Government proposing stronger requirements for eInvoicing in New Zealand

In February 2024 Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing, Hon Andrew Bayly, announced the Government’s intention to repeal the Business Payments Practices Act 2023.

Instead, Government intends to pursue non-regulatory measures to improve payment times to small businesses. One of these is to ramp up the use of eInvoicing by requiring more government agencies to send and receive eInvoices and pay eInvoices faster.

Specifically, the Minister is interested in setting government departments a faster payment target for eInvoices. Over time, and subject to consultation with them, this target could also be extended to some Crown entities.

To provide transparency, Hon Andrew Bayly is proposing government payment times are published.

Currently New Zealand’s 32 Central Government agencies are required to pay 95% of invoices within 10 days and be able to receive eInvoices from their suppliers. Hon Andrew Bayly proposes to extend these requirements to Crown entities. This would mean more than 100 government organisations will be required to receive eInvoices. He’s also proposing government organisations are required to send eInvoices.

These proposals signal that eInvoicing may become the default method to exchange invoices for Central Government and all crown entities.

What this means for organisations

eInvoicing is already helping businesses get paid faster and will deliver benefits to all businesses regardless of size.

Businesses who trade with government organisations can expect eInvoicing to become the norm, and these proposals provide an extra cash flow incentive to send eInvoices to Government.

The proposals will provide further confidence for businesses to adopt eInvoicing and realise the benefits it is already providing many New Zealand organisations. The more businesses who send and receive eInvoices, the more they’ll benefit from time-savings, no lost invoices, faster payment, and reduced risk of invoice fraud. Our economy will perform better.

Next steps

The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) will consult with the government agencies that could be subject to the new eInvoicing send and receive requirements and payment time target for eInvoices. This will include discussing potential implementation timeframes.

Are you ready for eInvoicing?

eInvoicing is the secure digital exchange of invoice information directly between buyers’ and suppliers’ financial systems, even if these systems are different.

Say goodbye to PDFs and email and save on admin time. With eInvoicing, suppliers no longer need to generate paper-based or PDF invoices that are printed, posted, or emailed to customers.

eInvoices are impossible to lose because the digital exchange process is direct and secure. It’s accurate, secure and speeds up processing and payment times. This improves cashflow and reduces time wasted looking for missing invoices.

Over 13,000 New Zealand businesses and 40+ government agencies are already registered to receive eInvoices – and most small businesses have free or low-cost access to send eInvoices through their accounting software or an eInvoicing portal.

Over 60 accounting and invoicing software providers offer eInvoicing capability in New Zealand, with more providers building the functionality in 2024.

How to get started

1. Check if your software supports eInvoicing, and ask your provider how to get started:

   eInvoicing software products

2. If your software does not yet support eInvoicing, check our list of eInvoicing access point providers that can connect your software to the eInvoicing network.

More information

Read the Minister's press release(external link) — Beehive.govt.nz

Repeal of the Business Payment Practices Act 2023 [PDF 144KB](external link) — MBIE

Repeal of the Business Payment Practices Act 2023 – Minute of Decision [PDF 131KB](external link) — MBIE

Crown entities(external link) — Te Kawa Mataaho – Public Service Commission

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