception of random checks. It works very nicely. In fact, it is also expected internally that we will digitize more and not just from management. I recently heard a colleague say something in surprise about the leave requests. Couldn't these simply be provided digitally and not on paper?" Linda adds with a laugh.
Shared Service Center Finance
A major organizational change is the introduction of the Shared Service Center Finance. Linda has many years of experience within Van der Velden Sewerage Management as a Branch Administrator and will serve as SSCF Team Leader as of April 1, 2021.
“Not only a new team, but also a completely new department. A real challenge!” Linda is happy with this development. “The SSCF falls under Group Services and regulates accounts receivable management and purchase invoices. A finance professional remains present at the individual branches who takes care of the invoicing part. For example, the goal of the SSCF is to improve the quality of the work process. The many fortresses allowed people to work in many different ways. We had a lot of freedoms. Now, professionalizing the work process will create more uniformity and that is important. Uniformity is interchangeable and does not only exist with an individual employee.”
Future
There is still a lot planned this year in addition to the rollout of the SSCF. Such as follow-up training in collaboration with eConnect for e-invoicing for the entire SSCF team and setting up the sales invoice flow (also via the eConnect CLI tool from Syntess). In addition, there is a desire to bring e-invoicing from the background to the foreground. This means that the Sales team is also aware and e-invoicing is included in the contracts and conditions to be concluded. The ordering process also offers options, such as purchasing organizations and working with daily prices.
Closing
Linda Gebben, Branch Administrator
When asked if they have any tips for companies that also want to start with e-invoicing or are in a similar phase, they both have a response.
E-invoicing is more than worth the investment! It yields much more, because it saves so much time. We are all human, so a typo is easily made and can be resolved by e-invoicing. Don't think that it costs money and that you can quickly do it yourself in the meantime. I can tell you from experience that the benefits actually count more in practice. (Linda)
Talk to your software supplier to see if they facilitate e-invoicing via Peppol and continue looking if this does not seem to be possible right away. The Dutch Peppol Authority (NPa) has an overview of integrations and so-called Billing Service Providers (BSP) such as eConnect available. It is really worth it, also given the innovations they continue to make, such as supporting e-returns. (Bjorn)