State of Brandenburg: electronic invoice processing

State of Brandenburg: electronic invoice processing

Initial situation

As in hardly any other area of corporate IT, the processes of procurement and especially invoice processing are subject to constant rationalisation and automation. Although incoming invoices are usually processed by a small group of people, the execution of procurement processes and the subsequent approval of invoices affects the entire organisation. Procurement processes can only be made efficient if purchase orders and invoices in paper form are replaced by data in standardised exchange procedures and processed without system breaks.

The approach

In order to promote rationalisation in the area of procurement, the EU already established a Europe-wide obligation for public contracting authorities to receive and process electronic invoices in 2014 with the so-called EU Invoicing Directive. To implement the directive, the state of Brandenburg has set up a central project for all authorities of the direct and indirect state administration. LCSI supported and advised the state in the conceptual design, development coordination and project management.

The result

In order to meet the extensive requirements efficiently and economically, the implementation of e-invoice processing relied on existing systems – the federal government’s OZG-RE portal and the EL.ZA platform for e-collaboration. The XRechnungen / XInvoices submitted by the billers via the OZG-RE portal are checked there and forwarded to EL.ZA for subsequent further processing by the bill recipients. As a cross-departmental client, EL.ZA provides a central invoice receipt and audit-proof storage for all authorities of the direct state administration.