10 KPIs That Separate Top Performers in E-Invoicing Compliance

Global e-invoicing mandates are evolving fast – and only organizations that act strategically will keep pace. 

In an expert panel webinar hosted by Sharedserviceslink, Basware’s Markus Hornburg joined Jason Barry from Accenture and Rumen Stanchev from KONE to discuss findings from Basware’s research with FT Longitude.

The insights, drawn from responses by 400 finance, tax, IT, and compliance leaders, reveal a widening gap between organizations with strategic compliance capabilities and those operating with limited visibility.

What the research reveals

The research makes one thing clear: many organizations face growing pressure but lack the structure and tools required to respond effectively.

Limited visibility into changing regulations emerged as the top challenge among webinar participants. Siloed ownership across finance, tax, and IT slows decision-making and creates inconsistent approaches across regions. Legacy systems and spreadsheet-heavy processes continue to undermine accuracy, auditability, and process speed.

The 10 KPIs that separate leaders from their peers

The webinar highlights 10 KPIs where high performers consistently outperform their peers. Together, they reflect how well organizations manage risk, enforce process discipline, and drive stronger financial outcomes.

1. Regulatory fines and penalties: how often organizations are fined and the scale of those penalties.
2. Exposure to fraud: the degree to which weak controls, such as auto-receiving, create opportunities for fraudulent activity.
3. Reputational impact: the business consequences of not being mandate-ready when customers expect it.
4. Invoice accuracy and first-time-right rates: how reliably invoices meet requirements without rework.
5. Invoice rejections and audit findings: the frequency of errors identified by tax authorities or internal audit.
6. Visibility and oversight: the level of transparency CFOs and finance teams have across markets.
7. Technology readiness: whether existing systems can support real-time, government-driven mandates.
8. Reliance on spreadsheets: the extent to which off-system tools limit control and traceability.
9. Exception volumes and process delays: how often invoices require manual intervention or fall out of the process.
10. Contribution to business performance: the link between compliance maturity and the ability to exceed gross profit targets.

Together, these KPIs reveal a clear divide: organizations that treat compliance as strategy outperform those that treat it as administration.

Leaders strengthen control, modernize processes, and enable faster, more accurate invoicing – improving cash flow, reducing risk, and strengthening supplier relationships.

What leaders do differently

High-performing organizations treat compliance as a strategic capability rather than a back-office task.

They establish cross-functional ownership across finance, tax, procurement, and IT. They centralize expertise so knowledge grows instead of resetting country by country. And they redesign processes rather than layering new tools on top of outdated ways of working.

They also recognize that navigating global mandate complexity requires specialized partners capable of supporting multi-country rollouts at scale.

Where to start: practical steps

For organizations looking to strengthen their compliance posture, the panelists shared several practical recommendations:

1. Map the invoice-to-pay process end to end to identify gaps and risks.
2. Establish or strengthen a central compliance and invoicing team to build institutional expertise.
3. Align transformation roadmaps with upcoming mandates so compliance is built in – not retrofitted later.
4. Reduce spreadsheet dependency by embedding controls within core systems.
5. Use complex markets as templates for global standards rather than approaching each mandate in isolation.

Together, these steps create a scalable foundation that strengthens control and positions organizations to adapt quickly as mandates continue to evolve.

How Basware helps

With 40 years of experience in global invoice processing, Basware helps organizations standardize the invoice lifecycle while managing the complexity of local mandates.

Basware removes the operational burden from internal teams while enabling enterprises to scale globally with confidence.

By combining end-to-end automation with continuously updated regulatory coverage, Basware helps customers improve control, reduce risk, and build resilient financial operations.

Continue exploring

The shift toward real-time, technology-driven compliance is accelerating. Organizations that take a strategic, coordinated approach will be best positioned to keep pace.

Watch the on-demand webinar and download the report Beyond the Checkbox: Compliance as Strategy to explore the research insights in full.