Although technology continues to permeate back office processes within many organizations across various industries, paper is still used by most as a means to manage everything from order taking to accounting. One area in particular that continues to see an enormous amount of paper – even though streamlining technology has been around for several decades – is invoice submission. There has been a major push over the last 10 to 20 years to transition organizations from submitting invoices via paper (i.e. through regular mail, fax and email – because traditional email still requires someone print it out on the receiving end) to submitting invoices via electronic networks. While there has been some headway, submitting invoices electronically continues to lag behind traditional paper methods, in general – although the promise was that electronic submission would overtake paper submission by now.
Some industries continue to have a greater reliance on paper invoicing while others are more apt to incorporate electronic and other streamlined methods. This infographic, with data derived from the 2017 Perceptions Study – Analysis of Invoice-to-Cash practices and preferences of supplier organizations, illustrates which industries rely heavily on paper and which industries have begun to move away from paper and embrace electronic and automated invoice submission methods.
