Digitalization projects usually follow a familiar pattern. There is a project plan, a start date, and the moment when the new system goes live. After that, the project is considered complete. E-invoicing makes it particularly clear why change management in digitalization must not end at this point. The technology is in place, but the actual change only takes place afterwards: in the routines of employees, in collaboration between departments, and in requirements that are continuously evolving.

When the system is up and running, the actual transition begins.

Since January 2025 Companies in Germany must Receive e-invoices From 2027 and 2028 onwards, the obligation to use the mandatory Shipping. Many companies have now solved the technical side of things. Invoices arrive in structured formats, are validated and handed over to the ERP system.

What is easily overlooked: A new system does not automatically change the way people work. If employees continue to follow the usual procedures, parallel worlds arise. Invoices are printed, verification steps are done twice, or special cases are resolved via email instead of in the system. The automation is present, but is only partially utilized.

How the accounting audit process is changing

The change is most evident in accounting auditing. In the past, a document was the focus. An invoice was opened, read, and position by position compared with the order and delivery note. With the e-invoice, the structured data set is the authoritative original; the readable representation is merely a view of it.

This shifts the responsibility. The system increasingly takes over the responsibility for checking the standard cases. Employees primarily deal with exceptions: a validation reports a missing required field, a tax declaration does not match the master data, or an order reference cannot be associated. Each of these reports must be checked. If the invoice does not comply with legal requirements, the invoice author must correct it.

For many employees, this is new because system notifications are more technical than simply looking at a PDF invoice. Without clear procedures, who handles which notification and how, similar cases are treated differently. This leads to rework and, in the worst case, to tax risks or conflicts with suppliers.

One invoice, many parties involved

The E-bill It doesn’t just affect accounting. IT operates interfaces and transmission paths, the tax department assesses legal requirements, the purchasing department maintains order and supplier relationships, and the master data management determines whether invoices can be automatically assigned. In the invoice output, sales and customer service are added when customers reject invoices or request corrections.

Problems rarely arise within a department, but rather at the interfaces between departments. A faulty address in the master data is only noticed in accounting. A new customer request ends up in sales, but affects IT. Without someone responsible for the overall process, such gaps are not closed but circumvented.

What teams need after go-live

Successful change management therefore begins after implementation at several points. First, there needs to be clear responsibility for the process beyond the end of the project. One person or a small team should maintain overview, gather questions, and bring about decisions when multiple departments are involved.

Mandatory testing rules are equally important. Which errors block a booking, which can be corrected, and when will an invoice be rejected? These questions should be answered by accounting, tax, and other departments together and documented in writing so that everyone works to the same standards.

Training is not just for the beginning. Employees who have previously reviewed documents need support in handling structured data and system notifications, even when rules or formats change later on. Regular feedback in the first months after go-live is also helpful. Where are questions arising, where are shortcuts being used, what errors keep recurring? Metrics such as the proportion of automatically processed invoices show whether the transition is working in everyday life.

After all, suppliers and customers should be involved early on. Many errors arise on the other side, and a brief coordination regarding formats and mandatory information saves numerous individual clarifications later on.

Change management in digitalization as a permanent state

Even as teams have adjusted to the new processes, the electronic invoice remains in motion. Legislators and financial authorities are specifying requirements, standards and formats are receiving new versions, networks are changing their requirements, and business partners are setting their own expectations. For companies with international relationships, the rules of other countries are added.

Each of these changes impacts processes and people. Companies that view change management as a completed project phase must start from scratch with every new initiative. Those who view it as an ongoing task, however, can handle changes within a fixed framework: identifying them early, assessing their impact on their own processes, implementing adjustments, testing them before deployment, and informing the teams involved. In this way, each new initiative becomes a planned step rather than a disruption.

How SGH supports companies

SGH supports companies as a service provider in digital invoice processing. With ivi We take care of the technical side of the e-invoice, including the formats ZUGFeRD and XRechnung until connected to Peppol and TRAFFIQX, and continuously implement changes to standards. This allows your teams to focus on the organizational side of the change.

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