Don’t want to face a 3-euro fine per invoice

With hotels all over the world, citizenM spends a lot of time on international compliance. “Our accounts payable team consists of eight colleagues who manage all Dutch and international invoices. We process over 1,000 invoices every week,” says Dennis Nap, Team Leader of Tech Centralization at citizenM.

“Previously, all invoices from our suppliers arrived via email, in PDF or UBL format. But in many countries, it’s not mandatory to include certain master data—such as Chamber of Commerce or VAT information—on the invoice. As a result, a lot of manual data entry and verification work was required. Furthermore, email isn’t the most secure channel for exchanging those kinds of documents.” And then there was also a new invoicing requirement from Italy.

Dennis: “In Italy, an invoice must meet certain technical specifications, and you always have to send it to the tax authority first. After verification, they forward the invoice to the appropriate supplier. If you don’t follow this process, you’ll be fined 3 euros per invoice. And non-compliance also causes problems during audits. That’s why we wanted to start using e-invoicing in Italy and assign our colleagues a monitoring role.”

One system for all international e-invoices

In the Netherlands, citizenM was already using e-invoicing via Peppol. “But our current software doesn’t support that for all countries. We then got in touch with 4CEE. They have a lot of experience with e-invoicing, so we speak the same language and share the same vision. That makes for a pleasant and efficient collaboration. Setting up e-invoicing according to Italian regulations, based on endpoints and an API, wasn’t very complicated,” says Dennis.

4CEE now receives various types of invoices for citizenM and converts them to a different format. The invoice is then automatically routed to citizenM’s P2P system. The same process applies to sending invoices. citizenM no longer has to worry about invoice requirements and networks in all countries. They now have a single integration via 4CEE, and everything is handled for them.

More than twice as many invoices processed

As soon as citizenM saw the benefits of receiving international e-invoices, the hotel chain decided to implement e-invoicing across all its businesses. Dennis: “In total, we already have over 100 suppliers on board. We track our KPIs and are seeing a real reduction in our workload. With 4CEE, the number of invoices we process automatically each week has more than doubled. We’re working more accurately, and we’re also sending payments to suppliers much faster.”

Automated back office

Dennis is surprised by how often back offices aren’t optimized. “Often, there’s too much focus on the short term, and there’s a big gap with the front office, but if you set up and automate the back office properly, you’ll reap huge benefits. By digitizing, you create an optimal experience, so that customers, suppliers, and employees see your organization as professional, pleasant, and leading the way. You can then finally spend the time you’ve saved on things that benefit your business.”

Onboarding suppliers is a challenge

But Peppol isn’t all sunshine and roses. Dennis: “One drawback of Peppol is that not every company uses it as standard yet, so you have to contact each supplier individually. That’s why, for example, we look at which 50 companies send us the most invoices on an annual basis. If you automate that majority of your invoices, you’re almost there.”

Optimizing instead of processing

Not only suppliers, but also our employees benefit from the new way of working. “Finance is often a traditional department with a lot of repetitive work. It’s difficult to break out of that routine and shift the focus to optimization rather than processing. By visualizing the results and presenting simple KPIs, we’re gradually transitioning from a processing department to a monitoring department.”

Peppol is secure, structured, and innovative

CitizenM is so enthusiastic about e-invoicing via Peppol that using the network is becoming the standard. Dennis: “It’s secure, centralized, and innovative. That aligns with citizenM’s vision and values. Plus, it saves us a lot of time, so we try to maintain the same invoicing process across the board. Some suppliers don’t support Peppol in their country, so we’re also working with 4CEE to implement other e-invoicing platforms, such as BPC and Nemhandel, and connect them to our Peppol gateway.”

Want to double your number of invoices without having to worry about format conversion, data storage, and data protection? Connect to 4CEE’s e-invoicing platform, and we’ll take care of the rest.