Unique Universal Reference for e-invoicing

Project Information

UUR

Grant agreement ID: 876518

DOI

10.3030/876518

Project closed

EC signature date 7 August 2019

Start date 1 September 2019

End date 29 February 2020

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

LIBEO
France

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - UUR (Unique Universal Reference for e-invoicing)

Reporting period: 2019-09-01 to 2020-02-29

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

European businesses process 35 bn invoices yearly that remain paper based or PDF documents, i.e. digital prints. There is currently no smart, affordable, user-friendly, and transmissible format for e-invoices leading to billions of hours lost yearly on processing and managing invoices. Therefore, Libeo is developing the Unique Universal Reference (UUR) project aiming to create the best integrated pan-European e-invoicing management ecosystem. The UUR is designed to be incredibly simple, fully compatible with existing standards, transparent and safe

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

In September 2019, Libeo started the SME Instrument Phase 1 project, with the aim to assess the technical feasibility, understand the legal framework and validate the market need and the UUR economic viability. This phase has been successful as we have been able to finalize the product technical design, fully understand the existing and coming regulations around e-invoicing, validate the market readiness and the business model for the UUR. The key project outcomes can be summarized as follows:
1. The European e-invoicing ecosystem is at the dawn of a profound transformation fuelled by the Directive 2014/55/EU and its application
2. Despite the existence of a European standard (PEPPOL), Many standards still and will continue to co-exist
3. It is clearly mandatory for the UUR to be fully compatible and integrated with the key standards for e-invoicing at European and sub-national levels
4. The diversity of existing standards and the large number of stakeholders within the ecosystem raises the question of compatibility, which appears to be the main challenge to reach the penetration required for the UUR success
5. The technical design and key impacting technical options have been validated
6. Several key integrations have been developed and others are being discussed with +60 potential partners
7. A clear business model has been developed that ensures the project development and financial sustainability

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The project will carry on and we intend to pursue the development of the UUR to reach commercialization stage by end of 2022. Once completed, the UUR aims to have multiple highly ambitious socio-economic goals including:
- Create a European and sovereign e-invoice management ecosystem
- Reduce time spent on invoices management and monitoring for admin, financial staff and entrepreneurs
- Reduce dramatically the environmental impact of invoicing
- Ensure full transparency on B2B financial flow and reduce VAT gap and Tax fraud

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