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eInvoicing Adoption Leaders Group minutes – 17 March 2021

Minutes from the 2nd eInvoicing Adoption Leaders Group (eALG) meeting held on 17 March 2021.

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Meeting details

Date

  • Wednesday , 17 March, 9:00am

Time

  • Wellington – 9:00am – 11:00am
  • Melbourne – 7:00am – 9:00am

Location

  • The Rydges, 75 Featherston Street, Wellington
  • MS Teams meeting

Attendence

Chair

  • Stewart McRobie, CFO Finance and Performance, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE)

Group Members

* Attended remotely

  • Alistair Smith, CFO (NZ), IAG Insurance
  • Caroline Rawlinson, CFO, MYOB *
  • Craig Hudson, MD, New Zealand & Pacific Islands, Xero *
  • Emma Dobson, Independent 
  • Gillian O'Neill, General Manager Finance, Woolworths NZ (Countdown) *
  • Jeff Martin, Chief Technology Officer, B2BE
  • John Eastman, New Zealand MD, Oracle
  • John Healy, CFO, ACC *
  • John Mazenier, New Zealand Country Manager , Technology One 
  • Kris Gerken, Head of Finance, Placemakers / Fletcher Building
  • Phil Cameron, MD, SAP New Zealand, SAP
  • Sara Hay, CFO Wellington City Council

Substitutes

  • Chris Greenough, Director, Global Service Operations, substituted for Marc Rivers, CFO, Fonterra
  • Murray Trim, Decision Support Manager, substituted for Nathan Marsh, Foodstuffs SI *
  • Philip Leath, GM Tax and Procurement, substituted for Stewart Taylor, CFO, ANZ

Secretariat 

  • Andrew Cooke, eInvoicing Product Manager, MBIE

Apologies / Not in attendance

  • Ian Hankins, CFO, Westpac
  • Marc Rivers, CFO, Fonterra
  • Nathan Marsh, CFO, Foodstuffs
  • Peter Gudsell, CFO, Auckland City Council
  • Stefan Knight, Finance Director, Spark
  • Stewart Taylor, CFO, ANZ

Observers

  • Mark Wierzbicki, Director eInvoicing, MBIE
  • Stu Ross, Manager Operations and Promotion, MBIE

Meeting minutes

Welcome and introductions

Board minute Action Required
Round table of introductions. Nil
Carolyn Tremain and Hon. Stuart Nash gave speeches and left the meeting at 9:40am.

Administration

Board minute Action Required
The Chair noted that the meeting is being minuted to capture high level actions or decisions. Comments will not be attributed to individuals or organisations. The minutes will be published on an MBIE website.  No feedback from the Group members was received.  
The Chair noted that no declarations of interest were received. AP 1.1    Any declarations of interest to be submitted to the Secretariat prior to the next meeting.
The Chair presented the Terms of Reference. No feedback was received. AP 1.2    Terms of Reference finalised.

General

Board minute Action Required
The Chair gave a presentation on eInvoicing in New Zealand. During the presentation Stewart briefed the group on:
  • eInvoicing progress to date including:
    • MBIE joining Open Peppol and becoming the New Zealand Peppol Authority
    • Adopting the Peppol framework enabling New Zealand businesses to transact with Peppol members across the globe.
    • Finance system providers standing up eInvoicing technology.
    • 21 access point providers accredited with a further 4 in progress.
    • Establishing a Syndicated All of Government Contract for eInvoicing Service Providers to streamline and simplify the procurement process for eInvoicing capability.
  • The government intends to:
    • Mandate eInvoicing and annual volume targets to central government agencies.
    • Drive the faster payment of invoices across all New Zealand businesses.
  • An expectation that small business adoption will be driven by the enablement of MYOB and Xero.
  • MBIE is working collaboratively with the Australian Tax Office which is facilitated through the regular meetings of the Australia and New Zealand eInvoicing Board.
  • MBIE is planning to broaden the available set of services to enable e-Procurement once eInvoicing starts to become embedded in New Zealand businesses.
  
There was an open discussion among the Group. Points made included:
  • People and process change was a bigger problem than technology change.
  • Ensuring that senders and receivers are enabled together is essential for success.
  • Small business software providers are or are near to launching send capability.
  • Several organisations are receive capable but have very little traffic at the moment.
  • Late payment is a significant issue, particularly for small businesses. eInvoicing can enable faster payment but doesn’t guarantee it.
  • A significant benefit of eInvoicing is the predictability of cash flow.
  • A challenge for exporters who adopt eInvoicing and faster payment will be the neutrality of working capital as foreign payments are not expected to sped up significantly through eInvoicing.

A member noted that there is a lot of discussion on adoption and suggested that any relevant case studies should be shared with the Group. AP 1.3    Relevant case studies and research to be shared with the Group prior to, or at, the next meeting.
The Chair recommended that the 4-Corner Model[1] be shared with the Group at the next meeting. AP 1.4    The 4-Corner Model will be shared at the next meeting.

MEETING CLOSED: 11:05am

[1] The eInvoicing network is based on the 4-Corner Model where every business and its trading partner communicate via an Access Point.

© Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment

https://www.einvoicing.govt.nz/get-set-up/advice-for-large-businesses/einvoicing-leadership-forums/ealg-minutes/einvoicing-adoption-leaders-group-minutes-17-march-2021/
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