Case Luleå University of Technology: Invoice portal to maximize e-invoice ratio

Luleå University of Technology uses OpusCapita’s services both to send and to receive invoices. To maximize their e-invoice ratio, the university offers their suppliers multiple e-invoicing options, including Peppol as well as OpusCapita’s online invoice portal for small businesses. Even though e-invoicing is mandatory in the Swedish public sector, the university cherishes the efficiency and accuracy that comes with it. 

“We receive about 60 000 invoices annually. At our end, all our purchase invoices are imported to us from OpusCapita in an electronic format. OpusCapita processes our invoices that are sent to us via the Peppol network, sve-invoice network, invoice portal and landmail, and passes them on to us,” explains Alena Dubinskaya, Economist and System Specialist at the Luleå University of Technology. But she adds: “E-invoices are the fastest way to take in invoices. It takes only a few minutes from when supplier sends to until the invoice is received in our system.” 

On the billing side, Luleå University of Technology sends out about 3000 invoices annually using different standards, such as Peppol and Svefaktura, as well as email and even paper invoices in landmail. “It works similarly to receiving; We send Peppol to OpusCapita and OpusCapita converts it into the right format for sending,” Dubinskaya says. 

The university also sends out e-orders as Peppol orders and Sveorders, and has recently started to receive back Peppol order responses. “I think it will grow,” says Anna Morberg, Process Manager at Luleå University of Technology, “A lot of suppliers are starting to use the Peppol network. We’re still building all the needed support for Peppol orders in our current system, and here OpusCapita has enabled us to start with a step-by-step approach.” 

High e-invoice ratio for all purchase invoices 

Luleå University of Technology purchases a wide range of goods for education and science, from books to robots and anything in between. For procured purchases of bigger volumes with contracted suppliers, the university receives e-invoices, and with smaller, even random purchases like a vintage bicycle for a theater performance, the university encourages the use of an online invoice portal especially among small businesses. 

Out of the ~60 000 invoices received per year, 90% are received electronically. 

For the public sector, including universities, however, high e-invoicing rates are not optional, but in fact, required by law. “The governmental sector in Sweden has a requirement for e-invoicing, by which all invoices related to public procurement should be electronic. But also, e-invoices are efficient and safe to use. There are no manual steps, so they reduce errors, and we get better traceability as e-invoices allow verifying the sender and the receiver,” Morberg says. 

“We must also work towards eliminating the paper invoices, because they’re not compliant,” says Dubinskaya. Luleå University of Technology gathers statistics from OpusCapita’s monitoring tools to see how much invoices they receive in which format. Morberg continues: “100% electronic is not the real world, but our goal is to keep getting closer to it. We follow up on how many e-invoices we receive and see how we can reduce the number of non-compliant invoices. We also report our e-invoice levels to several governmental agencies, such as ESV (Ekonomistyrningsverket, the Swedish National Financial Management Authority) and Digg (Agency for Digital Government).” 

Online invoice portal for small businesses 

One efficient way to increase the share of e-invoices for the Luleå University of Technology is OpusCapita’s Supplier Onboarding invoice portal, which allows the university to receive e-invoices even from their smallest suppliers without any extra cost. 

“For companies that don’t have support for e-invoices in their system, the invoice portal makes it possible for also them to exchange e-invoices,” Morberg states. This is a part of the university’s efforts to be open and offer multiple options for e-invoicing for their suppliers, so that as many as possible could fulfil the requirements set by the e-invoicing law. “That’s why we need to provide a tool, if they don’t manage on their own, and the invoice portal we offer completely free for the suppliers,” Dubinskaya adds. 

Around 500 of the university’s suppliers are registered in the invoice portal. That makes it quite an important tool in regards of receiving e-invoices also from these suppliers. “If we received those as paper, invoice handling would take many more steps. With the invoice portal, the work is definitely much more efficient,” says Morberg. Indeed, the invoice portal significantly adds to the university’s e-invoice ratio, and quite importantly, it also fulfills the legal requirement for offering the small businesses such a tool.