Explore how Open ECX’s CCO, Charles Robinson, is guiding businesses through the rapid shift to digital invoicing. In this interview, he highlights upcoming UK eInvoicing mandates, the growing need for automated financial workflows, and how partnerships like Open ECX and Klipboard help organisations boost efficiency, accuracy, and compliance.
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Yes, absolutely. eInvoicing will, quite simply, become the standard business model for B2B trading in the very near future. This is the direction in which global commerce is heading.
This shift will be driven either by mandatory regulations introduced by individual countries or by market expectations. Customers and suppliers will increasingly expect their trading partners to be able to transact electronically, removing the need for manual or labour-intensive processes.
In the UK, the Government has announced in its recent Budget that eInvoicing will be mandated for all VAT invoices from 2029. From January 2026, the Government will begin a formal collaboration period with key stakeholders to design and develop the UK’s eInvoicing regime, and Open ECX will be actively participating in this process.
The key point is that there are now no real barriers to adopting digital invoicing solutions. Whether you’re buying or supplying, the technology already exists to enable fully electronic trading with 100% data accuracy.
At Open ECX, our focus is on minimising disruption during the adoption of a digital strategy. We do this by providing a trading platform that receives documents from the sender and converts them into the format required by the recipient’s system (e.g., ERPOne), without requiring the sender to change their existing business processes or practices.
Digitising invoices—and other critical B2B transaction documents, such as sales orders—delivers tangible cost savings, particularly for organisations that still rely on manual processes or legacy technologies.
The opportunity to drive efficiencies across the organisation is significant. If you’re not already doing this, it is highly likely that your competitors are. Furthermore, customers and suppliers increasingly expect businesses to have digital capabilities in place, or at the very least a clear strategy and timeline for digitalisation.
In medium to large organisations, digital transformation is often a core strategic objective, supported by dedicated digital or transformation teams. High-volume documents such as invoices and sales orders are typically prioritised as “low-hanging fruit” due to the immediate efficiency gains they deliver.
From an audit and compliance perspective, we’re also seeing increased focus on other critical financial processes, such as supplier statement reconciliation. Historically, this has been a heavily manual activity that is often left incomplete due to the time required. Automation enables organisations to fully reconcile all suppliers on a monthly basis, freeing up resources while ensuring accurate financial records and reducing fraud risk. For businesses seeking SOC 2 compliance, this level of control becomes a mandatory requirement.
Quite simply, regulation will play a very large role going forward.
Governments and tax authorities across the globe are mandating eInvoicing to combat tax avoidance and gain real-time visibility of B2B transactions and tax liabilities. In the UK, the Government confirmed in this year’s Budget that all VAT invoices must be issued as eInvoices from 2029 to support wider digital transformation.
From January 2026, a consultation period will begin with key stakeholders, including software providers, to shape the UK’s eInvoicing framework. Open ECX will participate in these consultations, and an implementation roadmap is expected to be published in the 2026 Budget. We are also delighted that Matthew Jones, our Founder, has been appointed Co-Chair of the PEPPOL UK Working Group, which aims to support the Government in delivering this mandate.
Globally, government eInvoicing mandates are typically delivered through models such as Continuous Transaction Controls (CTC) or PEPPOL. These approaches enable governments to collect transaction data in near-real time, reducing tax risk and improving revenue collection.
Historically, governments relied on retrospective audits due to paper-based processes. Today, technology allows them to take a proactive approach by mandating eInvoicing and ensuring tax revenues are collected accurately and promptly.
Across Europe, countries such as Belgium have already adopted PEPPOL for all domestic B2B and B2G invoices from 1 January 2026. As a PEPPOL Access Point, Open ECX is already helping clients navigate country-specific regulations and transact compliantly in markets such as Belgium.
Internally, the primary benefit is efficiency through the achievement of Straight Through Processing (STP), which eliminates manual intervention when getting information into systems. Today’s technology enables the secure electronic exchange of PDFs, CSV files, XML and EDI documents with 100% data accuracy.
Digitisation also accelerates processing and removes bottlenecks across both sales and purchase cycles. On the sales side, this means faster and more accurate order processing and delivery. On the supplier side, it enables quicker invoice processing and payment, supporting fair payment objectives.
The UK Government published the results of its eInvoicing consultation in February 2025. Of the 342 responses received, the key benefits identified included:
In practice, we have seen some clients achieve efficiency improvements of over 80% in their sales order processes through full automation. This has freed up staff time to focus on higher-value, customer-facing activities. Clients have also reported significantly improved accuracy compared to manual data entry or OCR, enabling true Straight Through Processing unless an exception is identified.
By bringing together two multi-award-winning organisations, the Open ECX and Klipboard partnership enables clients to realise their digital adoption strategies fully.
Open ECX is a leading B2B automated document exchange platform. It is actively assisting the UK Government in shaping its eInvoicing roadmap through Matthew Jones’s appointment as Co-Chair for the Peppol UK Working Group.
Klipboard complements this with deep expertise in operational and financial systems. Together, we have a proven track record of delivering these solutions quickly and effectively, accelerating time-to-value for our clients.
Both organisations have worked closely to fully integrate their capabilities, enabling real-time Straight Through Processing for the exchange of critical B2B documents. This partnership has already been successfully delivered to more than 20 joint clients, with continued expansion planned.
The technology can be deployed within weeks, minimising the time and resources required before benefits are realised. Looking ahead, both Open ECX and Klipboard are committed to further joint development to remove remaining bottlenecks, support automation journeys, and ensure clients remain compliant with upcoming regulatory mandates.
Charles Robinson brings nearly 30 years of sales leadership experience as CCO of Open ECX, driven by a passion for maximising revenue growth and delivering transformative solutions for clients. Since joining in 2023, he’s spearheaded the development of new customer acquisition strategies and established a successful partner channel. For Charles, client success is the ultimate measure of Open ECX’s leadership in process automation.
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