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eInvoicing Adoption Leaders Group minutes –18 May 2022

Minutes from the 6th eInvoicing Adoption Leaders Group (eALG) meeting held on 18 May 2022.

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Meeting details

Date

  • Wednesday, 18 May 2022

Time

  • 9:30am to 11:30pm (Auckland and Wellington)
  • 7:30am to 9:30am (Melbourne and Sydney)

Location

  • Pastoral House meeting room L04 04M
  • MS Teams meeting

Attendence

Chair

  • Stewart McRobie, CFO Finance and Performance, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE)

Members

  • John Healy, CFO ACC
  • Fran MaguireHead of Process Simplification & Projects, Auckland Council
  • Marie Brothers, Team Leader AP Queries, financial Transactions, Auckland Council
  • Andrea Blackie, Deputy CFO, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare
  • Kris Gerken Divisional, CFO NZ Distribution, Fletcher Building 
  • Marc Rivers (attended from 10:00am), CFO, Fonterra 
  • Chris Greenough, Director, Global Service Operations, Fonterra
  • Murray Trim, Decision Support Manager, Foodstuffs 
  • Emma Dobson, Independent
  • Anna-Louise Hoffmann, NZ Corporate Affairs Manager, MYOB
  • Sonia Shepherd, Billing and Dispute Hub Manager, Spark NZ
  • Sara Hay, CFO, Wellington City Council
  • Michael Nyamudeza, Finance Operations Manager, Wellington City Council
  • Quintin Pretorius, Senior Manager Operations Enablement, Westpac
  • Ashok Sudhakaran, Head of Properties and Commercial Services
  • Craig Hudson (attended from 10:45am), MD, New Zealand & Pacific Islands, Xero

Apologies

  • Glen Francois, Senior Finance Manager, ANZ
  • Peter Gudsell (sent sub), CFO, Auckland Council
  • Nathan Marsh (sent sub), CFO, Foodstuffs
  • Alistair Smith, CFO (NZ), IAG Insurance
  • Mike Roan, CFO, Meridian
  • Caroline Rawlinson (sent sub), CFO, MYOB
  • Rhonda Richardson, CFO, NZ Post
  • Scott Burgess (sent sub), Delivery Unit Lead - Billing & Collections, Spark NZ
  • John Boniciolli, Finance Director, Vodafone NZ
  • Neil Padley, Head of Finance Shared Services, Corporate, Woolworths NZ (Countdown)

MBIE Attendees

  • Andrew Cooke, Secretariat, eInvoicing Product Manager
  • Perry Liolios, Secretariat, Lead Advisor eInvoicing Adoption
  • Mark Wierzbicki, Director eInvoicing
  • Stu Ross, Manager Operations and Promotion

Meeting minutes

Administration

Board minute Action required
New member organisations were introduced.
Late apologies were noted.
The minutes from the previous meeting were agreed to be true and accurate.
The Chair noted that the meeting is being minuted to capture high level actions or decisions. Comments will not be attributed to individuals or organisations. Minutes are being published on eInvoicing.govt.nz.
The Chair noted that no declarations of interest have been received to date.

General

Board minute Action required
The Chair gave a brief update on recent Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) eInvoicing activities.
The Chair noted the eInvoicing Six Month Report which was distributed to attendees prior to the meeting. The group agreed that it was a comprehensive report.
A member asked if the group could share some of their key obstacles on their eInvoicing journey. Some of the themes shared included:
  • eInvoicing is one of many upgrades and enhancements on an organisation’s development roadmap.
  • An enterprise resource planning system (ERP) upgrade is seen as a dependency for eInvoicing. Retrofitting existing systems is less viable. Aim to avoid “regretful spend.”
  • Sequencing is important.
  • There are opportunities to leverage existing outsourced invoice capture and processing solutions.
The Chair noted the challenges for large businesses can be significant, yet for small businesses, it’s relatively straight forward to become enabled.
The Chair gave an update on the eInvoicing Community of Practice.
The Honourable Stuart Nash, Minister for Small Business (the Minister), arrived at 10:00am and was welcomed by the Chair.

He gave a speech which included the following highlights:
  • He thanked the group for their efforts and advocacy with eInvoicing.
  • He shared some of the drivers and benefits for eInvoicing.
  • He acknowledged New Zealand’s partnership with Australia.
  • He acknowledged Fonterra as a leading example and noted their improved payment terms.
  • He would like to see eInvoicing move faster and acknowledged that his expectations are high.
  • He referenced pain points with other initiatives of this nature and their eventual success.
  • He acknowledged that the Prime Minister is supportive of this initiative and that she was previously the Minister for Small Business.
  • There was a brief discussion on the drivers and potential benefits of mandating eInvoicing. Mandating should apply to areas where other methods do not work. A mandate may be the only way to get multinationals to change their policies.
  • He noted a common misconception on what eInvoicing is. He set an expectation that we are somewhat reliant on finance systems providers to drive the messaging.
  • He engaged various members directly. They shared some of the drivers, challenges, and benefits of their organisations eInvoicing journeys.
  • The Minister thanked the group and left at 10:35.
A representative from Woolworths gave a presentation on their successful eInvoicing journey. There were some questions and conversation afterwards.
  • There was an acknowledgment that much work needs to be done to make suppliers aware of eInvoicing and its benefits.
  • Peppol eInvoicing can compliment multiple channels which support different types of suppliers and capabilities.
  • Focusing on software providers being enabled via Peppol is a key requirement for eInvoicing.
The Chair introduced an item from Xero and noted the strong partnership between MBIE and Xero. Xero shared some insights and goals with the group including:
  • Though there are many businesses enabled for eInvoicing, it is a small percentage of the total and traffic is low. He encouraged the members to step up their activities.
  • Many SMEs can already become enabled for free within their Xero software. SMEs are waiting on large business to interact with which will drive eInvoicing adoption.
  • Large business sending eInvoices means SMEs will realise more of the benefits by receiving invoice data directly in their Xero system.
  • He made an offer to the members to collaborate with Xero for pilots and promotion when they are ready.
  • He set an expectation with members that large organisations are not going to get everything they want, multiple fields are not realistic for small businesses.
MBIE gave a presentation on eInvoicing adoption in New Zealand. The presentation highlighted some of the opportunities and implementation pathways. He offered to share the slide deck AP1.1  eInvoicing adoption in New Zealand slide deck to be shared with the group.
The Chair gave his closing remarks. The next meeting will be scheduled for later in the year.

Meeting closed: 11.30am

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