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- New global research from Avalara and Cebr reveals the transformative power of electronic invoicing adoption in Australia and across five other major markets
- Productivity benefits could create billions in economic gains for businesses and governments
SYDNEY, June 24, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Avalara Inc., a leader in modern tax compliance automation, has released a landmark global report in partnership with the Center for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) quantifying the economic impact of electronic invoicing (e-invoicing) adoption.
The study, covering Australia, France, Germany, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States, identifies a combined annual economic opportunity of $616 billion through productivity gains, faster payments, and reduced fraud. In Australia alone, full e-invoicing adoption could unlock yearly economic gains of $15.1 billion, approximately A$22.5 billion.
Economic & Business Value
The report reveals that switching to e-invoicing delivers measurable economic benefits for nations, as well as financial and operational efficiencies for businesses. The average Australian firm adopting e-invoicing could realize $649,200, around A$970,000, in annual productivity gains. Elsewhere, e-invoicing could add $16.9 billion in France, $13.3 billion in Germany, $11.2 billion in the UK, $3.7 billion in India, and a staggering $116 billion in the U.S.
“E-invoicing isn’t just a compliance solution, it’s a growth engine for global economies and businesses,” said Ross Tennenbaum, President of Avalara. “Our research with Cebr proves that the faster we help businesses transition to electronic invoicing, the more we can do to help unlock billions in productivity and day-to day efficiencies.”
Australia has witnessed substantial improvements in payment acceleration. Firms that have embraced e-invoicing have seen payments arrive up to 2.5 days faster, a 15% improvement on paper or more manual digital processes. Elsewhere, U.S. businesses using e-invoicing save $15.16 on average for each invoice they receive, amounting to $1.1 million in annual productivity gains per firm. European businesses are also benefiting from the technology. Large French businesses have been able to reclaim up to 54.4 minutes for each invoice, significantly reducing processing time and freeing up finance teams to do more effective tasks.
Across all six markets, e-invoicing shortens payment cycles by an average of 1.4 days, reduces fraud and tax fines by around 30%, and saves approximately 39 minutes over the process for each invoice.
Slower SMBs
Globally, larger firms have embraced e-invoicing, processing 72% of invoices electronically. In contrast, SMBs, issuing and receiving hundreds of invoices every week, lag with only 37% adoption. This reliance on manual methods could cost smaller businesses both time and money.
Unfortunately for SMBs, barriers to adoption remain. Notable difficulties include staff training and complexities around integration, impacting nearly half (43%) of respondents. Encouragingly though, momentum is building worldwide. Most firms (95%) using manual invoices are aware of e-invoicing, and three-quarters (73%) expect to adopt the technology within the next five years.
Faster Payments, Stronger Cashflow
A key reason for this is the time savings associated with e-invoicing. By making payments typically 5% faster, the technology leads to significant cashflow advantages. Across the entire payment process, the research found that Australian firms experienced savings of around $13.67 per invoice, roughly A$20. In addition to this, U.S. firms saw an 8% acceleration in payment speeds, and large businesses unlocked over $14,000 annually in cashflow improvements.
UK firms utilizing the technology also benefited, experiencing a 4.8% drop in late payments. This was the biggest improvement across all six of the markets. Interestingly, time savings per invoice were more modest in India, at 6.8 minutes for accounts payable, even though the country has the highest e-invoicing adoption rate. Despite this more limited impact, 64% of Indian businesses remain satisfied with the positive impact of e-invoicing adoption.
Lower Risk, Greater Confidence
E-invoicing is also critical in fraud prevention and security, boardroom priorities in today’s rapidly evolving business environment. Across all six markets, 44% of businesses were hit with tax fines and 34% experienced invoice fraud in the past year. That’s not the entire picture, as businesses faced $23,500 on average for tax fines and $18,100 for fraud losses. Firms leveraging e-invoicing reported far fewer incidents, only 20% experienced fines or fraud. E-invoicing’s power to maintain financial operations and regulatory compliance helps businesses reduce tax fines by 27%. It also shores up businesses from threats, slashing fraud and data breaches by 30%, and lowers the number of lost invoices by 40%, providing businesses with even more operational confidence.
Policy Support Grows
While e-invoicing is not yet mandatory in Australia, it is gaining traction. Over half of Australian businesses are aware of government initiatives promoting e-invoicing, and 58% are already preparing for future legislation. This puts Australia among the most proactive markets when it comes to voluntary compliance.
Today’s research highlights the urgent case for businesses and governments to implement e-invoicing, paving the way for greater efficiency, security, and transparency. Avalara offers tailored solutions to help Australian businesses accelerate compliance and unlock value. To find out more, head to: https://www.avalara.com/us/en/products/e-invoicing.html.
Methodology
The study surveyed 1,720 businesses across six major markets (U.S., UK, France, Germany, India, and Australia), analyzing the productivity, financial, and compliance impacts of full e-invoicing adoption. Economic modelling, conducted by Cebr, focused on two main elements: to exclusively target B2B companies with at least 10 employees; and to quantify the impacts of e-invoicing at an individual invoice, per-business and ultimately economy-wide level, with all monetary figures converted and presented consistently in USD ($).
About Avalara
Avalara makes tax compliance faster, easier, and more accurate, reliable, and valuable for 43,000+ business and government customers in over 75 countries. Tax compliance automation software solutions from Avalara leverage 1,400+ signed partner integrations across leading ecommerce, ERP, and other billing systems to power tax calculations, document management, tax return filing, and tax content access. Visit avalara.com to improve your compliance journey.
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