A seamless invoicing workflow for CWT’s travel platform

E-invoices for travel expenses

CWT – formerly Carlson Wagonlit Travel – has a rich history dating back to 1872, when the company was involved in the launch of the famous luxury train, the Orient Express. CWT is now active in almost 140 countries, helping businesses and authorities to manage business travel efficiently, paying special attention to compliance and cost control.

The company developed the online platform myCWT, which allows employees who travel on business for their company or organisation to manage their trip from start to finish. This platform keeps track of all expenses, such as plane tickets, train and taxi fares and hotel stays, and then lists them on one clear invoice.

When clients such as the European Parliament asked for these invoices to be presented in Peppol format, CWT needed an efficient solution to upgrade its invoicing process and comply with regional invoicing standards. And that is when Billit came in …

Navigating technical challenges

CWT used to rely on the old European e-invoicing standard ‘ePrior’, a predecessor of Peppol. But the world has moved on and these days, Peppol is increasingly becoming the norm.

In addition, as an international business, CWT also has to deal with different types of e-invoicing identifiers. These unique codes identify the senders and recipients of e-invoices, such as the VAT number (Belgium), the Chamber of Commerce number (the Netherlands) or the GLN code (Global Location Number, internationally).

It goes without saying that e-invoices for travel expenses must contain detailed travel information, which is not standard on e-invoices.

CWT also had to ensure that the specific VAT rules for passenger transport were applied correctly, which made the process even more complex.

A seamless invoicing process

Thanks to our vast experience in international e-invoicing, we could offer CWT a solution to their challenges:

• The CWT platform automatically sends a graphic PDF file plus an XML file with travel information to Billit for each invoice.
• Billit reads and matches the data and converts it to the correct format (Peppol, or ePrior for organisations that still use it)
• The invoice is then delivered safely to the recipient, in full compliance with regulations.

Thanks to this solution, CWT effortlessly fulfils the invoicing requirements of public authorities such as the European Parliament. And since Billit was responsible for its development, CWT did not have to do any coding or familiarise itself with the specific technical requirements set by Europe.