A1. It can have significant financial benefits (see question 4). Many countries have now mandated it for suppliers. Tenders in the future may include this as a requirement.

A2. To comply with PEPPOL all invoices must be in a standard format. We will work with the suppler to achieve this. There are a number of service providers that provide a full PEPPOL conversion service and will manage the conversion of existing electronic formats and transfer them to a compliant PEPPOL invoice.

A3. Selecting a suitable Service Provider, that understands your ERP system and provides value for money * A list of certified Access Point Service Providers can be found at https://peppol.eu/who-is-who/peppol-certified-aps/ However if your invoice volumes are low then a free portals are available are free of charge. See the following link for available options http://www.etbeinvoicing.ie/becoming%20a%20supplier

A4. See the following link for available options. http://www.etbeinvoicing.ie/becomingsupplier

A5. The ETBs have no preferred 3rd Party vendor. It is up to each supplier to decide which type of provider would suit their business. IF you as a supplier have your own provider for PEPPOL compliant invoices, you can continue using that provider.

A6. There will be no IT requirement for any ETB as this will be implemented on the EIP system. ETBs will only have to approve the supplier once set up

A7. The top five eInvoicing financial benefits are: (1) Save Time When you receive a traditional invoice, it is usually entered into your accounting system. This can be time consuming and lead to errors, as the data is extracted electronically or manually entered. While third party applications can make data extraction easier, there is time involved while documents are processed. If you enter the data manually, it is a very time consuming process and errors can occur. eInvoicing eliminates the need for these processes saving you time and also reducing errors which can be costly to remedy. (2) Reduce Costs eInvoicing can reduce the cost of receiving an invoice by up to 90 per cent or €17 per invoice. Furthermore, the cost of sending an invoice can be reduced by 44 per cent or €13 per invoice. These estimates include everything that is involved in the process of sending or receiving an invoice. (3) Faster payments For suppliers in particular, eInvoicing helps to ensure they are receiving payments from their customers as quickly as possible. With money coming in faster and businesses being paid on time more often, this then causes an increased cash flow for business. (4) Save the environment eInvoicing cuts down, and in some cases can eliminate, paper from the invoicing process because it’s transferred electronically. This means eInvoicing reduces the amount of paper consumed considerably. Not only this, it can save business on costs such as paper, printers’ maintenance and ink. (5) Improve communication / customer service Chasing people to get an invoice paid on time can be stressful on business relationships. With e-Invoices the sender is notified when invoices are sent and the buyer receives notification when they receive the invoice in their system. As the initial communication is done for you and is available in the accounting system, it allows business relationships to stay as positive as possible.

A8. Assuming both you and supplier are using a provider with a PEPPOL access point this should be possible within a few days allowing for elapsed time for initial run through of eInvoices. However, this depends on your process for on-boarding a supplier.

A9. The timeframe varies from supplier to supplier. The requirements will depend on the system used to generate invoices but help will be given by the provided. Once the supplier is set up, it is up to each ETB to approve the supplier so that e-invoices can be accepted into the EIP system.

A10. It is possible but there are potential costs and pit-falls in seeking to set up bespoke integration. Also when the supplier relationship is subject to change within relatively short time frames the benefits of any customised integration may not pay off.

A11. There is no difference as the EN is based on international standards and its use has been agreed by all national standard bodies throughout the EUs

A12. The eInvoice EN is based on international standards and is designed for cross border trade. It handles multi-currency.

A13. A PDF is not an EN compliant invoice, therefore a Public Body is not mandated to receive PDFs.

A14. You can convert an EN invoice into a PDF and your PEPPOL compliant Service Provider should be able to provide this service.

A15. We have not received a recommendation directly from C&AG, however, Revenue have issued the following on electronic invoicing. See https://www.revenue.ie/en/vat/vat-records-invoices-and-credit-notes/invoices/other-types-of-vat-invoices.aspx

A16. It depends on the timing of the move to shared services and its compliance with eInvoicing. At a minimum your organisation needs to arrange a facility to receive and process an e-invoice if requested by a supplier after April 2019 (or 2020 for non-central government with deferral).

A17. Not mandated for suppliers currently, only mandated for Public Bodies

A18. Yes, because it is a conformant subset of the EN.

A19. The RCT (Relevant Contract Tax) is a withholding tax. Withholding tax does not have to be declared on an invoice. The RCT supplier should be designated in the public body’s FMS for RCT purposes similar to any other such supplier when set up for payment.

A20. By way of background, the deadline of 18 April 2019 was set following the publication of the European Standard on electronic invoicing (eInvoicing) in the Official Journal of the European Union on 17 October 2016, allowing 18 months for compliance with the Directive and Standard. The Directive permits that Member States may postpone the application of this date for sub-central contracting authorities and contracting entities until 30 months after the publication of the Standard (April 2020). To avail of this, it is intended that the transposition of the Directive into Irish legislation will include the postponement option for sub-central contracting authorities and contracting entities. It is a matter for individual public bodies to determine whether the central or sub-central compliance deadline applies to their organisation with regard the European Directive on eInvoicing. eInvoicing Ireland have prepared an Information Note on the compliance deadline which is available to access at www.ogp.gov.ie/eInvoicing.

A21. eInvoicing Ireland have spent the past number of months working with the Office of Government Procurement (OGP) and the public sector partners to facilitate the development of an eInvoicing procurement Framework which will meet the needs of shared service and co-ordinating body facilities as well as individual public bodies across the public sector. The Framework is currently under final review prior to a Request for Tender (RFT) being published. It is expected that the RFT should be published in quarter four of 2018 with a deadline for tender responses before the end of the year. Following an evaluation period it is expected that the Framework will be published in early 2019 from which public bodies will be able to access the services and solutions they need to be compliant with the European Directive on eInvoicing 2014/55/EU and the national approach.

A22. While the target date for the Framework being available was initially set for quarter four 2018, the emphasis in developing the Framework has been on collaboration and consultation. This approach, along with embarking on the most comprehensive Request for Information (RFI) engagement with the market that the OGP has experienced, as well as supporting public and private sector organisations in their liaisons with the European Commission on eInvoicing, merited a greater investment of time to facilitate a better outcome. The result being a comprehensive Framework which will encompass the considerations of the four different sector partners, implications for suppliers and SMEs, solution providers, as well as other governance considerations and input from public sector representatives in areas such as policy, auditors, technology and data protection

A23. Alternative compliant solutions can be sourced by public bodies. However, please note: The OGP is here to meet the public sector’s sourcing needs, by putting in place quality solutions that deliver value for money. The OGP realise that different clients have different needs and so frameworks and contracts are kept as flexible – and as easy to use – as possible to take account of those needs. OGP Frameworks offer facilities that have already been competitively and compliantly tendered. By using these arrangements, public sector clients can be confident that they are meeting their compliance obligations. The national eInvoicing model is based on public sector bodies accessing the OGP eInvoicing procurement Framework. The Framework will provide services and solutions which are compliant with the European Directive on eInvoicing and the national approach for public sector bodies.

A24. Due to the rules of public procurement, while the Framework is being finalised and has not yet been published we are not in a position to comment at this point on specific details such as pricing models that will be available via the Framework. It is expected that the Framework pricing model(s) for public bodies contracting services will generally reflect those models that prevail in the market.

A25. There is a five step process to being eInvoicing ready, the first is to understand the basic requirements of the eInvoicing Directive and how they apply to your public body. The second is to analyse your organisation's current invoice processing environment, the systems and processes, the resources and volumes of invoices involved. The third, based on the second, is to decide on the organisation's eInvoicing strategy whether your public body aims to achieve basic compliance with the eInvoicing Directive or whether you're aiming to achieve longer term benefits, with a view to potentially developing an eInvoicing policy for the organisation. The fourth involves project planning for eInvoicing and the extent of this will depend on whether your public body is scheduled to be part of a shared services/ co-ordinating body facility prior to April 2019 and whether you’re public body is deemed to be a central or sub central contracting authority or contracting entity. The fifth stage is to access the relevant services and solutions from the eInvoicing Framework.

A26. The OGP can't confirm draw down mechanisms until the Framework RFT is available to the market place. It should be noted that the Framework has been developed, in collaboration with representatives from each of the sectors, to meet the differing needs of the shared services and co-ordinating body facilities as well as the needs of individual public bodies across the public sector. In developing the Framework consideration has been given to the timelines, the Framework has been designed to minimise timeframes for accessing these services as much as possible, particularly for central bodies looking to comply with the April 2019 deadline.

A27. The eInvoicing Framework is developed, by the OGP and the sector partners, to provide all the relevant services and solutions which public bodies need to access to be compliant with the eInvoicing Directive. The Framework is expected to provide public bodies with access to a set of commercially available solutions that provide PEPPOL networking and eInvoicing systems and services, including the provision and operation of PEPPOL Access Points

A28. In general, in the development of any Framework the OGP agree a Framework contract with the Framework service provider(s). However when a contracting authority accesses services or solutions from the service provider(s) on the Framework a contract agreement is developed between the contracting authority and the service provider. While the framework will set out a pricing model of services available to draw down, the cost of an individual contract will be dependent on the nature and range of services that a contracting authority draws down from the Framework to meet their specific needs. The OGP cannot confirm the price of services until the Framework RFT is available to the market place.

A29. It has been approved by the EU Parliament and the Council of Ministers and has become a Directive and is being transposed into law in all member states. See the following link for more information. https://ec.europa.eu/growth/single-market/public-procurement/e-procurement/e-invoicing_en