eInvoicing Adoption Leaders Group minutes – 7 October 2026

Meeting details

Date

• Wednesday, 7 October 2026

Time

• 2:30pm to 4:30pm (Auckland, Wellington)
• 12:30pm to 2:30pm (Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney)

Locations

• Auckland: Datacom, 58 Gaunt Street, Auckland 1010
• Remote: MS Teams

Attendance

Minutes

• Welcome and administration

• Address from the Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing

• Address from Business NZ

• Address from Reserve Bank of New Zealand

• Update on eInvoicing from MBIE

• Champion roundtable: eInvoicing journeys, lessons learned and future directions

• Closing remarks

Welcome and administration

• The host and Co-chairs opened the meeting. The Co-Chairs thanked the Datacom, who hosted this meeting, and welcomed the Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing.

Address from the Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing

• The Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing highlighted eInvoicing as an example of government and industry working collaboratively to achieve greater efficiency and faster payments, rather than relying on regulation. The Minister expressed a preference for voluntary, industry-led adoption over additional legislation, regulation and reporting requirements. The Minister also shared that he discussed the forum with the Prime Minister and other senior ministers earlier that day.

A group photograph was taken for a social media post. The Minister left the meeting at 3:35 pm.

Address from Business NZ

• The Director of Advocacy noted strong support for eInvoicing, the New Zealand Business Number (NZBN), and greater standardisation and digitisation as important drivers of productivity. Large businesses were recognised as having an important role in building critical mass, while accounting and technology providers could make adoption significantly easier for small businesses. The representative supported voluntary adoption rather than mandated payment requirements and emphasised the need to avoid additional costs and regulatory burdens, particularly for small businesses. Wider system or legislative changes may provide opportunities to encourage eInvoicing adoption, while businesses must balance digital transformation with other investment priorities.

Address from Reserve Bank of New Zealand

• The Programme Director (Payment Modernisation) outlined work to develop a strategy for modernising New Zealand’s payments system, which, while reliable, was noted as having fallen behind international best practice. Modernisation will support greater competition and resilience, improve business productivity and cash flow through faster payment and richer data, and create opportunities for greater integration with eInvoicing, open banking and international payment systems.
• The discussion reinforced that real-time payments should not be pursued in isolation but should be designed around clear economic use cases and supported by standardised, validated data. A real-time clearing and settlement foundation could be an important enabler for emerging developments such as tokenisation and agentic commerce. Lessons from overseas implementations highlighted the importance of broad consultation and avoiding costly infrastructure that does not meet users’ needs. The Reserve Bank is therefore considering the broader capabilities, governance and system-level accountability required to create payment infrastructure that is fit for current and future needs.

Update on eInvoicing from MBIE

• The Director of Smart Data Economy provided an update on eInvoicing growth and adoption. eInvoicing continues to grow strongly, with bulk registration by a software provider more than doubling the number of registered New Zealand businesses from approximately 56,000 to 113,000, representing close to 20% of businesses. Invoice volumes are also increasing, although further growth in active usage is needed to reach critical mass and realise the full economic benefits. The upcoming government supplier requirement is helping to drive engagement, with large businesses encouraged to promote eInvoicing with their trading partners.
• The Government Innovation Manager provided an update on local government adoption and eInvoicing optimisation. Ten councils are now able to receive eInvoices, with further engagement planned to encourage eInvoicing adoption and prompt payment. The focus is also shifting from standardisation to broader eInvoicing optimisation, including addressing inconsistent invoice requirements, variation in software and business processes, data quality issues, and fragmented ownership across the ecosystem. The aim is to reduce rework and invoice rejection, improve straight-through processing, and enable buyers and suppliers to realise greater value from eInvoicing. This work is helping to embed consistent finance practices within shared frameworks, supporting greater standardisation and wider adoption.

Champion roundtable: eInvoicing journeys, lessons learned and future directions

• A member organisation reported that eInvoicing uptake continues to grow strongly, particularly among their smaller suppliers, although wider market awareness remains a challenge. Digital identity and supply-chain resilience are also areas of increasing focus.
• A member organisation reported that an eInvoicing pilot involving four strategic suppliers is progressing alongside a major Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) transformation, with testing and the initial go-live approaching. Key challenges include supplier onboarding and costs, operating parallel ERP systems, and demonstrating a strong value proposition to encourage wider adoption.
• A member organisation reported that eInvoicing adoption is accelerating strongly, with uptake in New Zealand growing rapidly across a broader range of trading partners. Internationally, Peppol adoption continues to expand, with different implementation approaches highlighting the value of phased rollouts and integration with digital identity and payments.
• A member organisation reported that supplier enablement continues to grow, alongside work to transition additional suppliers to eInvoicing. Customer and internal education are also being increased to build awareness and encourage wider adoption.
• A member organisation reported that international experience reinforces the importance of standardised, validated eInvoicing data in supporting prompt payment, productivity and fraud prevention. A phased approach to wider adoption is preferred, alongside greater use of trusted business credentials.
• A member organisation reported that eInvoicing now represents a significant share of invoicing and is delivering faster payments, particularly from government customers. The focus is shifting to increasing adoption among non-government customers, while system integration and supplier understanding remain challenges.
• A member organisation reported that its eInvoicing implementation is nearing go-live following broader accounts payable modernisation and improvements to internal processes and data standards. This groundwork has simplified requirements, improved purchase-order compliance and created a stronger foundation for supplier adoption.
• A member organisation reported that progress continues in expanding eInvoicing across government customers, supported by migration to a new ERP and billing system. Key challenges include differing customer requirements, complex invoice allocation processes and the inconsistent use of business identifiers.
• A member organisation reported that its eInvoicing implementation has been paused while migration to a new billing platform is completed, avoiding duplication between legacy and new systems. Future adoption will focus on standardisation and reducing the complexity of individual customer requirements, with earlier implementation possible where customers are ready to participate.
• A member organisation reported that its eInvoicing implementation is progressing following the rollout of a new ERP system, with initial pilot testing about to begin. Further testing and rollout with additional government agencies will follow.
• A member organisation reported that testing is underway to enable outbound eInvoicing, with go-live expected shortly and government customers being a key focus. While receiving capability is already established, limited supplier participation highlights the importance of engaging willing trading partners to drive adoption.
• A member organisation reported that eInvoicing is being progressively rolled out across corporate payments, with expansion into other high-value payment areas planned as legacy systems are replaced. Digital identity, data standards and streamlined internal approval processes remain important priorities for achieving secure, frictionless processing.
• A member organisation reported that eInvoicing is well established across a growing customer base, with several hundred invoices processed each month. Customer-specific field requirements remain a key challenge, adding complexity, cost and delays compared with a standardised approach.
• A member organisation reported that government eInvoicing adoption is showing stronger growth, with current challenges broadly similar across Australia and New Zealand. Greater integration between digital invoicing and payments could improve transparency, certainty and data accuracy.
• A member organisation reported that inbound eInvoicing is beginning to gain traction, while outbound capability is now in place across key billing systems. The focus is on increasing adoption, particularly among government customers.

Updates received outside the meeting and shared by the Business Innovation Manager, MBIE.

• A member organisation is in the final stages of testing and plans to begin sending eInvoices to a small number of government organisations in November.
• A member organisation plans to begin testing with a government agency and is also supporting various government and private-sector organisations to implement eInvoicing.

Closing remarks

• The Co-chairs reflected that the discussion had broadened beyond eInvoicing to encompass the interconnected capabilities required to support it, including payments, digital identity, open banking and trusted business data. They emphasised the importance of clearly communicating the value proposition to businesses to encourage voluntary adoption, noting that stronger intervention could become an option if adoption does not progress sufficiently.
• An update was provided on the NZBN Business Passport, which is progressing towards accreditation as a government digital identity credential and is intended to provide verified evidence of a person’s authority to act for a business. A pilot will link verified bank account credentials with NZBN credentials, with longer-term potential to support eInvoicing, reduce fraud, and simplify business verification and onboarding across government and industry.

 Meeting closed at 4:18pm followed by networking.