Electronic Invoicing

Electronic invoicing is a form of electronic billing. Electronic invoicing methods are used by trading partners, to present and monitor transactional documents between one another and ensure the terms of their trading agreement are being met. These documents include purchase orders, invoices, debit notes, credit notes, payment terms and instructions and remittance advices. These documents can be exchanged in a number of ways including EDI, XML, or CSV files.

Files can be uploaded using web applications or FTP sites. The company may use imaging software to capture data from PDF or paper invoices and input it into their invoicing system. Some companies have their own in house electronic invoicing process. However many companies will hire a third party company to implement and support these electronic processes and to archive the data.

Electronic invoicing includes so many different technologies and entry options, it is used as an umbrella term to describe any method by which an invoice is electronically presented to a customer for payment.

Electronic Billing and Online Invoicing

Electronic billing or electronic bill payment and invoicing, is when a company, business, organization, or group sends its bills over the internet or other electronic channels, and customers pay these electronically.

Electronic bill payment is a now common are often used feature of online banking, allowing to send money from  one account to another (from depositor to creditor). The payment is executed electronically in real time, even though some institutions or payment services will wait until the next business day (or two) to send out the payment.

A lot of large banks offer various additional features with their electronic bill payment systems, such as the ability to schedule payments in advance, the ability to manage payments from any computer with a browser, and various options for searching payments history. In many cases users of electronic payment systems can also integrate the electronic payment data with accounting or personal finance software.