As of May 2021, the new look-up feature will make it easier for invoice recipients and invoice issuers to connect thanks to an automated process: the invoice recipient no longer has to manually look up potential invoice issuers individually in e-banking, and can instead have them added automatically. And the invoice issuer can initiate registrations themselves. In this way, the connection between the invoice recipient and the invoice issuer is optimized – and eBill becomes the central portal on which the invoice recipient can receive all their invoices.

Look-up feature for invoice recipients: receive e-bills automatically

The invoice recipient can use the look-up feature to activate the “Add automatically” option on the eBill-Portal. In doing so, they inform all invoice issuers that they would like to receive invoices via eBill, and they can also choose to exclude certain invoice issuers from this option. Once this option has been activated, invoice issuers can send their invoices with eBill. Plus: to ensure the invoice recipient can keep track of everything, an invoice issuer’s first electronic bill is always highlighted. The look-up feature allows the invoice recipient to receive more and more bills through eBill, and so eBill becomes the central portal for processing invoices. 

Look-up feature for invoice issuers: initiate and verify eBill with invoice recipients

The invoice issuer can use the look-up feature to initiate registration for eBill itself, as well as to verify the completion status of registrations that are still ongoing. A prerequisite for a positive response in the look-up feature is that eBill customers (invoice recipients) must have set up explicit delivery authorization for the invoice issuer, or have activated the “Add automatically” option in the eBill portal. Here’s how it works: the invoice issuer searches for the payer by e-mail address if the payer is a private individual, or, in the case of “eBill for Business”, they use the company ID number, which may be stored in their customer database. If there is a match, the invoice issuer is notified that they can send eBill invoices in future and that the recipient can be switched to eBill if paper billing was previously used, for instance.

To find out whether an invoice recipient would like to receive their bills through eBill, the invoice issuer can use the eInvoicing portal to look it up manually or automatically via a web service by entering the e-mail address or company ID number.

Do you have any questions? Please contact your advisor, who will be happy to help you.