Voxel Group, the e-invoicing and e-payments company leader in the travel sector will attend the FVW Kongress, the Travel Industry and Mobility event held next September 17 and 18 in Köln, Germany. This year, Voxel Group will have a stand to present e-invoicing and B2B payments for the travel industry to the main players of the German sector.
Furthermore, Business Development Manager at Voxel Group, Sandra Rudolf, will present the “Open Payment Alliance: Intelligente Payment Manager steigern die Buchungen” at the Technology Lab and will introduce the OPA, the new B2B payments standard for the travel industry. The OPA is driven by HEDNA and led by Voxel Group, whose main objective is to streamline the payment flow. It advocates decupling the payments channel from the distribution channel. The presentation is on September 17, at 3 pm.
By attending the FVW, Voxel Groups expects to consolidate its corporate presence in the German and international market, where they already work with well-known customers such as TUI, Der Touristik, Thomas Cook, Ameropa, Deutsche Hospitality, Novum Hospitality, NH Hotels, Meliá Hotels International, Expedia, Hotelbeds, Logitravel, Jet2Holidays, Miki Travel, Globalia, Accor, eDreams…
The electronic invoice in Germany
The electronic invoicing has been gradually introduced in Germany following the European Union guidelines. Last April 18, when the European directive 2014/55/EU came into force, the German public administration had to adapt their invoicing system to receive and process e-invoices. However, electronic invoicing to the public administration won’t be mandatory until November 27, 2020.
Regarding the B2B environment, electronic invoicing is not mandatory, but its use is rising. According to the EESPA (European E-invoicing Service Providers Association), electronic invoicing usage saw a 23% raise in 2017, 1.9 billion invoices more than in 2016. For instance, B2B and B2G electronic invoicing are already mandatory in Italy.
Electronic Invoicing benefits
The digitization of the invoicing process provides multiple benefits to travel companies, such as the automation of manual processes, error mitigation, productivity increase, documentary control, less paper usage, better cash flow efficiency, etc. baVel, the electronic invoicing platform of Voxel Group specialised in the travel sector, is designed for the touristic sector and Procurement workflows. It also provides extra benefits, such as traceability, automatic reconciliation, universal compatibility with management systems and the possibility to close the billing cycle with B2B payment automation.
Specifically, in order to streamline the B2B payments flow for the travel companies, Voxel Group is leading the Open Payment Alliance initiative together with HEDNA. This project aims to decouple the payments channel from the booking channel allowing travel companies to choose transaction type, payment supplier and the exchange rate, as well as the main variables of the sector (time of payment, rate, etc.).
Voxel Group offers via their baVel platform the opportunity to digitize the billing cycle and the integration of payments to turn the billing process into a transparent and efficient method from the moment a company issues an invoice until the supplier receives the money into their account.
