Real-time economy refers to a fully digital economic system, where information on invoicing, receipts, reports and taxes paid are transferred immediately, or in real-time, between the various systems of different operators. This requires that sellers, buyers, financial institutions and the public sector, such as the tax administration, are able to share information seamlessly with each other from their systems. The realisation of real-time economy requires a unification of the reporting codes and systems of different operators.
The transferability and automation of financial information enable growth in productivity and efficiency. In addition to financial savings, real-time information also provides companies with the opportunity to make decisions based on current information. In a broader sense, real-time economy also promotes the development of the single market in the European Union.
The digitalisation of invoices and receipts required by real-time economy supports a new kind of service design that utilises information from different sources of private and public sector information. Investing in electronic services offered by the authorities also creates a basis for innovation in companies and reduces costs to companies.
Real-time information also provides companies with the opportunity to make decisions based on current information. A real-time economy that includes e-invoicing, e-receipts and the automation of the payments system would generate tens of million euros in savings for the government. According to estimates, as far as companies are concerned, e-receipts could save approximately 800 million euros per year in labour costs for companies.