Datacom taking a lead with eInvoicing

With some 280 million business-to-business invoices exchanged within New Zealand annually, it’s estimated eInvoicing will save our economy $4.4 billion over the next 10 years.

In March 2024 Datacom started sending eInvoices to the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE).

Datacom Managing Director Justin Gray says the opportunity to adopt a process that is both more efficient and secure is something his team was eager to support.

“It is great to see MBIE and our government partners leading the way with the shift to eInvoicing and we were pleased to get involved as an early adopter. Our teams worked well together to make it a smooth transition and we would encourage other organisations to make the move.”

Justin Gray, Managing Director, Datacom

Benefits for everyone

Graham Young, Director of Finance Operations at Datacom says the direct digital transfer of invoice information from one system to another system will reduce hassles – for everyone.

“eInvoicing will enable invoices to be reviewed in a more timely and secure way and will potentially facilitate earlier payment.

“With eInvoicing, mandatory information is also shared, allowing customers to more easily review the products or services provided before they approve the invoice and make payment. Digitally receiving an invoice containing predefined information also eliminates any need to scan a paper or PDF invoice to extract the required data, or to populate any missing data.”

Aside from the efficiency gains, the system-to-system method is also inherently more secure and less susceptible to fraud than emailed invoices that can be intercepted or modified.

“The move to eInvoicing is timely with the amount of reported invoice fraud across Australia and New Zealand reaching a quarter of a billion dollars – and the unreported total is likely much higher,” says Young.

Datacom’s shift to eInvoicing was a smooth and collaborative process with MBIE’s teams providing technical advice around the PEPPOL standards and working with Datacom’s team to go live in March.

Datacom's advice to other businesses

“To start, engaging people in your business about what eInvoicing is, what changes will be required to embrace its benefits, and a timeline for these. Designing and documenting eInvoicing processes will help back this up”.

Young also suggests ensuring customer and vendor data is updated so all mandatory eInvoicing fields can be populated, and prioritising eInvoicing when onboarding new customers and vendors.

eInvoicing uptake encouraged

MBIE’s Chief Operating Officer, Michael Alp says Datacom taking a lead will encourage others to follow.

“Datacom is a longstanding partner for MBIE and has worked with us and numerous other government agencies for many years, and they were very responsive when we said we wanted to move to eInvoicing. Datacom’s teams have mobilised quickly to be a real leader in this space, and I am sure more organisations will follow as a result.”

Datacom has quickly realised the benefits of sending eInvoices and has begun building capability to receive eInvoices.