B2B Buyers Demand E-invoicing and Standard Invoice Formats

A Censuswide survey of 550 business buyers in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Australia, carried out for payments provider TreviPay and published in May 2026, found buyers want e-invoicing and standardized invoice formats to reduce billing friction.

Respondents reported recurring problems in the order-to-cash cycle: 30% experienced incorrect invoices, 31% cited limited ERP integration, 31% flagged inconsistent invoice formats and 34% pointed to approval delays. TreviPay said many issues stem from processes that span multiple systems and teams, where individual steps may be automated but end-to-end workflows remain fragmented and require manual fixes when data does not align.

Inez Berkhof-Hollander, TreviPay’s vice president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, warned: “Finance teams across all industries — B2B buyers and sellers alike — are under pressure from cash flow demands and from tightening regulation on how invoicing must be done.”

The survey appears as the UK plans to require e-invoicing for all VAT invoices from 2029. Responses to the government consultation called for standardization to ease cross-border trade and reduce administrative burdens. Several respondents pointed to international frameworks such as Peppol as a technical model for shared invoice specifications. The Netherlands is already adopting Peppol, and some buyers said they expect a harmonized approach would make a single e-invoicing system usable across multiple markets.

Alex Harris, parts sales manager at DAF Trucks, which uses TreviPay for centralized billing in the Netherlands and the UK, noted his company is watching national decisions on invoice formats closely and will update its systems once authorities select a standard. Harris added that a common format could let a single e-invoicing solution serve both countries and be adapted if the UK aligns with Peppol.

The poll found differences by company size. Larger organizations prioritized ERP integration, purchase controls and governance, while mid-size firms emphasized flexibility and speed. On artificial intelligence, 20% of businesses with 500 or more employees said they are exploring AI to streamline processes and reduce manual tasks, compared with 9% of companies with 100 to 200 staff.

Respondents also expressed widespread concerns about internal expertise and staying compliant with changing regulations. TreviPay said those gaps help explain why digitization has not removed the need for manual intervention: data and workflows still fail to align across systems, creating extra administrative work and delays for buyers and sellers.