In its half-century history, email has become not only the primary means of communication but also a channel for document flow in the corporate environment.
The overwhelming majority of Latvian companies send and receive a variety of documents related to business activities via email, including contracts, invoices, applications, and official notifications.
A survey conducted among companies by the developers of the business management and accounting system Jumis revealed that the official E-address (e-adrese) is playing an increasingly important role in document flow. After initial skepticism regarding the necessity of such a resource, 35.7% of companies now receive and send documents through the E-address on the Latvija.lv portal.
As is known, starting from January 1, 2023, all legal entities are required to have an official email address, which serves as the primary and official means of communication with state and municipal institutions.
23.7% of respondents have also integrated popular communication applications such as Whatsapp, Messenger, and others into their document flow. These are used for sending invoices to partners and clients, as well as for internal communication within the company. For example, to send a vacation request to HR specialists.
Interestingly, at least a third of companies still practice document exchange in paper form. 18% personally deliver printed, signed paper documents to partners, while 13.7% use postal services.
Another 14.7% of respondents use the company's internal computer network, exchanging documents through specialized programs or placing them on a server in designated file-sharing locations.
Undoubtedly, the most popular format for preparing documents is PDF. It is more difficult to make unnoticed corrections to an already approved text, and it supports the addition of a digital signature. Furthermore, even a document consisting of dozens of pages is relatively compact and easy to forward via email.
For these reasons, 83.6% of respondents prefer the PDF format. 16% of respondents prefer to prepare documents in word processors or spreadsheet programs.
Paper documents have not disappeared either. They are used to a significant extent by more than half of the companies. For 52.5% of respondents, paper remains the primary means of document exchange, while others use printouts as backups.
"The survey results allow for a fairly accurate diagnosis of the state of e-invoices in the Latvian business environment. Their role in invoice circulation continues to grow, yet overall it remains insufficiently high, considering that in the near future e-invoices will become the only method of invoicing. Currently, they are used by 37.3% of companies, which means that nearly two-thirds of all companies will undergo the process of implementing e-invoices in the coming years. To facilitate this process, I urge everyone to start preparing for the inevitable now. A good start is participating in our organized webinar 'E-invoices 2026: from requirement to daily operation. What has been done, and what still needs to be done' on March 12 at 10:00, where representatives from VID, LRGA, LIKTA, and Latvian companies will inform about the current issues in the implementation of e-invoices," urges the head of Jumis Pro, Viesturs Slaidins.
