Are PDF Invoices better or worse than old-fashioned paper invoices?

A recent study published by AIIM on progress towards the paperless office makes interesting reading as it relates to current billing practices. The study is worth taking note of because apart from AIIM being a credible non-profit research business which has been around for almost 70 years, as the chart below indicates it was a very large survey of companies of almost all sizes. In addition, the study went to companies in multiple sectors all over the world (although around 50% of the companies were in the US).

What the Study Showed
As we all know, the capability to exchange PDF files as e-mail attachments is said to have reduced the volume of paperwork traded between companies and small businesses considerably. However, this study says that the reduction is minimal at best, but quite possibly creates more paperwork than it saves.

In specific terms, the study revealed the following facts about PDF as invoices
• Over three-quarters of people surveyed say one of the first things they do with a PDF-based invoice… is print it out.
• From the 77% of the 395 respondents that print out their invoices, 16% scan the invoices right back into the system for use as……PDF attachments.
• 10% of people print out their PDF invoices multiple times.
• 10% of people say they print out at least one copy for archival purposes.

The chart relating to this data is shown below:

What is happening to Invoices?
Although many of the larger companies in the survey seem to be pressing to have all-electronic billing and payment systems, it seems that we are still a long way from this ideal (perhaps as few as 2-3% of companies have a fully digital system which includes no printing and only digital storage systems). However, many businesses are at least trying to save on postage and paper costs by sending invoices as PDF files, or as faxes. However, even here the invoices are often printed out as paper, sometimes at both ends, which almost completes defeats the object. Such practices obviously do not generally result in a reduction of paper within the receiving business in particular. As we saw from the statistics earlier in total, 77% of respondents are likely to print at least one copy of a PDF invoice, and 16% admit to printing it out and then scanning it in for capture, as do 31% receiving a faxed invoice.

Are new more “intelligent” PDF’s the answer?
Most respondents to the AIIM survey were referring to the basic PDF files generated by their Acrobat software, which are obviously less feature-rich than intelligent PDFs have become in recent years with functionality such as XML files being included with all the relevant invoices and embedded payment buttons and even digital signature capture systems. Although this is undoubtedly an improvement, the adoption of these more function-rich PDFs has been very slow and in most cases has had little impact on the rate at which companies of all sizes continue to print out and scan invoices. This is partly because, a PDF is still regarded as paper in real terms-it may be electronic but it is not easy to digitize in ways that are useful for data transfer and exchange. Full digitalization is therefore the goal of many organizations and this is why scanning remains popular. In this regard, when asked what the biggest drivers are for scanning, responses were mainly about data-exchange, availability and flexibility (as the chart below from the survey indicates).

So what are the implications?
PDF’s are very convenient as a way to send documents electronically but far less so when it is an invoice. The speed of the sending process is better than physical mailing but so many people are printing it out anyway, it is far short of being the “path to digitization” that companies of all sizes want or need. Fully digital invoices seem to be a much more attractive option and when an invoice can be presented in full in third-party cloud-based portals such as those such at PaySwyft, any company gets all of this immediately.