The e-invoicing mandate is coming, and for MICE procurement it means much more than just a new file format. Vinzenz von Brühl, CEO of MICE Portal, explains why invoicing in MICE procurement has remained manual for so long, what will concretely change for companies from 2027, and how a fully digital Procure-to-Pay process is already a reality today.
In the video, Vinzenz gives concise answers to the five key questions. For those who want to dive deeper, the full written answers follow directly below.
The MICE industry is one of the most complex spend categories in procurement. Services must be treated and posted differently from a tax perspective depending on the type of event, the service category, and whether participants are internal or external. Finance and controlling always need the agenda and the participant list for that.
On top of that, hotel invoices are typically eight, ten pages long, with individual line items per participant, and the services are not clearly broken down. Until now, there has been no standard system that could simply map this process, so invoicing remained manual.
From 2027, a PDF sent by email will no longer count as a valid invoice for companies with revenues above €800,000. What is needed is a structured format, and in Germany that is XRechnung or ZUGFeRD. Anyone still working manually at that point risks losing input tax deduction, will have invoices rejected, and will be stuck in endless correction loops. The pressure is not coming from us, it is coming from the legislator, and the deadline is closer than many think.
The e-invoicing mandate is not a bureaucratic side issue. It changes what counts as a valid invoice at all. A PDF file sent by email will no longer be considered an invoice in the legal sense from 2027. What is needed is a structured, machine-readable format: XRechnung or ZUGFeRD.
This brings structure and transparency, and for our industry it concretely means that hotel invoices will also have to break down their services, including the services within flat rates, with the correct tax rate. That makes our work easier, putting them into a format that the user understands, while also giving controlling all the information it needs to post the services correctly.
In a conference, a single invoice contains services at both 7 and 19 percent VAT. Within the flat rates, we always have the room rental, which is taxed differently. We have catering, where it matters whether participants are internal or external. For internal participants, there is a taxable benefit that must be taxed differently, with certain amounts that can be taxed as a lump sum over the course of the year per employee.
All of this information must be readable individually from the invoice and from the individual line items in order to post it correctly. And the step toward that, with the support of the e-invoice, is that we receive the structured data individually and, depending on how the customer's chart of accounts is set up, can do the pre-mapping so that digital posting becomes possible.
When you use MICE Portal, it works like a procurement system with a purchase order. Every project in MICE Portal has a purchase order, the MICE project number. At the time of booking, the number is already given to the hotel or supplier, along with two instructions upfront: first, if you opt for our invoicing service, please upload the invoice with us later and enter the actual costs line item by line item. Second, the project number must appear on the invoice.
Once the event has taken place, the hotel receives an email from us asking them to confirm, adjust, or add to the pre-populated services from the offer in our system, including additional items like bar consumption. At the same time, the hotel can upload all invoices and receipts so that everything is stored in one place.
We then take that information and, based on the customer-specific chart of accounts mapping, create an information invoice as a structured summary, so that controlling and the cost center can quickly check whether the invoice is correct.
We have set up an approval process that can be either single-stage, meaning the cost center approves directly, or multi-stage: first controlling, then the cost center, so that we can respond individually to each customer's requirements.
Once approved, we automatically trigger a virtual credit card, which is sent to the hotel in a PCI-compliant way. The hotel receives payment quickly and on time. The customer receives a LARS dataset from us containing the general ledger accounts, which can be uploaded in the posting tool so that the correct posting entries are generated automatically.
It can already look like what we are doing with some customers today, end-to-end. That means a procurement tool has been introduced to capture requirements digitally from the start, whether that is MICE Portal or another tool. This sets the groundwork: services are correctly defined, offers have been received as line-by-line items, compliance is maintained within the company, and the entire booking and later invoicing can be tracked via the project number or purchase order.
After the event, the hotel uploads the invoice or sends it via e-invoice directly to us. We digitize the invoice so that it is in the right format, do the chart of accounts mapping for the customer, manage the approval process, and make sure that controlling receives the agenda, participant list, and any other additional information needed, directly in our portal.
After approval, we handle the payment transmission via virtual credit card and give the customer access to the invoice and the finished posting entries.
I think that in three years, both large corporations and mid-sized companies will have reached the point where many more will be taking this path that some are already walking today.
Would you like to know how MICE Portal can future-proof your Procure-to-Pay process? Talk to Pia or book a free demo.