Automate Biopharma Compliance and Focus on What’s Important

Pharmaceutical and biomedical organisations have a worldwide presence. When it comes to keeping up with invoicing compliance, their operations are further complicated by their global nature. But there is one clear way to simplify compliance with worldwide requirements – automation. 

Compliance is complicated…leave it to the pros

The regulations around electronic invoicing (e-invoicing) and electronic archiving (e-archiving) vary vastly between countries. And regulatory guidance and practical interpretations are not always clear. The water further muddies for global industries such as pharmaceutical and biomedical (biopharma).

In practice, biopharma organisations need to understand all the different local and cross-border requirements, design solutions for those requirements, and then continually manage change in the business environment as requirements change. It’s a full-time job (and then some) that most biopharma firms don’t necessarily have the bandwidth to do. These organisations should be able to focus all their energies on researching and creating the next best medical innovations, not sifting through the constant barrage of global mandates, and finding out what the best ways are for their business to be compliant with its ever-changing requirements.

To put it lightly, global tax compliance is complex, fragmented, and constantly changing. And since these taxes are a significant source of revenue for many governments, the consequences of non-compliance can be very severe. These can range from fines and protracted audits to sanctions under criminal law. And biopharma firms can’t afford to redistribute funds that are intended for medical research to pay for non-compliance fines. ​

What this means is compliance can no longer be an afterthought. In the 1990s, and even up to 2014 or 2015, organisations would define an electronic invoicing strategy and then maybe evaluate whether that strategy could also solve the compliance issues. Now that process has been flipped on its head. For any biopharma organisation operating globally, compliance has become a minimum condition of any procure-to-pay (P2P) automation strategy.  ​

Invoice archiving is another critical area as it is a base requirement everywhere. It is the common denominator for tax compliance. E-invoicing rules vary from country to country, but almost all countries require the “original” of an invoice to be archived and stored away for later audits. And if you have a solid archiving compliance strategy, you’ve covered half the work of achieving tax compliance. ​

So, biopharma firms have two options: manage the e-invoice and e-archive compliance in-house or let the experts do it for you.

Basware provides compliance from day one

Basware delivers a total e-invoicing solution, assisting you with all your compliance challenges from identifying obligations and assessing requirements to designing and managing solutions and keeping track of all the changes in the regulatory environment.

In other words, we support you in all aspects of e-invoicing compliance. ​

For years, Basware has been gathering regulatory and best practice knowledge from local markets, building new format conversions, connecting locally authorised compliance partners and tax authorities, and enabling the use of digital signatures and certificates. With this all under our belt, we can support your biopharma firm through all aspects of compliance, covering both B2B and B2G connectivity. ​

As a global market leader in e-invoicing, Basware is the strongest partner to consider for your global e-invoicing compliance requirements. No matter your needs, Basware helps you cover all e-invoice delivery channels.

We provide a single source for global compliance by providing support in over 60 countries through our 200+ interoperability partners. We deliver multi-channel coverage combined with localised knowledge and connectivity to third parties. 

So, how is it that we can provide all this for biopharma firms worldwide? For starters, we’ve partnered up with the leading e-invoicing and tax compliance advisers and service providers, as well as with various local partners, to ensure our business network supports our customers for compliant e-invoicing where it’s needed the most. On top of that, Basware’s in-house compliance management works together with our service management team as well as with external advisers and authorities to maintain and improve the compliance support provided by the Basware Network.

Our network and its country coverage are growing constantly, ensuring firms like yours with total compliance support. This frees biopharma organisations from the burden and complexity of global compliance and lets you focus on what matters – innovating the medical world.

As we discussed earlier, complying with global invoicing and tax mandates is complex and the consequences of non-compliance can be severe. But with Basware, you can automate your compliance across all B2G and B2B mandates that include different formats, processes, and archiving standards. You'll never lose sleep over compliance again as Basware supports you in your VAT compliance work in more than 50 countries and a certified PEPPOL access point.

Efficiency, compliance, and control – thanks to automation

At the end of the day, compliance isn’t easy. ​But when you let the experts support you, you gain efficiency, compliance, and control. ​

Efficiency​

• Reduce the costs associated with handling global tax compliance​.

• Free resources from a large part of the burden and complexity of compliance to focus on core business​.

Compliance​

• Minimise errors by providing up-to-date tax information.

• Reduce the risk of financial penalties and other sanctions associated with non-compliance with regulations​.

Learn how else automation benefits biopharma

Compliance is just one of the many facets of biopharma’s procure to pay that can be made better through automation. Check out the other areas and learn how digitisation and automation can improve all areas on our dedicated landing page here.