As businesses across Australia and New Zealand look ahead to recovery from the restrictions and lockdowns of 2020, electronic invoicing (e-invoicing) looks to be a powerful solution to assist businesses achieve prompt invoice payments, while also being a timely solution to the challenges of the COVID era.
E-invoicing aims to eliminate the need for paper or PDF invoices to be printed or emailed; nor does information need to be scanned or manually entered into an accounting system.
Automating this everyday - and typically time-consuming – process, e-invoicing allows each business’s accounting system to communicate directly to share invoicing information. No more manual entry, less chance for errors and faster processing.
E-invoicing is also purported to save costs for both the sender and recipient – up to AU$20 per invoice.
Of course, e-invoicing will likely prove itself a perfect solution to many of the
changes as a result of COVID. For example, with employees working from home, paper invoices no longer need to be forwarded or collected to multiple addresses; there is no manual handling, delivery or collection of physical documents; and businesses can plan ahead with greater insight into outstanding costs and payments.
The Australian and New Zealand Governments are continuing forward with the adoption of the PEPPOL standard of e-invoicing to vastly streamline the process of invoice transmission and fulfilment.
The Australian Department of Treasury has already
fully adopted e-invoicing to support SMEs across Australia with faster, more accurate payments.
All Commonwealth departments will see e-invoicing mandatory from 1 July 2022, while the same will likely be required of all public and private sector organisations in the future, after a
period of consultation.
Sybiz remains ready to implement e-invoicing solutions when required for businesses across Australia and New Zealand, and we will continue to update our customers when more details become available.