eInvoicing Adoption Leaders Group minutes – 5 June 2026

Meeting details

Date

• Friday, 5 June 2026

Time

• 1:00pm to 3:00pm (Auckland, Wellington)
• 11:00am to 1:00pm (Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney)

Locations

• Auckland: Westpac NZ, Auckland 1010
• Wellington: Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) office, Wellington 6011
• Remote (Australia and rest of New Zealand): MS Teams

Attendance

Minutes

• Welcome and administration

• Address from the Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing

• Address from the General Manager, Business and Consumer (new co-chair)

• Address from Digital Business Enablement, Business and Consumer

• Address from the Director of Government Digital Delivery Agency (GDDA)

• Debrief: Role of Working Groups in progressing eInvoicing and Standardisation

• Champion Roundtable – eInvoicing journey, lessons learned and discussion on future directions

• Closing remarks

Welcome and administration

• The host and co-chairs opened the meeting and acknowledged both the new Co-Chair, as well as the new Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing.
• The previous co-chair was acknowledged for his work with the forum, and he will continue to remain connected with eInvoicing through his procurement capacity.

Address from the Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing

• The Minister for Small Business provided opening remarks and welcomed the opportunity to engage with the business, manufacturing, and commercial sectors following his recent appointment. He confirmed the government’s expectation that agencies and suppliers will be eInvoicing-ready by January 2027 and signalled interest in including local councils in this work.

Address from the General Manager, Business and Consumer (new co-chair)

• The co-chair noted strong progress in eInvoicing adoption and its value for productivity, cash flow, and certainty, while emphasising that government provides enabling digital infrastructure and industry drives implementation.
• He reaffirmed commitment to working with stakeholders to sustain momentum and support adoption of New Zealand Business Number (NZBN), Business Connect, Consumer Data Right, and eInvoicing across MBIE’s Business and Consumer (B and C) digital ecosystem.

Address from Digital Business Enablement, Business and Consumer

• The Director of the Smart Data Economy outlined the Consumer Data Right framework, including open banking, highlighting secure data sharing, strong regulation, accreditation, fintech growth, and planned expansion into areas such as electricity data.
• eInvoicing continues to show strong economic value, with the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research 2026 findings pointing to major productivity gains that is estimated to be $800 million annually, while network integrity, faster adoption, and bulk registration of customers remain key priorities. One member organisation shared their plans to bulk-register a large group of customers to the eInvoicing network in the near term.

Action item 0.1

• The Head of Digital Business Enablement updated the group on the NZBN Credential pilot for NZBN Business Passport, including future bank account linking through verifiable credentials, with a live demo planned for the next meeting.

Address from the Director of Government Digital Delivery Agency (GDDA)

• The GDDA Back Office Digital Transformation team has developed a Common Process Model, providing a standardised all-of-government set of back-office processes that enable consistent ways of working, reduce duplication, and support more efficient, interoperable, and scalable service delivery – including initiatives such as eInvoicing across agencies.
• Strong data, standards, and shared platforms are required to improve integration, deliver efficiencies, and support collaboration across agencies and industry.
• The Director expressed interest to work closely with group members to gather insights and support standardisation.
• The Director provided a valuable contribution throughout the meeting.

Debrief: Role of Working Groups in progressing eInvoicing and Standardisation 

• The Government Innovation Manager and co-chair of the working groups shared that the group is advancing eInvoicing by bringing agencies and suppliers together to agree common processes and standards.
• This collaboration is helping embed consistent finance practices into shared frameworks to support standardisation and wider adoption.

Champion Roundtable – eInvoicing journey, lessons learned and discussion on future directions

• A member organisation reported a significant increase in eInvoice volumes over the past 6 months, driven largely by smaller suppliers responding to faster payment incentives. Progress is steady, though engaging larger suppliers remains challenging.
• A member organisation is live with eInvoicing across multiple jurisdictions and highlighted strong collaboration with government agencies. They noted that data quality issues (particularly NZBN and remittance details) are slowing onboarding and emphasised the importance of standardisation and shared responsibility.
• A member organisation noted that mandates may be required to drive adoption but stressed that implementation must be carefully designed to avoid excessive cost and complexity, drawing on lessons from Australia.
• A member organisation has completed technical readiness across multiple billing systems but is yet to see strong uptake. Internal change and identifying suitable trading partners were cited as key barriers, with expectations that upcoming mandates will help drive progress.
• A member organisation reported completing initial pilots with smaller suppliers and is now progressing to more complex invoicing scenarios, including consolidated and multi-line invoices, while remaining supportive of the broader initiative.
• A member organisation has been live receiving eInvoices since 2024 and is seeing gradual uptake through procurement processes and supplier engagement. They are preparing to enable sending capabilities and noted increasing customer interest despite system complexity.
• A member organisation highlighted the importance of faster payment cycles to support economic activity and reinforced the need for standardisation, wider adoption (including local government), and potential mandate mechanisms.
• A member organisation raised concerns about poor data quality and lack of standardisation in overseas reporting regimes, noting that this can result in high compliance effort with limited value.
• A member organisation reported steady growth in supplier onboarding and is embedding eInvoicing into business-as-usual processes. Their current focus is on educating customers and raising awareness, including through training and outreach initiatives.
• A member organisation is onboarding government customers but noted that customisation requirements, particularly around purchase order data, are creating cost and scaling challenges. They continue to support standardisation efforts and value collaboration with the central team.
• A member organisation is progressing system transformation initiatives and building integration capability, with plans to expand eInvoicing across additional parts of the business.
• A member organisation reported strong payment performance supported by system automation and emphasised the importance of organisational readiness, including people and process change, alongside technical implementation.
• A member organisation noted early high adoption volumes due to their supplier profile but is now experiencing a slowdown in new onboarding requests and is looking for broader market uptake beyond government.
• A member organisation observed increasing interest from international and sub-national government entities and reiterated that data standardisation remains a key barrier to scaling adoption.

Closing remarks

• The Co-chairs noted that achieving critical mass is becoming increasingly difficult, particularly with larger organisations where payment incentives alone are insufficient, and that a stronger value case is needed around process efficiency, cost reduction, and security.
• There was agreement that standardisation remains a key enabler across eInvoicing and related initiatives, alongside recognition that mandates may be required, but must be carefully designed to avoid unintended complexity.

Action item 0.2

• It was suggested that future focus should include expanding engagement (such as with local government) and exploring cross-border opportunities, particularly with Australia, to simplify processes and support broader adoption. 

A group photograph was taken for social media, followed by networking.

Meeting closed at 2:50pm.