Hello, everyone.

This is Enta.

I finally received the payment statement from a mid-sized general contractor via email.

Huh!? Now?!??

Some of you might think that, but it’s actually the major companies that are lagging behind in terms of such systems.

The reason is that, apparently, there’s someone somewhere who’s a bit of a know-it-all, and they’re stuck in a mindset where nothing gets done because they’re too preoccupied with information risks...

So, when you ask yourself, “What are the risks and benefits of going digital?” what comes to mind?

I think the risk associated with digitization is information leaks.

As for the data breach involving this payment statement, the only information that was leaked is which companies were paid and how much was paid to each.

If I don't include the unit price, is the fact that I paid a total of XX ten thousand yen considered personal information in a sense?

Besides, these days payment statements only show the total amount, so even if another company found out, would that really be a problem??

I guess it's only the vendors who think that, lol.

However, large companies tend to hesitate in this regard precisely because they are so committed to complying with the law.

In reality, rather than relying on email, it’s actually quite feasible to have each subcontractor log in to the major company’s payment portal and download only their own statements.

If I had to choose, I’d say I’m still a little uneasy about email, you know~.

What are the benefits?

When you think about it, the real question is, “Just how much money are we paying the post office, anyway?” lol

For large companies, these shipping costs are a huge expense. (I hear the annual cost runs into the tens of millions.)

If they just built a system to handle that, it would pay for itself in a few years, but apparently they're hesitating to make the investment right now lol (This is from an employee at a major company lol).

For small, independent contractors like us, while the money we have right now is obviously important, we also want to do whatever we can to reduce future expenses, so I think we tend to jump at opportunities based solely on the numbers without considering the risks.

When I thought about it, I wondered, “Maybe there aren’t actually that many risks after all?” But I guess the risks are still pretty high for big companies, lol. (Those big-headed old guys are the biggest risk.)

It would really help us if you could just take care of our invoices via email as soon as possible, though~

There are still some administrative staff who say they don't have a personal seal...

Our invoices use both physical and electronic seals, so we actually print them out and send them, you know? lol

Since invoices are only valid if both parties agree, I don't think there are any companies that actually stamp their invoices with their official company seal, are there?

A simple stamp is sufficient for the invoice.

See you later.