eInvoicing Adoption Leaders Group minutes – 3 November 2023

Meeting details

Date

• Monday, 3 November 2023

Time

• 10:30am to 12:00pm (Auckland, Wellington)
• 8:30 am to 10:00am (Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney)

Locations

• Room 1.20, Fonterra Co-Operative Group, 109 Fanshawe Street, Auckland
• Room L04 M08, Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE), Pastoral House, 25 The Terrace, Wellington
• Microsoft Teams

Attendence

Co-chairs

• Michael Alp* – Chief Operating Officer – MBIE
• Tania O’Brien* Chief Financial Officer Westpac

Host

• Chris Greenough* – Director, Global Services Operations – Fonterra

Members

• Stewart McRobie – Deputy Chief Executive – ACC
• Paul Wan** – Financial Controller – ACC
• Marie Paterson* – Senior Manager – Air New Zealand+
• Simon Kwan* – Executive, Operational Excellence – BNZ+
• Ethan Tan* – NZ Finance Manager – Bunnings NZ
• Simon Hoole* – Group Chief Financial Officer – Datacom
• David Ison* – Head of Finance Operations – Foodstuffs North Island+
• Stephan Deschamps* – Chief Financial Officer – Freightways Group+
• Emma Dobson* – Independent
• Geng Zheng* – Director, Indirect Tax – KPMG
• Stuart Nash* – Commercial Director – Robert Walters+
• Zoe Myer – Head of Group Finance – MYOB
• Abi Cameron* – Head of Performance and Insight – One NZ
• Dylan Semmens – Head of Procurement – One NZ
• Matthew Sheppard – Financial Controller – Spark NZ
• Lee Talbot – Tribe Led – Enterprise Services – Spark NZ
• Michael Nyamudeza** – Senior Manager – Wellington City Council
• Simon Foster* – Global Director of eInvoicing – Xero
• Maureena Van der Lem – Head of Government Experience – Xero
• Leonard O’Quigley* – Head of Treasury – 2degrees

MBIE observers

• Andrew Cooke** – Product Manager
• Alan Carnaby* – Manager Adoption
• Eddy Horwood** – Promotion Advisor
• Linda More** – Manager Marketing & Communications
• Lisa Archbold** – Technology Manager
• Lisa Ringleff * – Principal Relationship Manager
• Mark Wierzbicki ** – Head of eInvoicing
• Roshan Pandey * – Senior Relationship Manager (Secretariat)
• Simon Dwyer* – Senior Commercial Leader

Apologies

• Carl Ferguson – CFO (update received) – ASB
• Bridget Snelling – Country Manager (substitutes attended) – Xero
• Aaron Smith – CFO (substitute attended) – 2degrees
• Ben Norrie – CFO – OfficeMax
• Mike Roan – CFO – Meridian Energy
• Rhonda Richardson – CFO (update received) – NZ Post
• Andrea Reeves – Chief Financial Officer (substitute attended) – Wellington City Council
• Jared Honore – General Manager (substitute attended) – Air New Zealand
• Nathan Marsh – Chief Financial Officer (update received) – Foodstuffs South Island
• Caroline Rawlinson – Chief Financial Officer (substitute attended) – MYOB
• Lynette Glover – General Manager – Kiwibank+
• Steven Jefferies – Financial Controller (substitute attended) – KPMG
• Neil Padley – Head of Finance Shared Services - Corporate – Woolworths (Countdown)
• Rob Fellowes – Transactions Controller – Woolworths (Countdown)

Attendance numbers

• * Attended in person at Auckland: 19 (14 members + 5 MBIE staff)
• **Attended in person at Wellington: 4 (2 members + 2 MBIE staff)
• + New organisations: 6 members
• Attended online via MS Teams: 6 members
• Number of attending organisations: 18

Minutes

Welcome and administration

• New member organisations were introduced by the co-chair.
• The minutes from the previous meeting were approved.
• MBIE noted that the meeting is being documented to capture high level actions or decisions. Comments will not be attributed to individuals or organisations. Minutes will be published on eInvoicing.govt.nz.
• The Business Case guidance document requested at the last meeting has been completed and uploaded to the website.
• ECOP meeting 8 minutes and highlights were shared.

General

MBIE’s Chief Operating Officer gave an update which included:

• Evidence and learnings from the successful rollout of eInvoicing in Norway.
• Outlined that a stronger requirement for businesses to send and receive eInvoices is required to deliver the outcomes for New Zealand (NZ).
• NZ’s month on month growth has consistently been one of the highest in the world.
• Stressed the need for an increase in focus on the cyber-fraud prevention benefit that eInvoicing can bring for NZ.
• Presented the most recent eInvoicing dashboard including an overview of adoption progress. There is strong month on month growth fuelled by communication with suppliers and individual engagements.
• Outlined the Tran-Tasman partnership and its importance in strategic alignment and to collectively explore ways to drive eInvoicing faster.
• A member supported the need for a stronger requirement for businesses to send and receive eInvoices. They also proposed that all member organisations send a letter to the incoming Minister for Small Business imploring them to prioritise eInvoicing as an initiative on their manifesto.

Action required

• Action Point 1
  A member will be coordinating a letter for the incoming Minister to show support for eInvoicing.                            

Updates from member organisations

• A member organisation has implemented software changes for accounts payable. They recently went live with Accounts Payable (AP) and have begun processing their first eInvoices. Accounts Receivable (AR) has recently entered development and aiming to go live in Q3/Q4 of 2024.
• A member organisation recognised the value of the business case document provided by the MBIE eInvoicing team as being valuable in securing internal support. Internal stakeholders have signed off on their eInvoicing project. Development has commenced. AP is targeted for March 2024 and AR for June 2024. They have shortlisted access point providers and are working through requirements. They noted some minor issues with NZBN etc.
• A member organisation recently completed an ERP upgrade for medium and large vendors and have begun development on AR eInvoicing.
• A member organisation has been receiving about 500 eInvoices a month. They are actively onboarding new suppliers and are working on reducing payment times in preparation for the upcoming Business Payment Practice Act 2023.
• A member organisation has commenced testing with support from the MBIE eInvoicing team. They anticipate rollout to begin for Government clients in Q2 2024 and the remainder of their clients by the end of 2024.
• A member organisation is working with an access point provider to understand how they integrate with their current solutions. They then plan to commence supplier onboarding with low volume suppliers. They noted high internal support meaning there is significant appetite to continue their involvement in the eALG and eCoP (eInvoicing Community of Practice).
• A member organisation is currently exploring eInvoicing for the enterprise and government sectors. Funding is expected to be finalised after Q1 2024. A recent ERP upgrade allowed them to consolidate some systems. One of the next steps is to onboard suppliers to use their network. They have an internal value pillar - “make it easy to pay” and noted that eInvoicing aligns well with this. They are looking at enabling MYOB and Xero customers – value back to NZ during the first tranche.
• A member organisation is expecting to go live with AP by December 2023. The biggest challenge is internal education as behavioral change continues to be challenging. By June 2024 Information System Service Plan will be completed, which will drive ICT strategy and plan for AR eInvoicing.
• A member organisation has been testing with their mail house to support a large customer that recently signed up for eInvoicing.
• A member organisation is investigating access point providers and is aiming to have this finalised by December 2023. AR will be incorporated in their roadmap within the next two to three months.
• A member organisation has started their AP eInvoicing implementation via a proprietary solution with a provider who is Peppol access point. This has made the technology provider selection straightforward. Current focus is on data mapping schemas.
• A member organisation confirmed they are progressing with a large mail house solution and they have also finalised their access point provider. AR is their first priority and is currently in the development phase with testing options being investigated. A firmer timeline is expected by the end of 2023.
• A member organisation has begun their AR implementation. They are now promoting eInvoicing as an important item within their organisation.
• A member organisation is in the discovery phase and investigating access point providers. They will include eInvoicing in their work program for Q3/Q4 2024. They are keen to know how Māori business uptake is going with this initiative and how it can feed into those business cases. This is because their organisation has a significant Māori cultural strategy.
• A member organisation is two and a half years into their eInvoicing journey. AP has been live for two years. The process is unchanged for staff in their Accounts Payable team which his making change management much simpler. They have been live with AR (subscription billing to customers) since early 2023 and noted a good uptake. Their entire customer base that can send PDF invoices can now send an eInvoice instead. They had 30% uptake in monthly active users in NZ in the last month. Their organisation’s view is that there is a significant high-level component of eInvoicing being able to enable digitisation in the NZ economy which is vital for economic growth.
• A member organisation continues to rollout eInvoicing for accounts payable invoices. They are implementing product layout enhancements to improve customer experience with eInvoicing and ensuring it’s front of mind. Looking to roll out eInvoicing capability in one of their products in Q2 2024. This member organisation continues to promote eInvoicing, including in a recent article featuring eInvoicing as one of the best ways to increase SMEs digitization.
• A member organisation recently went live with AP for their corporate suppliers. They have onboarded two suppliers as part of a pilot. In preparation for a further rollout, they are exploring implementation pathways for their wider supplier base.
• A member organisation was pleased to report they have started their eInvoicing journey. They have engaged an access point provider to and are part way through their implementation. They will go live with AP by December 2023 and will then shift their focus to onboarding suppliers.
• A member organisation is working with their ERP provider to integrate Peppol capability. They expect to go live in March 2024. AP is their current focus as their AR volume is low. They acknowledged that Peppol will help them process about 29% of overall invoices more efficiently. The remaining invoices are processed via an EDI solution and are not currently in scope.
• A member organisation is on track with its ERP upgrade and is looking to receive up to 45,000 eInvoices per year for their corporate invoices. Their AP invoices in scope for eInvoicing will include wholesale customers which account for about 579,000 invoices per year.

Meeting closed at 11:58am.