20.05.2025
From three days to two minutes for each billing run: with the Paper Bill outsourcing solution provided by PostFinance and the support of service provider DATA UNIT AG, Evard Antennenbau AG massively simplified and automated its paper invoicing process. The result: more efficiency in its day-to-day business and more freedom for value-generating activities.
Would you also like to make your invoice mailing fit for the future? Our experts would be happy to advise you on Paper Bill and other solutions for automated invoice mailing.
Not so long ago, telecommunications company Evard Antennenbau AG printed, packed and sent all of its invoices in-house – an arduous process requiring a lot of time, staff and materials. What’s more, the packing machine used often reached its limits.
“Paper Bill came as such a relief to us.”
Pascal Sahli, Head of Administration and Sales at Evard Antennenbau AG
With the change in ERP system last year, it became clear that paper invoicing also needed to be reconsidered. The company, which operates its own cable network in Seeland and provides TV, internet, telephony and mobile services, sends around two-thirds of its yearly 47,000 invoices on paper. “Previously, it took two people up to three days for each billing run – it was simply no longer feasible”, says Pascal Sahli, Head of Administration and Sales at Evard Antennenbau AG. The aim was to streamline the process and make it more efficient. “We receive more and more eBill registrations every week”, he explains. However, paper will likely remain the preferred invoicing method among customers for now.
The telecommunications company looked for an outsourcing service and decided on Paper Bill by PostFinance: with this solution, paper invoices are now processed externally. The new process is significantly easier. Evard Antennenbau AG sends its invoicing data to the service provider DATA UNIT AG. The latter forwards the data in a suitable format to PostFinance, which takes care of the printing and mailing so that the invoices reliably reach customers at the desired time. “Today, we only need one person and it takes them two minutes to start the invoicing process – and from then on, everything runs by itself”, says Sahli. It is a huge relief for the company. Employees who previously worked on invoicing can now work on other tasks.
With Paper Bill, companies don’t just benefit from a central solution for printing and sending paper invoices. If desired, the solution also assists with optimizing returns management – thanks to status confirmations simplifying the management of their transaction and master data.
Paper Bill also offers two reports with which companies can easily identify which invoice recipients can switch to digital invoicing:
This allows companies to reduce their proportion of paper invoices in a targeted way – and send invoices more efficiently and sustainably.
What’s useful for Evard Antennenbau AG is that it can send its invoicing data to DATA UNIT AG in the same way it is used to doing with eBill invoices. “We have set up our solution in such a way that customers can submit their data universally – regardless of whether they use eBill, Paper Bill or other formats”, explains Raphael Bucheli, ERP Consultant at DATA UNIT AG. Commissioned by Evard Antennenbau AG, DATA UNIT AG already supported the introduction of eBill and has now implemented Paper Bill. The project was closely monitored by technical advisors from PostFinance.
There was little effort required on the part of the service provider. “If a company can already send eBill invoices, the jump to Paper Bill is small from a technical perspective, though introducing eBill is also not a big deal”, adds Raphael Bucheli. How did things go on the customer side? The biggest challenge was correctly preparing the data from the ERP system in order to differentiate between eBill and paper invoices. “However, that was quickly solved with our ERP partner all4cloud and DATA UNIT AG: if the payer ID is stored in the form we send to DATA UNIT AG, it’s an eBill. If the corresponding field is empty, it’s a paper invoice”, says Sahli. The process was quick: implementation, including preliminary checks, lasted around two months.
His tips for companies considering the same step: “It’s important that customer data is complete and correct – that’s the basis for everything.” Sahli also recommends analysing the current costs of sending invoices ahead of time with full costing, including all material and personnel expenses. “Only then can you realistically assess whether switching is worth it or not. It mainly depends on how many invoices a company sends.” Collaboration with all involved partners should also begin early. “It’s a good idea to get in contact with the ERP partner, the service provider and PostFinance and clarify all the details – such as how invoices should be sorted or summarized if several are going to the same recipient.”
Would you like to calculate how much your invoicing processes cost? You can get some clarity with a full costing calculation.
Find out more about the full costing calculation in the article “Optimize invoice processes with full costing”.
“Our customers benefit in that we tackle and implement the introduction of add-ons together with them quickly and accompany them every step of the way.”
As a service provider and project partner, we took care of the add-on in the ERP. This makes it easier for our customers to switch to digital invoicing solutions – be it Paper Bill, eBill or B2B e-invoicing. Thanks to the add-on, customers no longer need to worry whether their data will reach PostFinance in the correct format. We take responsibility for transforming the data they send us via their ERP as well as submitting the transformed data to PostFinance.
Our customers benefit in that we tackle and implement the introduction of add-ons together with them quickly and accompany them every step of the way. We also ensure high security standards – whether it’s with the legally secure PDF/A3 format or with our infrastructure on which all services run.
A solutions-oriented collaboration between all three parties is of course required – the customer, PostFinance and us as the service provider. If all three parties work well together, it’s a win-win-win situation.
PostFinance offers companies the possibility of digitizing their invoicing. There are three products to help them do this: eBill for mailing to private individuals and small companies, B2B e-invoicing from ERP to ERP in the business customer segment and Paper Bill for paper invoices. All three solutions work over the same interface: invoice-issuing companies submit their invoicing data directly or via service provider to PostFinance, which then ensures the invoices reach the intended recipient through the desired channel – eBill in e-banking, B2B e-invoicing in the ERP and Paper Bill in the recipient’s private letter box.
