ONESOURCE Pagero's two-step e-invoicing solutionHow it works and why companies need it in their tech stack

As countries worldwide adopt e-invoicing mandates and continuous transaction controls (CTCs), multinational companies face a growing challenge. They must comply with diverse requirements across multiple jurisdictions without overwhelming their IT and tax teams.

The regulatory environment for e-invoicing doesn't have universal standards. This makes it hard to understand because there may be different technical requirements, rules that change at the last minute, and systems that don't work together. For companies operating globally, this represents a constantly moving target that requires vigilant monitoring.

Failure to comply with e-invoicing mandates can result in fines, penalties, brand damage, and in extreme cases, the inability to conduct business in certain countries. Over 80 countries have already started using e-invoicing. Many more are planning to start using it in the next few years. This challenge is only getting increasingly difficult.

Government tax authorities favour e-invoicing and CTCs because they:

• Reduce labour and processing costs
• Make tax evasion and fraud more difficult
• Ensure complete collection of value-added taxes (VAT)
• Enable real-time transaction monitoring
• Provide insights into business activities
• Allow more accurate and timely tax reporting
• Support more responsive fiscal policies

The IT challenge of e-invoicing mandates

When digital transaction controls and e-invoicing requirements first appeared, IT teams at multinational companies created custom workarounds. At first, there were only a few countries involved. It was easy to make custom interfaces for each country, but it took a long time.

However, as e-invoicing mandates proliferate, the workload for tax and IT teams has grown exponentially. They mustn't only develop new templates for each country that implements e-invoicing, but also maintain existing ones as requirements change. Countries new to e-invoicing frequently modify their specifications to address unforeseen issues, making policy changes frustratingly common.

For IT departments, the reality is stark. Keeping pace with the volume and speed of changes in e-invoicing requirements across multiple jurisdictions has become nearly impossible, leading to compliance gaps and errors.

ONESOURCE Pagero

A pioneering solution

Since the 1990s, Pagero, now part of Thomson Reuters, has been at the forefront of secure, automated business data transmission. When concerns about e-invoicing mandates began to spread throughout the international business community, Pagero was already developing solutions. This proactive development translates into a mature, robust platform designed to alleviate common IT pain points associated with rapidly evolving compliance landscapes.

Understanding that the lack of standardized e-invoicing formats would force companies to manage requirements country by country, Pagero engineered its industry-leading two-step process for e-invoicing management. This approach makes tax and IT staff much less work by removing the complexity of tracking small technical and regulatory changes. Unlike solutions requiring constant custom development or manual intervention, Pagero’s architecture is built for automation and centralized updates, leading to significant efficiency gains and reduced operational risk.

What is ONESOURCE Pagero’s two-step e-invoicing process?

Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE Pagero's two-step e-invoicing process shifts the burden of e-invoicing management to an automated software solution engineered to address nearly any variable in the e-invoicing process, regardless of country-specific differences.

This creates a solution that can be used in the future. It can handle both the data needs of large companies and the changing requirements of global e-invoicing.

Open and application-agnostic

Reduces vendor lock-in and simplifies integration with existing heterogeneous IT landscapes.

Compatible with all major ERP systems

Pre-built connectors and well-defined connectivity options minimize integration efforts.

Designed with scalable architecture

Engineered to handle fluctuating transaction volumes and geographic expansion without requiring significant IT reconfiguration.

Adaptable to changing workloads and data transformation need

ONESOURCE Pagero can manage diverse data formats and apply business rules, ensuring data consistency and compliance with evolving standards.

An easy, trouble-free solution

With ONESOURCE Pagero, especially when paired with the Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE tax suite, tax and IT teams no longer need to monitor mandate changes or worry about compliance.

The solution automatically ensures that every transaction in applicable countries is recorded and reported in the exact format required.

ONESOURCE Pagero continuously monitors the global e-commerce landscape and automatically incorporates relevant updates into its framework. When a country changes its rules, clients simply continue transmitting invoices as usual; ONESOURCE Pagero handles the rest without requiring IT intervention. This minimizes unscheduled IT support requests, reduces the risk of compliance failures due to overlooked updates, and frees up IT resources for strategic projects rather than reactive maintenance.

Why competitors struggle to match ONESOURCE Pagero

While some competitors offer solutions that appear similar on the surface, they often process transactions for each country separately on the back end, facing the same scramble as in-house IT teams. When mandates change, these providers struggle to update their platforms due to cumbersome back-end processes.

Companies might also use different e-invoicing companies for each country. This creates a complex network of communications that needs to be managed constantly. This approach necessitates dealing with multiple support teams who may only understand e-invoicing protocols in their specific countries.

ONESOURCE Pagero's solution, by contrast, is a self-contained, hyper-efficient format converter with a proven record of accuracy and success. It's infinitely scalable, easy to use, and requires minimal oversight from IT staff.

How the two-step e-invoicing process works

E-invoices vs. traditional invoices

An e-invoice differs from a traditional invoice in that it's completely digital throughout its lifecycle. This allows for much faster processing — minutes versus weeks — improving accuracy, compliance, and cash flow. E-invoices also offer enhanced data security and environmental sustainability.

E-invoices integrate seamlessly with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems like SAP or Oracle, which serve as central hubs for business functions including finance, accounting, tax, procurement, and supply chain management.

Step one: Data collection and transmission

ONESOURCE Pagero's two-step approach, the first step is the only one requiring action from the company. The necessary e-invoicing data is automatically collected and transmitted to ONESOURCE Pagero through the company's ERP system. After receiving this data, ONESOURCE Pagero's software takes over the process.

During initial setup, ONESOURCE Pagero works with clients to determine the optimal invoice format. The system can accept invoices in various formats, including PDFs, eXtensive Markup Language (XML), or Universal Business Language (UBL).

Many companies opt for ONESOURCE Pagero's universal e-invoicing data format, which leverages Pagero's expertise in global e-invoicing architectures to ensure compatibility with government systems worldwide. Once established, this becomes the only format needed going forward, used for sending and receiving invoices with suppliers and customers, and for transmitting data to ONESOURCE Pagero.

The only other technical requirement is connecting ONESOURCE Pagero and the company's business systems. This process is straightforward because ONESOURCE Pagero uses pre-certified connectors for easy integration with ERPs and other business software. Being both format and system-agnostic, ONESOURCE Pagero requires only one connection channel to receive, process, and transmit e-invoices.

Step two: The conversion process

In the second step, which happens automatically, ONESOURCE Pagero performs the magic of e-invoice processing and conversion.

ONESOURCE Pagero uses a "four-corner" network model for electronic document exchange, similar to the format used in the Peppol network — the European e-invoicing standard gaining global adoption. This open framework model works with other systems and is flexible. This lets businesses connect with different service providers without using a single provider.

The four corners represent:

• The sender or supplier of the initial invoice
• The service provider used by the sender, such as ONESOURCE Pagero
• The service provider used by the recipient, often also ONESOURCE Pagero
• The buyer receiving the invoice

For each transaction, ONESOURCE Pagero automatically validates invoice data against regulatory requirements and compliance standards. Once validated, it converts the data into the format required by the country's e-invoicing mandate and transmits it to the appropriate tax authorities via their preferred communication channels.

Crucially for IT and finance teams, this conversion step isn't just about format changes for tax authorities. ONESOURCE Pagero’s two-step process offers powerful data enrichment and validation capabilities that significantly improve data quality before it enters the company’s ERP.

For example, an incoming supplier invoice might list tax as a percentage — for example, VAT 20% — while the ERP system requires a specific tax code. ONESOURCE Pagero can be configured to automatically map these values based on predefined business rules. For example:

• Enriching documents with missing ERP-specific data
• Flagging discrepancies or missing information
• Validating or map supplier or customer identifiers

Four-corner network transmission

Sends invoice to buyer’s service provider

Delivers invoice to buyer

Submits data to tax authorities

ERP compatibility and scalability

A major advantage of ONESOURCE Pagero's system is that it operates through a single connection with the host company's ERP. This streamlined integration point reduces the attack surface, simplifies network configuration, and lowers the maintenance overhead typically associated with multiple point-to-point integrations. When a company updates its ERP, IT staff don't need to reconfigure the connection, as the communication chain remains intact.

This ERP compatibility is key to ONESOURCE Pagero's scalability. ONESOURCE Pagero works with most big ERP systems through connectors that are approved. This allows it to grow as client companies grow. Companies can even expand into new markets without changing their e-invoicing setup, as ONESOURCE Pagero connects suppliers, customers, and government authorities in more than 80 countries through a single ERP connection.

Case study: Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) began working with Pagero in 2008 when Sweden introduced e-invoicing requirements. Since then, HPE has expanded to 29 countries, each with unique e-invoicing and CTC rules.

As a global multinational, HPE discovered that managing different invoice content requirements, layouts, data formats, and communication protocols across countries was becoming unsustainably time-consuming. Anticipating further expansion, HPE recognized that Pagero would be essential for streamlining e-invoicing compliance.

Using Pagero's process for converting PDF- based invoices into e-invoices, HPE transitioned.

Why ONESOURCE Pagero's two-step approach is superior to traditional mapping

The technical architecture of ONESOURCE Pagero delivers significant advantages over traditional mapping approaches to e-invoicing without disrupting existing business processes. When HPE upgraded to SAP S/4HANA, ONESOURCE Pagero's compatibility facilitated a smooth migration and enabled a switch from PDF-based files to the more universal XML format.

Today, HPE has over 12,000 suppliers across 29 countries, with all e-invoicing managed through ONESOURCE Pagero. Invoice errors have been virtually eliminated, and verification processes that once took more than a week are now complete in minutes. ONESOURCE Pagero has helped HPE streamline financial processes, reduce costs, decrease manual workloads, and gain efficiencies through end-to-end automation.

HPE currently bills in 30 different formats. ONESOURCE Pagero manages these invoices through its e-invoice conversion process. This process includes checking documents, changing them to countries, sharing documents that are compliant, talking to tax authorities, and storing them electronically.

ONESOURCE Pagero delivers significant advantages over traditional mapping approaches:

ONESOURCE Pagero's competitive advantage

For multinational companies, ONESOURCE Pagero offers several competitive advantages beyond being just another software product.

Effortless regulatory adaptation

Companies without ONESOURCE Pagero face significant challenges when expanding into new markets. Their IT teams must ensure ERP compatibility with multiple government systems simultaneously, research technical requirements, understand regulatory policies, and develop compliant invoicing templates.

With ONESOURCE Pagero, these concerns disappear. The solution can manage most invoice formats and meet any e-invoicing mandate without localized customization. This ability to automatically scale and adapt means IT and tax staff can focus elsewhere, accelerating market readiness and eliminating headaches from regulatory changes.

Faster market entry

ONESOURCE Pagero gives multinationals a competitive edge in efficiency, resilience, and speed of market entry. Immediate proficiency in local invoicing and tax systems establishes credibility with host governments and reassures partners that expansion won't cause service disruptions.

Proactive planning support

ONESOURCE Pagero's implementation teams work with customers to develop e-commerce plans based on company goals and technical needs.

By sharing knowledge of the global e-invoicing landscape, ONESOURCE Pagero helps companies prepare for future challenges, enabling more proactive planning.

The Pagero network advantage

The Pagero network is a group of over 14 million businesses connected to over 100 networks, hubs, and government platforms. This gives customers a wide range of e-invoicing services around the world. According to IDC MarketScape, which named Pagero the top e-invoicing solution in the EU, this network "is a huge boon" that "offers considerable potential for customers regarding compliance connectivity." ONESOURCE Pagero has strong connections to industry groups and regulators, as well as in-house regulatory experts. This makes it a trusted advisor for customers who are trying to navigate the complex e-invoicing world.

Additionally, Pagero's commitment to reliability and security is reflected in its various certifications and policies, including:

• ISO certifications that demonstrate its adherence to international standards
• Uptime SLA that guarantees a high level of availability
• A zero-down time policy that ensures continuous service to its customers

Thomson Reuters and Pagero: A powerful partnership

In 2024, Thomson Reuters acquired Pagero and partnered with the ONESOURCE tax platform to create ONESOURCE Pagero, a comprehensive end-to-end tax solution combining ONESOURCE's indirect tax capabilities with Pagero's e-invoicing expertise.

This integration offers several key benefits, including:

• Reduced number of vendors, simplifying the overall process
• Improved data flow and integration, covering aspects such as determination, reporting, analytics, and reconciliation
• A unified architecture, providing a consistent and unified technological foundation
• Enhanced scalability for global operations, allowing businesses to expand and grow with ease

This partnership gives multinational corporations the means to manage all tax and e-invoicing needs with a universal solution from a single vendor. The integration provides a scalable solution for international tax and e-invoicing compliance.

ONESOURCE Pagero allows companies to perform all e-invoicing and indirect tax functions globally, regardless of the regulatory framework encountered. Both systems are built on cloud-based technology, compatible with major ERP platforms, accommodate multiple invoicing systems, and connect with government tax systems worldwide.

Furthermore, hundreds of tax experts who monitor global regulatory updates and incorporate them into the platform support ONESOURCE Pagero, ensuring accurate tax calculations, compliant e-invoicing, and up-to-date communication protocols.

The single-vendor advantage

Using one vendor for both indirect tax and e-invoicing compliance makes things easier. This saves money, reduces IT support needs, makes work easier, and makes it easier to grow. As the only end-to-end solution of its kind, companies without ONESOURCE Pagero operate at a competitive disadvantage.

ONESOURCE Pagero: The IT experience

For IT professionals, adding ONESOURCE Pagero to the tech stack eliminates time spent on tasks that technology handles better and faster. The self-healing software requires minimal monitoring or maintenance.

With ONESOURCE Pagero, IT teams don't need to:

• Track changing rules and regulations
• Maintain multiple ERP communication channels
• Update or create e-invoicing templates
• Manually correct invoice data
• Match or validate data for accounts payable or receivable
• Track invoices or perform security checks
• File or manage physical documents
• Perform manual compliance updates
• Gather audit data
• Worry about tax deadlines
• Schedule downtime for updates
• Stress over compliance with local tax laws
• Simplified technical support
• Reduced integration complexity
• Infrastructure and resource allocation
• Consistency and integrity

With ONESOURCE Pagero managing e-invoicing and compliance responsibilities, tax and IT personnel can focus on strategic initiatives that drive business value, knowing that e-invoicing is handled efficiently and effectively.