NSW adopts eInvoicing on the Peppol network – What you need to know

eInvoicing has been gaining popularity in Australia & New Zealand, especially with the government. The Australian government has even mandated the use of eInvoices for government agencies by July 2022.

All NSW Government agencies are expected to be ready for receiving eInvoices on the Peppol network ahead of the mandate, even as early as January 1, 2022. eInvoicing has been enabled across 42 agencies that are part of the customer service, Premier, Cabinet, Treasury, and Stronger Communities & Justice clusters.

Explore Getting Started Guide for Peppol elnvoicing in Australia and New Zealand

Why the push? The Commonwealth government identified eInvoicing as a key driver to improve the economy and in the latest budget, committed $15.3m to accelerate the adoption of eInvoicing. The government aims to also encourage the business community to follow suit in adopting eInvoicing.

In a mid-August 2021 announcement, the NSW government made it easy for small and medium businesses working with the NSW Government to submit and track their invoices with the launch of a new eInvoicing portal. Businesses can submit and check the status of invoices with eInvoicing enabled NSW Government agencies through a Supplier hub dashboard.

Minister for Finance and Small Business Damien Tudehope said eInvoicing would improve current interactions between SMEs and the government.

“This mandate will enhance the government’s existing Faster Payment Terms Policy, by ensuring that the accounts payable teams in government agencies receive invoices within minutes, enabling payment to eligible small businesses within five business days,” Mr Tudehope said.

“One of the biggest issues for small businesses across NSW is cash flow, and we want to take steps to ensure that properly rendered invoices reach and are actioned by the right teams as quickly as possible.”

Why eInvoicing?

Save money

Peppol eInvoicing is paperless. It’s a straight-through data transfer that saves time and money associated with people doing data entry from both paper or email invoices. The ATO estimates that the current cost of processing invoices is $27/invoice and eInvoicing will take it down to $10/invoice.

Cash Flow

The other major benefit for businesses that supply government agencies is that the Commonwealth government announced a five-day payment policy for suppliers who issue Peppol eInvoices and have contracts valued under $1m.

Reduction in Errors

eInvoicing is an accurate computer-to-computer data language, it’s not up for interpretation by people or machines. It’s as fast as an email and means you don’t need to send a series of emails to follow up on its status.

Read about Using Purchase Orders to help Businesses manage inventory and cash flow

What about our existing Accounts Payable Business automation & software?

Using the Supplier hub dashboard might be an additional unnecessary step in your organisation. Your accounts payable solution such as APAY or your accounting software program such as Quickbooks are already Peppol eInvoicing enabled through companies such as Storecove.

Read about ACMO helps lead Peppol eInvoicing with APAY

To learn more about NSW eInvoicing on the Peppol network or Accounts Payable Automation, and how this can be seamlessly integrated to enable eInvoicing, please contact us and we will be happy to have a chat and send you additional resources.