How Singapore Is Incentivizing E-invoicing Adoption

The Singaporean Government has taken up several initiatives to promote small and medium-sized enterprises (SME’s) into digitizing their bureaucratic and administrative activities. The government is inspired to take Singapore to the forefront of the tech-savvy and digitized mode of production. The growing trend of digitizing amongst SMEs in Singapore is making the country an attractive hub for software companies and investors.

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E-invoicing has surfaced as one of the most efficient steps to digitizing amongst the various digital initiatives that the government has promoted to adopt. Enterprises, small and large, are now making the switch to invoicing software for fast and error-free billing.

The Government Grants Accelerating Adoption

Amid the pressures already felt by SMEs to emerge from the current circuit-breaker period, the government incentives and grants add the necessary fuel towards accelerating the process. Most of the incentivizing around digitalization is directed towards the food, beverage, and retail industries.

The number of companies receiving support from the Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG) has multiplied three-fold since last year. The industry is perhaps one of the worst affected by the current break-up in cash-flow since it relies on clients walk-ins.

For SMEs that are quick to make the switch to digital modes of production and invoicing, the PSG offers subsidies of up to 80%, provided the digital measures are approved by the IMDA. The acceleration towards the switch to digitizing by SMEs is highly welcomed by Mr. Iswaran, the Communications and Information Minister. In a recent interview outside White Restaurant’s Suntec Outlet, Mr. Iswaran shared insights on the government’s hopes and plan to sustain this acceleration.

SMEs have flocked in great numbers towards e-invoicing, escalating the figure of such companies to an astounding 10,000, in contrast to merely 1,000 in March. The government anticipates a further acceleration in digitizing by SMEs following recent revenue triggers that tech-savvy measures have resulted in.

How Companies Are Benefiting From This Transition

The Digital Resilience Bonus grants a pay-out of up to $10,000 for SMEs that have resorted to the e-invoicing network. The switch comes with minimal costs and offers massive revenue upgradation.

The grant mainly focuses on the food, beverage & retail sectors that typically have a higher concentration of SMEs. These enterprises are increasingly tapping into the government's incentives by making the switch to digital invoicing.

White Restaurant’s General Manager, Sam Li,  readily endorsed the benefits of e-invoicing for businesses, other than the immediate government grants. According to Lim, e-invoicing has brought a considerable increase in revenue by cutting short unnecessary incumbencies.

White Restaurant has replaced traditional ordering services with an integrated software platform that processes orders and takeaways much more quickly. The digitization has been incorporated by the restaurant across five of its outlets. Instead of the staff taking orders over the phone, they are now routed to a central system from the restaurant’s website.

Previously, said Lim, taking a single order would last up to five minutes. However, with the new software, around 10 orders can be registered at the same time.

Digitization has also prevented the restaurant from a loss of orders that were the natural consequence of the staff occupied on one phone call. The software also helps the company automatically prioritize orders by delivery time.

How You Can Incorporate E-Invoicing In Your Business

Minimizing time and cost incumbencies is one of the great advantages of affiliating with the e-invoicing network. This refers to the digital transmission of financial records between suppliers, buyers, customers, and more.

You can successfully implement e-invoicing for your business by setting up an e-invoicing system supplied by an in-house or outsourced vendor. These vendors provide additional support for converting paper-based invoices into a wide variety of supportable electronic formats, while handling all legal and commercial challenges.

Businesses newly incorporating e-invoicing should secure an implementation timeline and budget plan that’ll determine the cost and duration of the switch. You must also look into smooth integrations of the electronic invoicing procedure with your current system’s accounts receivable and accounts payable configurations.

Successful incorporation of e-invoicing will get you up to speed with well-established digitized companies that have managed great returns on investments by making this transition.

Conclusion

Singapore is currently at the forefront of advanced trading and reduction of manual labor for quick business. The e-invoicing and digitizing incentives rolled out by the government have contributed to an unprecedented business boost, in both efficiency and profits. Given the ambiguous global economic conditions with Covid-19, e-invoicing and digitizing initiatives have, in the words of Sam Lim, “literally helped SMEs in surviving the storm and sustained commendable cash-flow.”