PARSIPPANY, NJ: The ocean freight industry standards advisory board (SAB) has published three new recommendations for electronic invoice presentment and payment (EIPP).

The SAB says the new EIPP advice covers invoicing, the credit note and EDI messaging and is intended "to drive greater efficiency, reduce costs and simplify the transaction process".

The revised invoice guide, focusing on the exchange of electronic invoices from issuer to a payer, supports the automation of acknowledgement, routing, verification, payment and accounting, as well as tax reporting and auditing.

The simplified electronic credit note process now corrects previously issued invoices or other credits from an ocean carrier to a shipper and supports the automation of credit note acknowledgement, verification and accounting, as well as tax reporting and auditing.

The amended EDI messaging advice provides a standard for the transmission of both mandatory and optional data elements, as well as a structured format (IFTFCC) for invoice and credit notes between invoice issuers and the payers.

"The SAB is dedicated to strategically collaborating to maximize the full potential of electronic invoice presentment and payment within ocean freight shipping, and to raise awareness of our unique requirements to drive interoperability globally," comments Sherrie Orzechowski, executive officer of the SAB and managing director, Electronic Invoicing, INTTRA. "The introduction of these important guidelines towards the adoption of a standard in the industry sets the foundation for helping enhance e-invoicing practices, and accelerate the benefits they can bring to ocean shipping in a digital world."

Established in 2010, SAB members include Agility Logistics, Cass Information Systems, CSAV, DB Schenker, DHL Global Forwarding, Ecu-Line, Hamburg Süd, Hapag-Lloyd, INTTRA, JF Hillebrand, Kuehne + Nagel, Maersk Line, MSC, MOL, Panalpina, Sinotrans, and UASC.