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    Reference Federal Procurement

    eInvoices for Austria's Shopping Queen!

    Bundesbeschaffung GmbH (BBG) is a service provider for the federal government in Austria and handles procurement matters for regional authorities, outsourced companies and institutions in the education and healthcare sectors. Electronic invoicing has been mandatory for suppliers since January 1, 2014 (in accordance with § 5 IKTKonG). However, in order to do justice to the different company sizes and requirements, they can determine the type of submission themselves.

    eInvoicing via the DIG eInvoicing portal covers a maximum range of formats and transmission channels that can be freely selected by the respective company as the eInvoicing party. Every year, over 3 billion euros in call-off volumes are processed via the BBG, with almost three million products and services available to customers. As a specialist in public procurement law, BBG handles all tendering work - and also provides the necessary infrastructure for the required e-invoicing.

    BBG-Federal Procurement-400x200

    Sector: Public procurement

    Web: bbg.gv.at

    Learn more

    "Our aim in the purchasing department of a manufacturing company is to check the purpose of every order. Purchasing brings together a lot of information from different areas, which is necessary to assess a purchase requisition," recalls Martin Engelmayer, the responsible purchaser at Georg Fischer Fittings GmbH.

    Digitization should accompany reality

    Engelmayer talks about the digitization efforts to date: "A few years ago, every request was made using paper documents and handwritten approvals. This process was of course associated with an enormous administrative burden and equally high expenditure of time and resources." The first digitization initiative therefore provided for the use of e-mail and Excel forms. "This accelerated the process, at least up to the point where the request was to be transferred to our ERP system - i.e. typed in. The implementation proved to be too time-consuming, but it also created an awareness that we needed to develop further in this area," says Engelmayer.

    Two options for e-invoicing

    In addition to regional authorities (federal, state and local governments), it is primarily outsourced companies (private legal entities that provide state services) as well as educational and healthcare institutions that make use of BBG's procurement expertise. Orders can also be placed directly with suppliers via the eShop and the e-invoice is then sentvia the BBG. Invoices are submitted electronically via the company service portal (USP) or via the DIG SFTP server(secure file transfer protocol).

    A suitable method of e-invoicing for every company

    The basis is the registration of the supplier on the USP, whereby the BBG partner number is assigned . In addition, the company also specifies here how the invoices are to be submitted in future (format,transmission method, etc. ). This results in an extreme variability of combinations:In addition to ebInterface ( 4.3. to 6.1), invoices can also be processed in IDoc-XML, CII, EDIFACT and many other formats. All possible transmission protocols are also available, such as mail, SFTP, SOAP, etc. An overview of the most important e-invoice transmission formats and protocols can be found here. These defined framework conditions are replicated in the DIG system, where the corresponding technical requirements for each company are created for the submission of eInvoices.

    for the submission of eInvoices. Each invoicing company also receives access data and details for the submission (e.g. to which e-mail address to send, the URL to the SFTP server, user name, password, etc.). It is also possible to receive invoices in special formats such as various CSV, in-house or proprietary ERP formats - these are then converted on the portal via a separate data transformation in a BBG-compatible manner.

    A suitable method of e-invoicing for every company

    The basis is the registration of the supplier on the USP, whereby the BBG partner number is assigned. In addition, the company also determines here how the invoices will be submitted in future (format, transmission method, etc.). This results in an extreme variability of combinations: In addition to ebInterface (4.3. to 6.1), invoices can also be processed in IDoc-XML, CII, EDIFACT and many other formats. All possible transmission protocols are also available, such as mail, SFTP, SOAP, etc. An overview of the most important e-invoice transmission formats and protocols can be found here. These defined framework conditions are replicated in the DIG system, where the corresponding technical requirements for each company are created for the submission of eInvoices.

    for the submission of eInvoices. Each invoicing company also receives access data and details for the submission (e.g. to which e-mail address to send, the URL to the SFTP server, user name, password, etc.). It is also possible to receive invoices in special formats such as various CSV, in-house or proprietary ERP formats - these are then converted on the portal via a separate data transformation in a BBG-compatible manner.

    Comprehensive invoice verification

    Before the invoices are forwarded to the BBG system, they are checked on the DIG e-invoicing portal. The check is split to optimize resources: For example, the check as to whether the BBG partner number is productive is carried out in the eInvoice portal. If it is determined that this number only has test status in the BBG system, an error message is sent to the sender. If the invoice is sent as a PDF attachment, the DIG system also checks whether the document contains content, whether the BBG partner number assigned to the sender matches the number in the invoice, whether invoices have been sent twice and much more. In the case of invoices sent in the standardized XML standard ebInterface, the correct structure is checked, the invoice characteristics are checked in accordance with § 11 UStG and the contents of the invoice are automatically checked, including the plausibility of the values and totals. Only after these various checks is the e-invoice forwarded to the BBG's USP, where further content is automatically checked. This division relieves the BBG's system and shortens the entire processing procedure.

    Advantages for all parties involved

    The BBG e-invoice gateway operated by DIG prevents media disruptions between the individual systems and ensures continuous, automatic processing of e-invoices. This leads to a massive reduction in costs (paper and printing costs, postage and handling), high process security through standardization and transparency. The invoice and process flow is precisely documented, processing times are massively accelerated, which enables faster payment. This also opens up new opportunities for BBG procurement controlling to obtain information.