• Manual compliance methods don’t scale and often lead to audits, delays, and IT bottlenecks
• Real-time tax mandates require integrated workflows, connecting ERP data, automation, and technical compliance.
• A scalable setup should enable visibility, repeatable rollouts, and proactive error handling across all countries.
• Fully managed platforms like ecosio’s reduce risk and effort, keeping businesses compliant as mandates evolve.

With e-invoicing mandates accelerating and more and more countries introducing new requirements every year, e-invoicing compliance is becoming a constant challenge.

But the real issue isn’t just the rules, it’s how most businesses try to meet them. Manual workarounds, local tools and support queues may get the job done once, but they don’t scale. They add friction, increase audit stress and inhibit growth.

In this article, we’ll explore:

• Why common approaches to compliance fall short
• What to look for in a scalable e-invoicing setup
• Practical strategies to reduce effort and risk, without starting from scratch every time
• How real-time mandates and tax reporting are reshaping what “compliance” really means

Why traditional compliance setups no longer cut it

E-invoicing compliance sounds simple: understand the rules, send the right format, store the invoice. Done. In practice, it’s anything but.

Most businesses face:

• Constantly evolving local requirements
• Disconnected systems and unclear ownership
• Manual steps and one-off integrations

The result?

• Missed deadlines
• Time-consuming audits
• Reactive rollouts that drain IT and finance teams

And as more governments adopt continuous transaction controls (CTCs), which require invoice data to be sent to tax authorities in real time, legacy systems simply cannot keep up.

E-invoicing, automation and tax reporting are no longer separate

In the past, tax, IT and electronic data interchange functions operated in silos. But those boundaries are disappearing fast.

Today’s compliance requirements go beyond invoicing. Governments increasingly want real-time visibility across entire transactions, from purchase order, to delivery, to invoice. In many countries, mandates already include waybills or purchase orders, and more are coming.

To meet these expectations, businesses need a connected approach that brings together:

• ERP data (e.g. tax rates, line items, delivery terms)
• Workflow automation (e.g. invoice validation and routing)
• Technical compliance (e.g. formats, protocols, audit trails)

That’s why many companies are now rethinking their architecture to reflect the growing convergence of compliance, automation and tax mandates.

Is your e-invoicing setup built to scale?

Before investing in new tools or processes, it’s worth taking a moment to assess how well your current setup is serving you.

Ask yourself:

• Can we track every e-invoice from creation to delivery in one place?
• Are new countries easy to add, or does each rollout feel like a standalone project?
• Is our data stored in an audit-ready format, consistently?
• Do we support both post-audit and real-time (CTC) models?
• How quickly can we adapt if a partner or government changes the rules?

If any of these questions raise doubts, it may be time to rethink your approach. A truly scalable solution should make it easy to stay compliant, no matter how fast mandates evolve.

A practical example: moving from patchwork to platform

Let’s take a fictional but familiar scenario…

The challenge: a European enterprise operates in Germany, Poland and Romania. Each country requires different formats, submission methods and archiving rules. The company uses a mix of manual uploads, local platforms and email-based approvals. Audits are painful, and expanding to new countries feels overwhelming.

A smarter setup would:

• Connect directly to the ERP system
• Route all e-invoices through a central platform
• Automatically apply country-specific validation rules
• Store messages in an audit-ready format
• Allow new countries to be added via configuration, not development

With this approach, compliance becomes part of the process, not a roadblock.

What a scalable e-invoicing setup should look like

Businesses succeeding in this space aren’t doing more; they’re doing things differently. Their setups scale by design and rely on more than just software.
A truly scalable e-invoicing solution should combine powerful automation with ongoing expert support. It’s not enough to have the right tool. You need a partner that monitors, maintains and resolves issues in real time.

Here’s what to aim for:

Centralised visibility

Can you quickly find out where a message is, what rules apply or what was sent last month? A scalable system gives you full access to message flows, compliance data and audit history in one place.

Repeatable rollouts

Each new country shouldn’t feel like a new project. Look for consistent setup flows, predefined country profiles and clear documentation, supported by a team that knows the mandates inside and out.

Built-in flexibility

Can your system adapt to different formats, delivery channels and compliance models without rewriting everything? The ability to handle variability without extra work is key.

Proactive error handling

When something goes wrong, such as invalid formats, failed transmissions or partner mismatches, who fixes it? In a fully managed setup like ecosio’s, errors are caught and resolved before your team even notices. That means fewer tickets, faster resolution and greater peace of mind.

How ecosio enables seamless, future-ready e-invoicing operations

E-invoicing isn’t static, and your solution shouldn’t be either. At ecosio, we continuously adapt our platform in line with emerging mandates and real-world customer needs, so your business stays compliant and efficient without disruption.

Here’s are just some of the ways that commitment has translated into everyday value in the past few months alone:

• You get full control and visibility across your message flows, with real-time access to compliance data, audit-relevant fields and documentation all in one place
• You can expand into new markets faster, thanks to guided, self-service onboarding for countries like Hungary, Poland and Romania that don’t rely on support tickets
• You stay audit-ready without additional prep, as validated invoices are automatically routed to your ERP or archive, already formatted and complete
• You can meet partner-specific requirements with ease, including delivering multiple attachments or handling differing format expectations without manual intervention
• You stay compliant with Germany’s new e-invoicing rules, allowing structured invoices to be sent by email without the need to manually monitor an inbox.

And because ecosio’s Global E-invoicing Compliance solution is fully managed, these capabilities evolve continuously in the background so your teams can focus on growing the business, not chasing compliance.

Final thoughts on turning e-invoicing compliance into a strength

E-invoicing compliance isn’t just a box to tick. It’s a chance to gain control, reduce complexity and move faster across borders.

With the right setup, you can:

• Expand into new markets faster
• Align IT, finance and tax teams
• Stay ready for audits without added effort
• Focus on what drives business, not paperwork

The key is building a system that works for every country, not just the next one. If you’re still getting to grips with real-time mandates, this overview of continuous transaction controls (CTCs) breaks down how they work, what they require and how to prepare for them effectively.

Stay ahead with monthly e-invoicing updates

With international e-invoicing mandates evolving rapidly, staying compliant has never been more important.

To help you stay informed, ecosio’s Product Owner for International E-invoicing, Amy Vahey, hosts a new monthly e-invoicing update video series. Each episode delivers a clear, concise overview of the latest regulatory changes, perfect for businesses expanding into new markets or keeping track of existing requirements.

Watch the latest video now and subscribe to our YouTube channel for instant access to future updates.

Alternatively, if you prefer to stay up-to-date via email, we also run a bi-monthly email “E-invoicing Updates” newsletter!

Der Beitrag Simplifying e-invoicing compliance: a practical approach erschien zuerst auf ecosio.

In the ecosio.monitor, these permissions are known as “EDI relations”.

How does having visibility of EDI relations benefit you?

Having a quick and easy way to see EDI partner permissions within your monitor makes partner onboarding much simpler. With access to a central overview of partner permissions, there’s no need for time-consuming back and forths between you and your EDI solution provider. You can see what permissions are active and parked, filter by several variables, and drill down into individual permissions.

Where can I find EDI relations in the ecosio.monitor?

The EDI relations page can be found by clicking the “EDI Relations” tab in the blue navigation column on the left of the monitor.

No specific permissions are required in order to access this page, though the page must be configured by ecosio’s Onboarding & Operations team during setup in order to be available.

What’s visible in the EDI relations overview page?

Once you click on the EDI relations tab in the the main navigation, you’ll see something that looks like this:

Within this view, the following information is visible…

Partners

In the left hand column you can see a list of your EDI partners (customers) sorted alphabetically.

Document type (details)

In the second column you can find the message classification type.

When you click the icon next to the document type, you’ll be sent to the message overview, where you’ll see all messages related to that EDI relation (as pictured).

In/Out

This column tells you the direction in which the respective message passed through the Integration Hub. Messages marked as “IN” are inbound, and those marked as “OUT” are outbound. This “IN/OUT” distinction is directly related to the “Company” column which is described below.

Company

If you work for a parent company, you’ll see the parent company and all sub-company EDI relations on this page.

If you work for a sub-company, you’ll see only the EDI relations for your company (plus any sub-companies your own company may have).

Status

This column shows the current status of the permission. The three possible statuses are:

1. ONBOARDING: This means the permission is currently being set up. Messages cannot be sent yet. 
2. ALLOW: This shows the permission is active, meaning messages can be sent.
3. PARKED: This indicates the permission has been stopped because you or the customer no longer want it. Messages cannot be sent to the final recipient.

Last updated

This column shows when the permission was last modified.

Services

This column shows the permission type. There are currently two permission types:

• MESSAGING: The default permission which allows users to see messages inside the ecosio.monitor.
• WEB: The permission required by your partner when they use ecosio.webedi.

What actions can be performed in the EDI relations overview page?

Inside the EDI Relations overview page there are several things you can do, including:

Searching based on partners

To do this, simply click into the search bar on the EDI relations page. A list of your EDI partners will automatically appear.

From here you can select the relevant partner or partners. Once you’ve made your selection you will be able to see all EDI relations mentioning these partners on the overview page.

Filtering results

To help make sorting and searching easier, you can filter results on the EDI relations page by the different column headings (e.g. IN/OUT, DocType and Status).

Filters can also be reset easily by simply pressing the “reset” button to the right of the “Services” filter.

Viewing EDI relations based on parent and sub-company structures

When switching back and forth between parent and sub-companies, it’s possible to view EDI relations relevant to sub-companies, as seen in the following screenshot:

Frequently asked questions

“Can I view EDI relations during testing?”

Yes! It is best practice to send test messages via your TEST instance of the ecosio.monitor during onboardings to check everything is working as it should. The EDI relations area works exactly the same in your TEST instance as in your LIVE system, and can be found in the same place.

Additionally if messages aren’t appearing in your TEST instance of the ecosio.monitor, it may be due to the fact that the permission was not configured properly or is in onboarding/parked. Thus, by checking EDI relations to see if messages can be sent between sender and receiver, you can take this to the ecosio Onboarding & Operations team to sort.

“Is there somewhere I can report issues and make suggestions?”

Yes! If you see any bugs, these can be reported via the “News & Feedback” tab in the main monitor navigation bar on the left.

Here you can also vote on features that you would like to see in the future.

“Are any updates planned?”

Yes! We’re always looking to improve our products and are planning several updates based on user feedback. The next planned updates involve improving the amount of information you can see. For example, in future you will be able to see when permissions were first created, which permissions have active users, and the last ten messages relating to a certain permission. Plus users will also have the ability to download filterable CSVs of specific EDI relations.

Watch this space!

Der Beitrag Feature Focus: Visibility of EDI Relations Within the ecosio.monitor erschien zuerst auf ecosio.

For a comprehensive list of the key features of the ecosio.monitor, please visit the ecosio.monitor features page.

What does the ecosio.monitor ERP partner feature do?

The ERP partner feature within the ecosio.monitor allows you to add an ERP customiser that doesn’t belong to your organisation and provide them with access to your monitor. Plus, access can be time-limited, allowing you to grant your customiser access during connection setup, for example, and revoke it after this is finished (see below for more details).

Depending on your company setup, it may be that you are responsible for EDI operations in your organisation, while your ERP customiser supports you with error resolution and setting up new EDI relations. If this is the case for you, the ecosio.monitor’s ERP partner feature can become a crucial cog in your EDI machinery.

How does ERP partners having access to your monitor benefit you?

One of the most time-consuming elements of EDI projects is the communication between different parties regarding various EDI operations and who is responsible for what. By allowing you to give relevant partners direct access to your monitor, the ERP partner management feature of the ecosio.monitor aims to streamline onboardings and simplify previously convoluted processes.

For example, within the ecosio.monitor ERP partner users can…

• Manage API credentials
• Resend messages during testing
• Takeover onboarding tasks if necessary
• View the content of individual messages
• Respond to tickets
• Explore errors

Five key things to remember…

1. An ERP partner relation must be set up by ecosio’s Onboarding & Operations team first. Without this prior setup, the ERP partner feature cannot be used.
2. ERP partner users must have the necessary permissions in order to accomplish the relevant tasks inside your instance of the ecosio.monitor
3. When onboarding an ERP partner user, it is best practice to start with the test instance of the ecosio.monitor. This way there’s no danger that live data will be affected.
4. After completing the onboarding project, you should decide if your ERP partner user should still have access to your ecosio.monitor. As an Admin user, you have the authority to revoke the partner user’s access.
5. There is no need for ERP partner users to have access to your system during onboarding if this is not wanted. Some users prefer ERP partner users to have access only after setup is complete.

How to manage ERP partners within the ecosio.monitor

The following step-by-step guide applies to both TEST and PROD environments.

1) Adding a new user

Once the partner relation has been set up by ecosio’s Onboarding & Operations team, you can add partner users in the “Company” settings, under the “Partner” tab.

2) Adjusting permissions

Once they have been added, make sure to check that they have the correct permissions.

3) Providing visibility for your ERP partner

Once you have assigned your ERP partner users, they can switch their views to be able to have access to your ecosio.monitor instance.

Your ERP user will have to select the customer as well:

From there, your ERP customiser user will now have access to your ecosio.monitor instance:

4) Revoking user access

As well as adding new users, you can also easily revoke access to ERP partner users and remove certain permissions as required. To do so, all you need to do is edit the partner user and uncheck the appropriate boxes or delete the user completely.

Frequently asked questions

What is an “ERP customiser”?

In ecosio lingo, an ERP customiser is in charge of supporting a customer in relevant ERP tasks in the context of an EDI project.

What actions can ERP customisers perform in the ecosio.monitor?

Depending on the nature of your project (and assuming they have been given the relevant permissions), your ERP customiser(s) can do a number of things within your instance of the ecosio.monitor. The most common actions performed by ERP customisers include…

• Debugging messages in an “Exception” state
• Re-sending messages
• “Handling” messages (marking them as cleared)
• Managing connector settings

Once access is granted to an ERP partner user, can they also access all sub-company information in the ecosio.monitor?

If an ERP partner user is established for the parent company in the ecosio.monitor, they will automatically have access to all sub-companies monitoring information they’re assigned to (visibility depends on permission rights as well).

Der Beitrag Feature Focus: Managing ERP Partner Users in the ecosio.monitor erschien zuerst auf ecosio.

One of the monitor’s most important jobs is to make EDI information as transparent and accessible as possible. In order to do this, the ecosio.monitor enables you to view both a high level summary of all EDI messages and granular message details.

In this article we break down the message overview and message details features, exploring what exactly they allow users to do and how they can help improve B2B integration processes.

For a comprehensive list of the key features of the ecosio.monitor, please visit our dedicated ecosio.monitor features page.

Jump to section:

Message overview in the ecosio.monitor

• Where can you find the message overview?
• Visibility in the message overview
• What actions are possible via the overview page?

Message details in the ecosio.monitor

• Where can you find message details?
• Visibility in the message details view
• What actions are possible in message details?

Message overview in the ecosio.monitor

In short, the ecosio.monitor message overview allows you to see all messages and documents which have been sent and/or received via the ecosio cloud-based EDI solution (our Integration Hub).

Additionally, within the “Messages” tab you can resolve issues fast easily via several quick actions.

Where can you find the message overview?

The message overview can be found by clicking the “Messages” tab in the left column of the monitor (as pictured below).

Visibility in the message overview

Customising your display

To ensure your message overview is as useful as possible, it’s possible to choose which columns you’d like to view and which you wouldn’t. Potential column categories you can choose from include:

• Status – The current state of the message
• Last change – The time the message was last changed
• Sender – The entity sending the message
• Receiver – The entity receiving the message
• Message type – The type of transaction e.g. ORDERS, DESADV, INVOIC, etc.
• Document count – The number of documents contained within the message
• In/Out – Whether the message is being sent or received
• Message reference – Unique identifier of the identified message
• Document numbers – The invoice number(s) of an invoice contained in a message or interchange
• Application reference – Unique identifier for EDIFACT document types only (part of the UNB segment)

Searching for messages

Arguably the most useful feature of the message overview is the powerful full-text search functionality. This allows you to search using any relevant identifier (e.g. file name, sender/receiver, message ID, connector type etc.), making it remarkably easy to locate messages. Plus, the search also allows for the use of AND/OR/NOT commands, and will even return results for partial words.

Filtering and sorting

Another handy feature within the message overview is the filter bar, which allows you to filter by the date messages were sent/received, as well as by message state, message direction (inbound/outbound) and message type.

Messages can then also be sorted according to timestamp of last change, message type, message reference or document count.

Viewing additional company information

When needed, you can access more information related to the message sender/receiver (e.g. company ID) by clicking on “Company Name”, as shown below:

What actions are possible via the overview page?

Downloading messages

Messages can be downloaded in batch via the overview page. To do this you simply select the relevant entries and click “download messages”. Once downloaded, the messages can be found in the “Downloads” tab for archiving purposes.

Each downloaded message contains the message in multiple states: as it was received on the hub, as it was sent out, and (if applicable) signed.

To make the archiving process easier, it is possible to configure the folder structure and file names, plus there is also the option to include received message acknowledgements if desired.

Quick downloads

In addition to the main download functionality, there is also a “quick download” option. Essentially this works the same way as the main download functionality, but doesn’t allow for either the inclusion of received acknowledgements or for users to configure folder structure and file names when downloading.

To make the archiving process easier, it is possible to configure the folder structure and file names, plus there is also the option to include received message acknowledgements if desired.

Downloading EDI documents as a .zip file

For those who need it, messages can be downloaded as .zip files – though this functionality is only possible for one message at a time.

Editing and resending messages

Another extremely useful feature in the messages overview is the capacity to edit and resend messages, as this allows for quick and easy correction of any errors that may have resulted in message failure. All users need to do is click on the “resend” icon and then the “edit message” toggle (as pictured).

To avoid accidentally introducing new errors through manual input, this feature should be used when necessary, however (e.g. if required to avoid being billed erroneously).

Given the dangers of manually editing EDI messages, the accessibility of this feature can be controlled with permissions to ensure it’s only available to those with sufficient EDI expertise.

Message details in the ecosio.monitor

In the event that you require more information about an individual message, you can access this by accessing the message details section. This area allows you to resolve issues quickly and with minimum fuss by enabling you to drill deep down into your EDI messages and perform several additional actions.

Where can you find message details?

Message details can be found by clicking on the blue arrow in the “Details” column in the message overview next to the relevant EDI message (as pictured below).

Visibility in the message details view

Message details is where you can access the most granular information relating to a particular EDI message. Within message details, you can view:

• Message status – See in real time when a message has been queued, delivered, received etc.
• Status changes – See exactly when a specific message’s status changed in the Integration Hub
• Message content – View the specific content of the message
• Validation details – See whether or not a message has been validated
• EDI files – View any additional files (such as technical drawings) that were sent alongside EDI messages
• Integration Hub history – View message details for every previous message state across different phases (not just the latest message in an exchange)

What actions are possible in message details?

In addition to being able to view granular message details (as outlined above), the message details section also allows users to complete various actions, including…

• Handling messages – With direct access to individual EDI messages, users can address issues, correct errors, and ensure the smooth flow of data exchange between trading partners
• Resending messages – In the case of message delivery failures (e.g. due to network issues or transmission errors), individual messages can be resent easily from within the monitor
• Downloading messages – Via the Integration Hub history users can download messages in all previous states
• Editing messages – To enable internal experts to fix small issues quickly, the ecosio.monitor allows individuals with the necessary rights to edit messages directly

Interested in integrating the ecosio.monitor with other ecosio products?

For more information on how the ecosio.monitor can be integrated with our other products, such as ecosio.webedi and ecosio.invoicing, contact us today. We’d love to help you optimise your solutions and achieve maximum efficiency with minimum effort.

Der Beitrag Feature Focus: Messaging Operations in the ecosio.monitor erschien zuerst auf ecosio.