It's easy to find discussions of electronic invoicing. Kiplinger's says that 77% of consumers now use an EIPP system. E-billing is being hailed as the next big thing in customer convenience, an essential part of a green office, and the answer to security and staffing woes.

While it's easy to find these discussions, it isn't always easy to understand what they're talking about. If you're new to the concept, you may run into some terms that aren't completely familiar. Since businesspeople with a broad range of backgrounds can successfully use online invoicing, you might want to read about the topic without having the kind of vocabulary the writers have. Here's a glossary of the common terms. This should make it easier to join discussions of the value of electronic invoicing, even if you're not a specialist.

• AP: accounts payable, money owed by the company.
• AR: accounts receivable, money owed to the company.
• B2B: business to business, referring to companies that sell goods ad services to other businesses, rather than to end consumers.
• Bank aggregator: a service that allows a consumer to pay bills to multiple companies, often the consumer's bank.
• Biller-direct: a service that allows a business to provide electronic invoices to their customers. Consumers visit the company's website or portal to make the payment. Onsharp's SmartPay is an example of this type of service.
• CSP: customer service provider. A company that provides EBPP services, such as SmartPay.
• DSO: days sales outstanding, or the average amount of time between a sale and the collection of the money due for the sale. E-invoicing reduces DSO.
  
• EBPP: electronic bill presentment and payment, referring most often to business-to-consumer uses.
• EDI: electronic data interchange, systems for sending information electronically. SmartPay's web-based system allows businesses http://www.onsharp.com/blog/to do their invoicing electronically without EDI.
• EIPP: electronic invoice presentment and payment. Similar to EBPP, but referring more to business-to-business uses.
• IFX: interactive financial exchange, an open standard for financial data exchange currently being developed.
• Portal: an entryway to the web. A secure portal, such as that provided by SmartPay, allows users to send information online without being open to ordinary, insecure online access. While users are online, they aren't in the open information stream, and the information they exchange can't be seen by others. 
• Presentment: the seller produces the invoice and presents it, or sends it, to the buyer. In electronic invoicing, presentment is done electronically, through email or by an email alert directing the buyer to a secure portal to see the invoice. 
• Revenue cycles: the length of time from invoicing to payment of the invoice. E-invoicing shortens the revenue cycle, so businesses receive payment faster.