OMB has told agencies to transition to use of electronic invoicing, saying that only 40 percent of the current 19 million invoices annually are processed that way, “with the remaining using a mix of electronic and manual processes that provide little visibility to businesses and can result in tax dollars being used for late payment fees rather than to support critical agency missions.”
The federal government is the largest single purchaser of goods and services in the nation, OMB memo M-15-19 adds, noting that the government already has a number of established electronic invoicing solutions that could be applied more broadly.
It set a goal of transitioning, by the end of fiscal 2018, to electronic invoicing for commercial products and services may exclude such activities as utilities, charge card payments, vendors using personally identifiable information for identification, relocation services, and other areas where federal electronic invoicing processes do not match common industry practices.
OMB also said that within 180 days it will make available to agencies data standards to be used in electronic invoicing for procurements.
