Electronic invoicing: from paper trays to AI, the big shift for accountants

Head accountant at the national drama center in Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis), Karine Noujaim makes no secret of it: she approaches the transition to electronic invoicing with anxiety. “My colleague and I are asked to support the entire structure while we discover the tools ourselves,” she says. In small structures, we do not have an IT department or teams dedicated to change. We are moving forward a little alone. »

The pressure is all the greater as the cultural sector lags far behind IT tools. The national drama center of Aubervilliers is no exception. “Until now, we had specific software for accounting, payroll, or ticketing, and nothing was really connected,” explains Karine Noujaim. Many tasks were still carried out manually: accounting entries, bank flows, even invoices, which had to be signed by department heads before arriving at the accounting in paper boxes. “A few weeks ago, two services argued over an invoice lost in this circuit,” says Karine Noujaim. The debate was ended when I reminded them that all this would soon disappear. »

An internal organization to review

The theater has in fact decided to take advantage of the reform to rethink its internal organization. “The idea is that business services remain responsible for their suppliers, their invoices and their budgets, but with a shared interface,” she explains. We are therefore no longer the only ones in accounting to use the tool: other departments are also supposed to use it. »

The implementation, on the other hand, was brutal: choice of the solution in March for a changeover at the beginning of May. “We have been using the new tool for a week,” explains Karine Noujaim. When I open it, I don’t know where to go yet. It’s the breaststroke.”

Chartered accountants and associated auditors, Thierry Treps and Patrick Reis da Cunha, are still in the testing phase. “There are more than 150 potential approved platforms on the market,” they recall. Our job is to analyze their ergonomics, safety and cost. »

A profession that is transforming

Their mission will not stop there. Once the choice has been made, they will need to make the settings, train the teams and support customers. The consulting part will also take on more and more importance in the profession. “Our added value will always remain the analysis of figures, but more to support managers in their decisions,” insists Thierry Treps.

Pascal Castanet did not wait for the reform to begin his transformation. “We have been dematerialized since 2010, and since 2019, all invoices have been systematically scanned and analyzed by artificial intelligence which automatically reads the documents and already generates a first accounting,” explains the accountant at the head of two firms, in Narbonne (Aude) and Béziers (Hérault). Result: entry, revision and accounting control now represent only 45% of its activity, compared to 80% in 2014.

This transition has a cost. “Our IT budget has quadrupled in ten years,” he calculates. Today we spend around 5,000 euros per month on software, AI, cybersecurity and different digital tools. » The shift was not without its challenges on the team side either: out of twelve employees, two left in 2014 because they refused to move into consulting.