Regulatory updates - Australia

This has been an ongoing process; as we reported earlier, the Australian Treasury has released yet another consultation paper for stakeholders to express their wishes and opinions about e-invoicing. The latest consultation paper introduces a Finnish type of legal framework whereby Australian businesses reserve the legal right to request to receive electronic invoices via the Peppol Network. The term used for this procedure is Business eInvoicing Right (BER).

The consultation paper explores how the BER can be introduced to accommodate businesses of different sizes and across various industries. Its introduction aims to legally support companies willing to digitalize and automate their accounts payable invoices whilst promoting e-invoice submission on the supplier side. As already mentioned, the paper envisions the explicit use of the Peppol Network for facilitating the BER.

Pagero is an accredited Peppol Service Provider and fulfils all requirements to send and receive Peppol invoices and other documents in Australia and New Zealand.

The NSW Government has announced that receiving electronic invoices will enter into force from 1 January 2022 for all NSW public entities. Transactions worth up to AUD 1 million (ca. EUR 635 000.00) are in the scope, regardless of goods or services.

The announcement aims to increase work efficiency and save budget by reducing payment times, paperwork, and human errors. Both suppliers and buyers will benefit from this policy when sending and receiving invoices from the NSW authorities. At the same time, the Government will be leading the effort to adopt e-invoicing across Australia.

When the mandate takes effect, there will be an option for suppliers to issue invoices electronically to the NSW Government agencies or retain their current measures.

As part of the commitment to the Digital Business Plan, the Australian Government is investing AUD 15,3 million (ca. EUR 9,7 million) to increase awareness and adopt the mandatory e-invoicing for governmental agencies in 2022.

Who will the funding support?

This funding is aimed at supporting the Treasury and the Australian Peppol E-Invoicing Authority (ATO) in encouraging e-invoicing implementation for businesses. To achieve this goal, the following steps are going to be taken:

• Educational activities for raising business awareness;
• Ongoing work with states and territories to extend the e-invoicing adoption within the public sector;
• Working with payment providers, such as Visa, Mastercard, New Payments Platform Australia and others on the integration of the electronic invoicing into the main business payment methods, which will reduce business payment times;
• Supply chain pilots with large businesses for gaining insights and accelerating the e-invoicing implementation within the supply chains;
• Continuous consultation on potential regulatory and non-regulatory ways to drive e-invoicing adoption.

Expectations from the above steps

It is anticipated that these actions will contribute to further adoption of Peppol in both public and private sectors and pave the way for the e-invoicing mandate on a national level.

Moreover, implementing a universal e-invoicing system like Peppol would help improve not only the interoperability between business systems of different sizes but also increase the speed and scalability between the supplier and the buyer e-document exchange.

Pagero in Australia

Pagero has operated as an accredited Peppol service provider in Australia since 17 March 2020. Our office in Melbourne fully covers Peppol needs in the Trans-Tasmanian region, and the services meet the requirements for B2B trading and B2G via Peppol.

For more information on how your business in Australia can prepare for the upcoming e-invoicing mandate in 2022, you can watch our recorded webinar with the ATO.

In the face of this year’s unparalleled economic challenges, Australian businesses have been looking for ways to further automate their trading processes to save costs as well as maximise cashflow. In this context, the Government’s initiative to extend the current e-invoicing mandate to include the private sector is a welcome contribution in line with the national digital recovery plan.

Mandatory e-invoicing by 1 July 2022

The Australian Government has issued an e-invoicing mandate for Federal Agencies and Departments and is currently aligning with State Government and territories to ensure a broadening of the mandates to include all levels of government.

The government mandate will activate on 1 July 2022, and it is anticipated that the B2B mandate will be closely aligned to this timeframe as well.

Options for mandatory B2B e-invoicing

The Australian Treasury has released the consultation paper for organisations and interested parties to provide feedback on three distinct routes to accelerating e-invoicing adoption.

• Option 1: a phased approach to introducing a requirement that all businesses adopt Peppol e-invoicing (without prohibiting paper invoices)

   

• Option 2: a mandate for large businesses only

   

• Option 3: non-regulatory options, such as a voluntary code of e-invoicing and/or promotion of Peppol e-invoicing by enabled organisations

   

Responses to the consultation paper will be accepted until 18 January 2021.

“We've seen firsthand the significant positive impact of e-invoicing mandates on the local economy in other parts of the world, and we're glad to see the Australian Government taking this very important step. Earlier this year we were selected by the ATO to the panel of suppliers for business-to-government e-invoicing. Now we stand ready to support the private sector in this transition towards digital ways of trading.” says Bertrand Gauch, regional manager at Pagero Australia.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has selected and pre-approved Pagero to supply e-invoicing services to the Australian Federal, State and Local Government Departments. Pagero will make up part of a panel of service providers with which government agencies can engage directly without going through a full tender process. Through this expedited process, government agencies significantly reduce time and effort in the search for accredited e-invoicing-related and Peppol services.

E-invoicing in the digital business plan

Having adopted Peppol in 2019 as the standard framework for the exchange of e-invoices, electronic purchase orders and other e-documents, the ATO has now created the Panel Arrangement for Peppol Capabilities and Associated Services. This comes alongside the government’s recently announced digital business plan that includes the implementation of mandatory e-invoicing for all Commonwealth government agencies by 1 July 2022.

The Australian Government predicts that although mandatory e-invoicing will not come into effect for two years, 80% of all federal-level invoices will be electronic by July 2021.

“Being a pre-approved service provider to the Australian government is a testament to our capabilities. We’re proud that it’s now easier than ever for any Council, State Department or Federal Agency to join the Pagero Network with full confidence that our technology and offering not only is best in class, but also highly secure and trusted across the globe,” says Pontus Hanson, Pagero regional director in Australia.

Options for mandatory B2B e-invoicing

The digital business plan allocates $3.6M toward e-invoicing initiatives for suppliers to government agencies. This budget is also appointed for the investigation of options to accelerate the adoption of mandatory e-invoicing for all businesses.

As published by the Treasury, stakeholders can submit options for service providers to be considered for the purpose of mandatory B2B e-invoicing. Responses will be accepted until 18 January 2021.

The Australian Government has announced a new digital business plan to drive Australia’s economic recovery. The plan assigns nearly $800 million AUD towards enabling businesses to take advantage of digital technologies to grow their businesses and create jobs.

One key element of the digital business plan includes $3.6 million towards mandating the adoption of electronic invoicing by 1 July 2022 for all Commonwealth government agencies. This to encourage greater adoption amongst businesses supplying to government and within their supply chains. It was also announced that the government will consult on options for mandatory adoption of e-invoicing by businesses, although no specific timeframe has been announced.

“We’re glad to see the government taking this very important step towards realising an estimated potential savings of some 28 billion AUD the coming decade. It will have substantial positive effects on the market as a whole, and we’re proud to be able to support the market in this transition towards a leaner, more efficient way of trading,” Pagero’s regional manager in Australia, Pontus Hanson said.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the adoption of digital technologies by Australian businesses and consumers has accelerated – enabling many to transform their operations, stay in business and continue to trade throughout the crisis.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said this year’s Budget would support businesses and create more jobs as part of the economic recovery plan.

“Many businesses moved online quickly when the pandemic hit, undergoing a decade of change in months, finding new customers or new ways of doing things,” the Prime Minister said.

“Our JobMaker Digital Business Plan provides significant backing to continue that digital push and expand opportunities for businesses to grow and create more jobs,” he said.

Other key elements of the business plan include funding to build digital skills for employees; accelerating the roll-out of 5G throughout Australia; and ensuring trust and cyber security in the digital economy. Funding will also be placed on a new regulatory technology commercialisation initiative to improve compliance and directly support digital technology firms in AU; and consulting on making permanent the temporary reforms to allow companies to hold virtual meetings and execute documents electronically.

This new digital business plan supports their goal for Australia to be a leading digital economy and society by 2030.

Many governments around the world now recognise digitalisation as an effective mechanism to increase efficiency in business processes between trading partners. Peppol enables an automated and systematic exchange of e-invoices, purchase orders and other business documents.

Peppol is a framework that standardises interoperability between service providers in terms of communication protocols, message types, data formats and more. As such, the Australian and New Zealand Governments are now opening capabilities for any supplier to connect to an accredited Service Provider of their choice, giving them the ability for instant set up of electronic invoices when trading with government agencies.

Peppol Business Interoperability Specifications (BIS) and the Peppol eDelivery Network receive millions of electronic invoices from businesses (B2G), as well as enabling businesses to invoice each other (B2B).

Peppol in Australia and New Zealand

Australia and New Zealand implemented Peppol in 2019 after much collaboration between the ATO, the MBIE and the e-invoicing industry. With the decision to join OpenPEPPOL, Australia and New Zealand are now taking part in a truly global framework spanning 33 countries worldwide, with registered Service Providers in 26 countries. By having a homogenised e-invoicing system in place, suppliers will garner benefits such as improved cash flow and decreased risk for incurred debt.

Adoption of Peppol is swiftly coming into place. Australian Peppol Authorities have already accredited eleven Service Providers and New Zealand nine, with several more still in the approval process.

Pagero in Australia and New Zealand

Pagero is active in over 120 countries with over 4.5M connected businesses to the Pagero Network. The company, with its cloud-based business network, is dedicated to making the buying and selling process easy. Pagero helps customers connect with any business partner, anywhere in the world, through a single connection to a global, open, cloud-based network.

From their Melbourne-based office, Pagero offers full coverage of Peppol needs for Australia and New Zealand. Services cater to all B2B trading requirements, as well as B2G through Peppol.

“Use of Peppol will help give businesses an advantage over competitors maintaining old practices with paper and PDF. The development of Peppol e-invoicing in Australian and New Zealand will benefit all businesses both domestically and those operating internationally,” comments Pagero Peppol Analyst Trent Targa.

Five-day payment policy

As incentive for suppliers to adopt Peppol, government agencies will start paying e-invoices within five days or pay interest on any late payments (see Department of Finance’s website for more information). The policy will come into effect starting 1 January 2020 and will apply to e-invoices issued, via Peppol, for contracts under $1M AUD. The ATO states that by this date some of the largest federal government agencies will be onboarded and ready to begin using Peppol.

As the Australian Government is aiming to be the leader and driving force for private businesses to use Peppol, it may continue to introduce incentives for suppliers over the coming months. Businesses, especially SMEs, will see immediate benefits such as getting paid faster from government agencies, reducing day-to-day manual labour, and adding value to the customer experience.

What’s next?

Beyond e-invoicing, Peppol supports further message types, including e-orders. Countries around the world are taking advantage of these capabilities as a logical step to standardise their initial e-invoicing implementations and mandates. Similar measures will likely occur for Australia and New Zealand. More importantly, this is a crucial first step to ignite fully-electronic B2B trading, ultimately improving purchase-to-pay and order-to-cash processes across the entire A/NZ market.