OMB has announced plans to completely phase out the labor intensive and costly processing of hardcopy contractor invoices. The government is the largest single purchaser of goods and services in the US and handles over 11 million paper invoices a year with a mix of manual and electronic processes (about 8 million are handled entirely online).
The government already has a few electronic invoicing solutions agencies can migrate to, but getting full value of electronic invoicing requires a coordinated approach that will reduce burden and duplication to both agencies and businesses, according to M-15-19.
The memo calls on agencies to, by 2018, transition to electronic invoicing for appropriate federal procurements by one of the following means:
– Migration to a designated Federal Shared Service Provider and adoption of the FSSP electronic invoicing solution;
– Use of an OMB approved electronic invoicing solution that aligns with agency mission and support requirements; or
– Cessation of any investments in new electronic invoicing solutions.
The memo also directs all FSSPs and other electronic invoice solution providers, no later than the beginning of fiscal 2018, to integrate with the Integrated Award Environment (IAE) systems and develop interfaces or APIs and to mitigate risks associated with the use of proprietary or third party supported systems.
