eInvoicing Adoption Leaders Group minutes – 5 August 2024

Meeting details

Date

• Monday, 5 August 2024

Time

• 10:00am to 12:00pm (Auckland, Wellington)
• 08:00am to 10:00am (Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney)

Locations

• Wellington – Datacom, 55 Featherston Street
• Remote – MS Teams

Attendence

Minutes

Jump to:

• Welcome and administration
• Sharing eALG member survey
• Minister’s update
• Closing remarks

Welcome and administration

• New member organisations were introduced by the co-chair. 
• The minutes from the previous meeting were approved.
• Action items from the previous meeting were discussed and approved  by the group.

Sharing eALG member survey

Response to Hon. Minister Bayly’s questions to eALG members about eInvoicing, NZBN and other data standardisation opportunities

The Chief Operating Officer (COO) provided a debrief on the member survey – an action point from the previous meeting:

• Most organisations (17 of 22 responses) suggested that the Government should look at introducing stronger industry requirements for exchanging eInvoices with Government (Government supplier requirement) and/or other businesses (business to business requirement).
• Businesses support eInvoicing and understand the benefits but want certainty that the Government backs eInvoicing strongly and other  businesses will invest. With certainty in dates/timeframes and collective uptake, business can prioritise investment in eInvoicing ahead of competing business priorities. 
• NZBN team provided an update on NZBN’s value and future, recognising areas where development is needed. Reiterated the vision that NZBN be the single source of truth for business information in New Zealand – “tell everyone once initiative”.

Minister’s update

Hon. Minister Bayly provided an update on his ongoing work portfolio, and remarks on the progress and direction of eInvoicing adoption. Included in this update, Minister Bayly:

• Provided a summary of ongoing Ministerial work outside of eInvoicing/NZBN, including consultation with the insurance sector, the introduction of open banking, the digital trust framework, scams, and  security.
• Acknowledged and named each eALG member organisation live with eInvoicing, thanking them for their support of eInvoicing in New Zealand. 
• Provided an update on ongoing work to align New Zealand  internationally with eInvoicing APAC partners, including Australia and Singapore. 
• Outlined priorities for NZBN and eInvoicing. A key goal is to increase the usage of NZBN by making it a more attractive service to businesses. 
• Outlined current work to propose a stronger direction for eInvoicing with government agencies.

A member discussion followed regarding large organisation prioritisation of investment in eInvoicing:

• Business often have competing international priorities, for example, multinational businesses and software providers will focus their eInvoicing investment in jurisdictions which have mandates and thus naturally take priority. 
• Difficulty of securing investment approval for eInvoicing without a  definitive compliance requirement or sales/procurement driver. Without  this, it can be difficult to get a business case approved against other  competing priorities.

The COO outlined recent eInvoicing progress in New Zealand. 

• Highlights included a spike in registrations as a result of Xero bulk registering a portion of their customers. Also highlighted increased focus on investing in key APAC eInvoicing relationships to align NZ with Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, and Australia. 
• Member discussion emerged regarding small vs large business eInvoicing enablement. Between Xero and MYOB, most small businesses in New Zealand already have access to eInvoicing, whereas many large businesses still need to prioritise enablement. A member emphasised that the value of eInvoicing relies on large business senders. 

Business NZ’s update on business payment voluntary code

• A representative from Business New Zealand outlined the background and draft thinking for introducing a New Zealand Business Voluntary Payments Code. 
• A member discussion emerged with some members suggesting a  stronger reporting framework and external regulation for disputes/breaches. This will be considered.

DIA update on standardisation initiatives across the government

Deputy Government Chief Digital Officer and Deputy Chief Executive Digital Public Service provided an update on the ongoing work DIA is involved in to increase digital standardisation across the government.

• Outlined the broader work included in the digitisation of government initiatives, including Customer Service/Experience, Digital Foundations, Digital Investment, Digital Identity and Artificial Intelligence. 
• Outlined the role of the Government Chief Digital Office (GCDO) to lead and support government agencies to deliver digital modernisation. The GCDO is responsible for developing a modern, efficient public service that operates as a unified whole. DIA works with agencies to guide them towards this, including work on standardising Common Process Models (CPM), software suppliers and infrastructure. 
• DIA has identified opportunities to simplify processes and systems  across the government, which can increase interoperability. 
• eInvoicing has already been integrated into the Common Process Model (CPM), as well as being included as a requirement for any Financial Management Information System (FMIS) on the All of Government FMIS panel. 
• A member discussion emerged regarding the degree and mechanism of DIA’s influence over government agencies. Representatives from DIA outlined that agencies have a clear mandate to work alongside DIA and conform to their initiatives. No formal sign off is required from DIA for spend, rather spending is monitored in collaboration with Treasury. 

Member’s updates – eInvoicing progress, commitments, and discussion

Roundtable discussion

(due to time limitations not all members were called for an update)

• A member organisation outlined that they have integrated eInvoicing functionality into procurement processes and systems. Communications continue to go out to all suppliers informing them that eInvoicing is their preferred way of being paid. Emphasised issues discussed by the group earlier regarding invoice fraud – this is still an issue they are seeing a lot. Overall, feedback from suppliers regarding eInvoicing has been extremely positive, as it allows them to speed up their working capital cycle and improve business health.
• A member organisation outlined that eInvoicing build is now complete, vendor build expected by the end of August. Internally, feedback on eInvoicing has been overwhelmingly positive regarding how smoothly it works. However, still struggling with a lack of standardisation of fields on the government customer side, which increases the time and intervention required prioritising compliance with eInvoicing mandates in other countries of operation (for example, Malaysia).
• A member organisation outlined that they are now live with eInvoicing for AP. However, traction with suppliers has been more difficult than expected and they are so far only receiving eInvoices from one supplier. Working on developing eInvoicing AR capability and noted there are current challenges due to a lack of standardisation across government agencies. As a result, fully supportive of DIA’s standardisation initiatives. See the opportunity for eInvoicing to have a more holistic approach to P2P systems. This would aid standardisation efforts by removing the need for human intervention and reducing single points of failure such as PO, Line Numbers, etc.
• A member organisation is supportive of the idea that a wider approach of eInvoicing for the entire P2P process would support overall adoption. Recently completed an onboarding process to SAP Ariba, and now plan to shift focus to Peppol onboarding – however not many suppliers are on the eInvoicing network yet. Commenced a proof of concept to send eInvoices to a few key government agencies (MBIE among them). Solution is going through the architecture review process.
• A member organisation reiterated their focus has been on dramatically increasing the number of available small businesses on the eInvoicing network via bulk registrations.
• A member organisation continues to promote eInvoicing as a key product offering. Recently on the Bookkeeper’s conference tour talks and stalls have centred on eInvoicing. Bulk registrations are a possibility for 2025.
• A member organisation is progressing work to send eInvoices via their mailhouse.
• A member organisation is sending out eInvoices to 1 private sector and 9 government clients. Have experienced increased success with government agencies using TechOne. Minor issues to iron out with government agencies using Oracle due to single vs multi-line invoice and the All of Government fee.

Action points

• AP 1
  Minister took member feedback on board will get back to members with further thinking at the next meeting.

Closing remarks

The chairs completed meeting formalities, and a group photo was taken for social media posts. 

Meeting closed at 12:03 pm.