Webinar recordings

Visuals

On screen, a title slide displays the text “Implementing eInvoicing send capability for large business”. Below this, the date “12 August 2026” is shown.

eInvoicing branding elements are displayed on the slide.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) logo and the New Zealand Government logo are displayed.

Audio

Andrew Cooke (eInvoicing Team) begins speaking

Kia ora koutou. We're just going to give it another 30 seconds or so before we kick off.

Just let a few more people join us.

Okay. Right, Kia ora Koutou. Thank you for joining us today to learn about eInvoicing, what it is and what it isn't, the benefits, and most importantly, how you can make the most out of eInvoicing. So, many of you are here today because you're most likely a large business that supplies to government. Now, I just want to do a little bit of housekeeping before we start. This webinar will be recorded and published on the eInvoicing website.

After the webinar, we'll also send out a copy of this presentation to you. It will include links to some of the content that we're going to cover, though my colleagues will put some links in the chat throughout the webinar. There'll be time for questions at the end, though some of my colleagues will work through some of the questions as they come in throughout the webinar and try to respond to them directly into the Q&A. And just importantly, please do use the Q&A function at any time throughout, but try and avoid using the chat function. It just makes it a bit easier for us as we...work through the questions in sequential order.

Now, Roshan, can you move across to the next slide, and we'll just do some introductions.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Introductions” is displayed.

Profile photographs of Roshan Pandey, Lise Archbold and Andrew Cooke are shown.

The following names and roles are displayed:

• Andrew Cooke – Government Innovation Manager
• Lise Archbold – Implementation Manager
• Roshan Pandey – Business Innovation Manager

Audio

Andrew Cooke: So, my name's Andrew Cooke. I am the Government Innovation Manager with MBIE's eInvoicing Team. My focus is on adoption, stakeholder engagement, supplier readiness, data and insights, and just generally helping organisations realise the benefits of eInvoicing.

And supporting me today is Lise Archbold. Over to you.

Lise Archbold (eInvoicing Team): Hi everyone, I'm Lise Archbold. I'm the Implementation Manager on the eInvoicing team here at MBIE. So, day to day I will assist you with the technical side of implementing eInvoicing and any changes that you might need to make to your processes and advising around software changes to accommodate eInvoicing.

Handing over to Roshan.

Roshan Pandey (eInvoicing Team): Thank you, Lise. Kia ora koutou. My name is Roshan Pandey. I'm the Business Innovation Manager in the team. My role is focused on growing adoption and connecting with new businesses who are willing to embrace the benefit of eInvoicing. I'm also responsible for facilitating various eInvoicing forums that I'll talk about later during today's webinar. Over to you, Andrew.

Andrew Cooke: Awesome, right, Alison, can you pop a link into the chat for a short poll we're about to run.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Online Poll” is displayed.

The following text is displayed: “Please answer three brief questions via the link in the chat”.

Audio

Andrew Cooke: So, we just want to ask a few quick questions, and this will help us tailor some of the content for today's webinar. So, we'll just give you a little bit of time to log into that, and I think I'll just share my screen, which will have the results from the poll as they start coming in. Here we go.

Visuals

The screen transitions to a live polling interface. A prompt is displayed reading “Join at menti.com with the code to enter”. A question is displayed: “Do you supply goods or services to Government?”.

A chart is shown with response options “Yes”, “No”, and “Unsure”. The number of responses increases and the chart updates dynamically as participants submits answers.

Audio

Andrew Cooke: So, do you supply goods or services to government? I mean, I think our expectation was that it was very much a yes. Because, of course, this webinar is all about sending to government. 

Visuals

On screen the chart stabilises showing final results for the question: Yes gets 35 responses, No gets 1 response, and Unsure gets 0 responses.

Visuals

On screen the visual changes to the next question in the poll with a QR code to participate. The following question displayed, “what stage are you at on your eInvocing journey?” with response options, “Investigating / Business Case”, “Implementing” and “Live”. The number of responses increases and the chart updates dynamically as participants submits answers.

Audio

Andrew Cooke: Now, we're also interested at what stage you are at on your eInvoicing journey. And we'd expect a lot of you to be in the investigating business cases stage. And you will get a lot out of today's webinar, which will help you get a business case across the line. And of course, we'll also be talking about some of the technical aspects as well. Okay, no surprises there. I'm just going to move on because we've got quite a lot of content to cover today.

Visuals

On screen the chart stabilises showing final results for the question: Investigating / Business Case” gets 32 responses, Implementing gets 7 responses, and Live gets 4 responses.

Audio

And oh, sorry, that was the last question actually. So, I'm going to end that poll and pass it over to Roshan to start sharing the screen again. So, thank you for that.

Roshan Pandey: Thank you.

Visuals

The presentation transitions from the slide deck to an animated video explaining eInvoicing.

Audio

Andrew Cooke: Now, we're going to show a short video, which is going to give a bit of a recap on what eInvoicing is.

Visuals

The animation video starts playing.

Animated icons and text appear on a plain background. The text reads: “If you’re in business today, you’ll want to know about eInvoicing”.

Simple animated graphics accompany the text, including icons representing businesses and documents. The text changes to: “It’s a digital offering that brings a smarter approach to invoicing”.

Icons showing paper invoices, email symbols, and document graphics appear briefly. The animation transitions to a new section with the text: “Let’s set a few things straight.”

Icons representing paper, PDF files, scanning, and email appear one by one. Text appears sequentially: “No paper” “No PDFs” “No scanning” “No email”

The animation transitions to a diagram showing two systems or devices. Text appears: “It’s an exchange of invoice information directly between suppliers’ and buyers’ financial systems”.

Animated lines or pathways connect the two systems, indicating data moving between them. The animation continues, showing that the systems can be different. Text appears: “Even if these systems are different”.

The animation shows multiple systems connected through a central network structure. The text changes to describe benefits: “It improves accuracy and security” “Reduces processing time” “Speeds up payments” Icons appear alongside each phrase, including a shield for security, a clock for time, and currency symbols for payments.

The animation transitions to a highlighted statement: “Great news for cash flow” Currency symbols or arrows indicating movement of money are displayed.

The animation then changes to a call‑to‑action. Text appears: “To get started, talk to your accounting or financial software provider about their plans to provide eInvoicing enabled services”

An icon of a person and a software interface appear. Final text appears: “Find out more at einvoicing.govt.nz” The animation ends with the closing statement: “eInvoicing — the smarter way of invoicing”.

Audio

A narrator reads the text as shown onscreen.

Visuals

On screen, a slide comparing what eInvoicing is and is not is displayed. 

The slide is divided into two sections. 

• On the left side, a section titled “What eInvoicing is:” is shown. 

The following text is displayed: 

• Digital exchange of invoice information between a buyer's and supplier's accounting systems, using a common agreed standard 
• Structured, computer-readable data 
• Cleaner, standardised data faster, which automates entry into systems and enables automated processing 
• A standard for B2B invoicing 
• Sits alongside your existing P2P/PO processes 
• On the right side, a section titled “eInvoicing is not:” is shown. 

The following text is displayed: 

• Invoices generated by software and emailed as a PDF to buyers 
• Paper or emailed invoices which are processed manually 
• Scanned and OCR’d paper and PDF invoices 
• A system that performs AP automation checks, automatically reconciles or automatically pays invoices 
• A standard for B2C invoicing 

Audio

Andrew Cooke: Thank you, Roshan. Now that you've seen that video, you'll realise that eInvoicing is not emailing a PDF to customers. I also want to highlight that it is not a payment system. It's a transmission and receipt of structured invoice data. Now, just briefly, I can see that we've got over 120 people on the webinar, which is fantastic. Anyway, to recap, Invoices go directly between suppliers and buyers’ systems, even if their systems are different, by using a global network standard called Peppol. This is a common agreed standard used in New Zealand and globally by nearly 50 countries and territories. If you're wondering how the invoice reaches the right organisation, that's where the New Zealand Business Number, or NZBN, comes in.

The NZBN acts as a unique identifier for businesses, much like a phone number or email address. When an eInvoice is sent, it uses the recipient's NZBN to ensure it is delivered directly to the right business and accounting system. This is one network for all businesses. For example, large suppliers often use their own invoicing solutions, usually bespoke EDI or portals, which I expect some of you might be familiar with. eInvoicing is a standardised way of invoicing. In fact, primarily, eInvoicing is actually a standardisation initiative. It levels the playing field to both small and large businesses. So, the current invoice processes that you're probably familiar with are inherently inefficient due to delivery errors, processing errors, payment delays, lack of security, lost invoices, and chasing up payment progress. This all changes with eInvoicing. So, when you're talking to your trading partners, you may have to dispel them of this myth when they ask you to send or receive einvoices instead of PDFs.

So, we're now going to share some of the benefits, especially for suppliers. So, this is benefits for organisations who send eInvoices.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Key benefits for suppliers” is displayed.

Three sections show the following headings and text:

• “Reach customers’ systems directly” – “No PDFs, portals or invoices stuck in someone’s inbox”
• “Fewer errors and disputes” – “Structured data reduces rekeying, corrections and missing information”
• “Smoother process = faster payment” – “Supports better cashflow and fewer late payment follow-ups”

Audio

Andrew Cooke: So, for large businesses that send a high volume of invoices, eInvoicing is really about making sure invoices get to the right place with the right information in a way that is more reliable than email or PDFs. eInvoices reach customer systems directly. They deliver directly into your customer's finance or accounts payable system. That means Invoices are not sitting in someone's inbox, being forwarded around or waiting for someone to manually upload or key them in. For large suppliers like you, that matters because even small improvements in delivery reliability can make a big difference across higher invoice volumes.

There are also fewer errors and disputes. Because eInvoices carry structured data, there is less reliance on manual re-keying, scanning, or interpreting PDF information. That helps reduce the kinds of issues that create disputes, delays, or follow-up requests, such as missing references, incorrect details, or information being entered differently by the customer. There's a smoother process that usually results in faster payment. So eInvoicing does not magically guarantee faster payment because businesses still need good internal approval and payment processes. However, it does remove a lot of the friction that can slow payment down, particularly invoice delivery problems, data entry errors and missing information.

So, the practical message for you is, eInvoicing helps your invoices arrive cleaner, sooner, and in a format your customers can process more efficiently. There's also one significant benefit that isn't covered in this slide, and that is there's stronger security and auditability, which reduces the risk of invoice fraud. If someone attempts to issue fraudulent invoices on behalf of your business, the audit trail provides a clear record that can help investigate and track the source of the activity. eInvoicing reduces the reliance on email and PDFs, which can be intercepted, manipulated or sent to the wrong place. Because invoices are exchange system to system, there's a strong audit trail around where the invoice came from and how it was moved through the process. So, for sending eInvoices, the business case is not just about compliance to the government policy, but or meeting customer requirements. It's actually about improving invoice delivery, reducing legwork, and actually making it easier for your customers to pay you. Next slide, please, Roshan.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Why MBIE is behind this?” is displayed.

The following text is displayed:

• With over 300 million business to business invoices exchanged in New Zealand each year, annual savings to our economy through eInvoicing are estimated to be $800 million
• Creates an open market to enable all businesses (especially SMEs) to participate in digital trading
• Reduce accounts payable cost and inefficiencies associated with manual accounts payable
• Increase the speed of payments and move money around the economy faster.

At the bottom a box is displayed with a heading “MBIE’s role is:” is shown.

The following text is displayed underneath:

• Manage the eInvoicing standards, network and accreditation as the Peppol Authority for New Zealand
• Promote eInvoicing and support the adoption for New Zealand business.

Audio

Andrew Cooke: So why is MBIE behind this? I think it's important to understand that this is bigger than just changing how invoices are sent and received. The opportunity from eInvoicing is estimated to be about 800 million in annual savings, and that's all driven by productivity. It comes from reducing manual handling, cutting down errors, speeding up processes, and removing some of the back and forth that happens when invoice information is incomplete or get stuck in the wrong place. For MBIE, this is also about creating a more open and accessible digital trading environment, particularly for small and medium sized businesses. We want businesses of all sizes to be able to participate without needing expensive or complex systems.

The earlier slide highlighted the faster payment benefit. When invoices arrive directly into finance systems with the right information, and it's important, they can be processed more quickly. That helps move money through the economy faster, which is good for suppliers, customers, and New Zealand businesses more broadly. So, MBIE's role is to support that shift. As New Zealand's Peppol Authority, MBIE manages the invoicing standards, network and accreditation, and we also work to promote eInvoicing and support adoption across New Zealand businesses. So, at its heart, this is about making invoicing simpler, safer, and more efficient, and helping businesses like you spend less time in administration and more time on the work that adds value. Now, I'm going to hand the reins over to Roshan, who will share some of the momentum we're seeing across the eInvoicing ecosystem.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “eInvoicing is growing in NZ” is displayed.

The slide is divided into three sections.

• A section titled “Businesses” includes the following text:
• 110,000+ NZ businesses are registered to receive eInvoices
• More than 1 million eInvoices exchanged
• A significant portion of SMEs can send and receive eInvoices through their accounting software (e.g. Xero, MYOB)
• A section titled “Software” includes the following text:
• 67+ eInvoicing ready software products – with more coming
• Software providers are promoting eInvoicing to their customers
• A section titled “Government” includes the following text:
• 76 government agencies can receive eInvoices and 36 can send
• Other Government Procurement Rules will accelerate adoption among suppliers to government

Audio

Roshan Pandey: Thank you, Andrew. Look, over the next few slides, I'm going to talk about the latest progress with eInvoicing in New Zealand. There are now over 113,000 businesses registered to receive eInvoices. That number has doubled in the last couple of months, thanks to XERO's latest round of bulk registration for this. This is important because the value of eInvoicing increases as more businesses join the network. For business community, one of the biggest question is often, will any of my customers or suppliers actually be able to eInvoice or eInvoice with me? Increasingly, the answer is "YES". With more than 113,000 New Zealand businesses now registered to receive eInvoices, there's growing likelihood that your existing trading partners are already eInvoice ready or will be soon.

There are over 67 eInvoicing capable software products and this list keeps growing. This list, the software provider products listed in our website and my colleague Alison is going to put some link in the chat soon. Many large businesses are sending eInvoices to their SME customers and government agencies. They are implementing the technology. For example, Bunnings have been sending thousands of eInvoices each month to their customers for over a year now. Additionally, the likes of OfficeMax, Datacom, NXP, One NZ, FarmSource, an entity of Fonterra, Robert Walters, and I'll name a few more later, are driving a significant volume of eInvoices in New Zealand. We anticipate many more high-volume senders to join on the back of the new government procurement rules, where agencies must require the large supplier to send them eInvoices from 1st of Jan 2027.

Talking about government, over 76 government agencies are now send and/or receive capable and with many set to follow in the coming months. So, government is really leading the way here. This is a successful formula used in many European countries that we are following closely. The Peppol eInvoicing network is growing sustainably and consistently, not just in New Zealand, but around the world.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Latest on eInvoicing in NZ” is displayed.

A chart is shown comparing Peppol registrations across participating countries. New Zealand is marked in red box and ranked sixth out of 46 participating countries for Peppol registration.

A screenshot of a Beehive media release titled “eInvoicing surge gets Kiwi businesses paid faster” is displayed.

The box at the bottom of slide displays the links for the information above:

• Source: Peppol Statistics
• eInvoicing surge gets Kiwi businesses paid faster | Beehive.govt.nz

Links in this slide

• Peppol statistics(external link)
• eInvoicing surge gets Kiwi businesses paid faster | Beehive.govt.nz(external link)

Audio

Roshan Pandey: Now, globally, New Zealand is ranked 6th out of 46 participating countries for Peppol registration, reflecting strong market adoption, as we can see here on the screen. We continue to see a strong government support for eInvoicing. Most recently, the Minister of Small Business highlighted the benefits of eInvoicing in a Beehive media release. This link in the slide which we'll share with you later. This reinforces the role. It's helping businesses get paid faster and improve efficiency.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Large businesses sending eInvoices" is displayed.

The slide is divided into two columns.

Enabled large businesses

• Bunnings Warehouse
• EAP Services
• NXP
• NZ Safety Blackwoods
• Buddle Findlay
• AWS
• Fujitsu
• Meridian
• Datacom
• Bidfood
• OfficeMax
• PB Tech
• EY
• H2R Consulting
• JacksonStone & Partners
• One New Zealand
• Freightways
• NZ Couriers
• PlaceMakers
• Robert Walters
• Spark NZ
• Silverstripe

Soon to be enabled large businesses

• ACC
• Beca
• NZ Post
• 2degrees
• Deloitte
• Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora
• PwC

The following text is displayed beneath the table:

"Engage with large suppliers through our eInvoicing Adoption Leadership Forums (link here)"

A section titled"Resources" is displayed at the bottom of the slide.

The following bullet points are shown:

• MBIE supplier data matching service
• Facilitate introductions

Link in this slide

https://www.einvoicing.govt.nz/get-set-up/advice-for-large-businesses/einvoicing-leadership-forums/ealg-minutes/einvoicing-adoption-leaders-group-minutes-31-march-2025(external link)

Audio

Roshan Pandey: I'll move to the next slide, which talks about the momentum piece here, which is clearly building in New Zealand, with many large businesses now actively sending eInvoices. I've got a couple of quadrants here, with the first one getting busier as we approach the 1st of Jan 2027 deadline. Several large organisations shown on this slide have already implemented or are expected to come online soon. A key benefit of enabling eInvoicing for government is that the same capability can be used to exchange eInvoices with other large businesses on the Peppol network. Through our eInvoicing working group that I'll talk about later, we can facilitate introductions to organisations that are already live and willing to share their implementation experience. MBIE can also support supplier data matching to help identify high volume suppliers and customers already capable of transacting via eInvoices. Ultimately, eInvoicing helps strengthen trading relationships, reduce manual processing, and support faster payments. I'll now pass on to Andrew again to talk about policy work which we have done in this space recently.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “eInvoicing and invoice payment times requirements” is displayed.

The following text is displayed underneath

Government Procurement Rules require more than 100 government agencies to:

• Be eInvoice send and receive capable if they send/receive more than 2,000 invoices per year.
• Pay all eInvoices received within five business days.

Government agencies are required to:

• Ensure large suppliers send Peppol eInvoices from 1 January 2027

Audio

Andrew Cooke: Nice one, Roshan. Thanks for that. So, I'm just going to just go through a few slides before I hand it over to Lise, who will talk about some of the more of the technical side of things. So, I'm going to move on to some important policy considerations. And I'm going to spend a bit more time on this topic, as many of the large businesses supplying to government that we've been working with have been particularly interested in understanding how the New Zealand government procurement rules apply to them. So, I'd expect you'd be interested as well. government agencies have been required to pay 95% of domestic invoices within 10 business days for some time now. But under the updated procurement rules, agencies are now expected to pay eInvoices within five business days. Agencies are also expected to ensure their large suppliers can send Peppol eInvoices when invoicing government. This begins from 1st January 2027. And I'm assuming many of you are here because of your awareness of this requirement. Together, these changes are designed to improve payment performance, increase eInvoicing adoption and support better cash flow outcomes for suppliers and their subcontractors. So, suppliers, key message is pretty simple here. If you're a large supplier to government, we should start planning now to ensure we can send Peppol eInvoices when required. I'm now going to move on to just a few more specifics.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Preparing for the large supplier requirement" is displayed.

The following text is displayed:

Large supplier definition: entity plus subsidiaries with revenue over $33m in each of the two previous accounting periods.

Implementation point: the requirement will come through procurement and contract processes as contracts are renewed, retendered or established.

Not retrospective: existing contracts are not being changed, so 1 January 2027 is not a hard cut-off for every supplier.

Show intent: agencies are unlikely to mark suppliers down if capability is not live yet, but adoption is clearly underway.

Start now: review government contract renewal dates, identify customer-specific needs, and begin conversations with government customers.

The following statement is displayed at the bottom of the slide:

"Key takeaway: start preparing now, even if your contract trigger comes later."

Audio

Andrew Cooke: So, a large supplier is generally defined as an entity, including any of your subsidiaries, with annual revenue exceeding $33 million in each of the two preceding accounting periods. This is the first step. The first step is understanding your current capability. Talk with your accounting software provider, ERP vendor, billing platform, mail house, or access point provider about their support for Peppol eInvoicing. Lise will cover some of these in more detail shortly. The requirement is expected to be implemented through procurement and contract processes, particularly as contracts are renewed, re-tendered or established. The requirement will not be applied retrospectively to existing contracts. This means 1st January 2027 is not a hard deadline. But as points just covered, have been have come up quite a lot, so that gives you an idea of when. You know that said, agencies are unlikely to mark you down during procurement processes or when negotiating new contracts if your organisation is not ready to send eInvoices but provided you have shown intent to adopt eInvoicing. For larger organisations, eInvoicing implementations can be complex and can take some time. The practical step is to review your government contracts and understand when they are due for renewal. This will help you gauge when eInvoicing capability is likely to become a requirement for your organisation. So, looking beyond government, eInvoicing capability is becoming an increasingly important part of digital business infrastructure. The investment you make today can also support Invoicing the other customers and trading partners in the future. The key takeaway is to start preparing now. Understand your current state, engage your software and service providers, identify any customer specific requirements, and begin conversations with your government customers about their expectations and timelines.

Visuals

On Screen, screenshots of two New Zealand Government Procurement Rules are displayed on the left side of the slide.

The upper screenshot is titled “Rule 36: Prompt payment times”. The screenshot displays the prompt payment requirements and application information.

Below this, a screenshot titled “Rule 44: eInvoicing capability” is displayed. The screenshot displays the eInvoicing capability requirements and application information.

On the right side, a screenshot titled “More information” is displayed. A section titled “Types of payment that are out of scope” is highlighted with a red box.

The highlighted section includes the following text:

“Requests for payment that are out of scope include:”

• reimbursement of employee expenses
• rents and leases
• credit card statements, finance payments, and insurance premiums
• payments made regularly as part of an ongoing contract, which don’t require an invoice, such as progress payments on a roading contract.

The following links are displayed:

• Prompt payment times | New Zealand Government Procurement
• eInvoicing capability | New Zealand Government Procurement

Audio

Andrew Cooke: And just one last slide from me. This slide includes extracts of the rules as they appear on the NZGP website. I'm sharing this slide more as a reference point as it contains links to procurement rules should you wish to learn more after this webinar. I do want to point out though that it does include information on some of the invoice types which are excluded from the eInvoicing requirement, which is highlighted on the right. And now over to my colleague Lise to outline some of the technical considerations when you're getting set up with eInvoicing.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “eInvoicing Business Guide” is displayed.

The following text is displayed:

“Use this guide to plan your implementation: A-NZ Peppol eInvoicing Guide July 2025.docx”

An image of the cover of the “A-NZ Peppol eInvoicing Business Guide” is shown on the left.

A contents page from the guide is shown on the right.

Link in this slide:

a-nz-peppol-einvoicing-business-guide-july-2025.docx(external link)

Audio

Roshan Pandey: Lise, sorry, you are on mute there.

Lise Archbold: All right, shall I start again? The technical person was on mute. Sorry about that. So, over the next few slides, I'm going to be going over the key technical considerations with respect to implementing eInvoicing capability. All of the information I'm about to share is documented in a resource we've built called the A-NZ Peppol eInvoicing Business Guide. I'm mentioning this now at the outset so that you don't feel you have to madly take lots of notes now during the webinar as you can access it all later on our website. So, we created this document. So sorry...... Just a moment....... Something strange going on with technology here and the alarms going off. Sorry about that. So, so we've created this document to, you know, collect up a whole lot of advice and lessons learned from 70 government along with some other non-government eInvoicing implementations. We also had input from the government agency eInvoicing Champions as well that have already enabled and also some industry specialists. Most things you need to know are covered clearly in this document and it's written to cover a wide range of readers. I believe Alison is going to put a link in the chat.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “What is Peppol?” is displayed.

A four-corner model shows the following sequence from left to right:

• C1 – Sender’s system: “Seller sends eInvoice to their Access Point”
• C2 – Access Point: “Seller’s Access Point receives the Sender’s eInvoice and sends it to the Buyer’s Access Point”
• C3 – Access Point: “Buyer’s Access Point accepts the eInvoice from the Seller’s Access Point and passes it to the Buyer”
• C4 – Receiver’s system: “Buyer’s Finance system receives the eInvoice from their Access Point.”

Above C2 and C3, a cylinder labelled “SML & SMP” displays the text: “Access Point calls the PEPPOL registry using the Buyer’s NZBN to find the address of the Buyer’s Access Point”.

Arrows show the eInvoice moving from C1 through C2 and C3 to C4.

The following text is displayed beneath the diagram:

“eInvoicing is the digital exchange of invoice information directly between buyers’ and suppliers’ financial systems. The transfer of invoice information is made possible by using enabled software and an access point provider who uses the common international standard (Peppol).”

Audio

Lise Archbold: Right, so let's get on to what Peppol actually is. As Andrew mentioned earlier, Peppol eInvoicing is the digital exchange of invoice information directly between buyers and supplier’s financial systems. This transfer is made possible by the sender and receiver each having eInvoice capable software, just as Andrew mentioned, and there are two providers in the middle that are called access points, transmitting the invoice data using the common Peppol standard. To use eInvoicing, the NZBN is the key identifier, as Andrew also mentioned, and this is true for both the supplier and the buyer. So, the NZBN effectively acts as the way the different systems identify each other. And this usually starts with the master data in the sending and receiving finance systems. The supplier's master record for their customer should have a field to store the customer's NZBN and likewise the buyer's master record for their supplier should also hold the supplier's NZBN. This then allows the appropriate NZBNs to be included in the invoice data. So, with respect to how the transfer of the eInvoice plays out, the data flows in the four-corner model. You'll see in the slide that we've made references to C1, C2, C3 and C4. So C1 is corner 1, C2 is corner 2 and so on. And the four corners represent the key players in the process.

So, at corner 1, which is the supplier's billing system or FMIS, the invoice has been created just as your invoices are created right now. But the difference is when you're ready to send that invoice, the XML version of the invoice is passed to the next corner being corner 2, your sender's access point provider.

The corner 2 picks it up, checks that the invoice contains all the mandatory information per the Peppol standard, and two of these, of course, being the buyer and supplier NZBNs. To determine the receiver of the invoice, the customer's NZBN is looked up. On the directory, and and first of all to check who their access point provider is, and then the next one is to make sure that they can receive eInvoices.

So, assuming then that both of these conditions are met, and that the C2 will pass it on then to this corner three, which is the customer's access point provider. So, the customer's access point provider receives that eInvoice data, carries out any further checks required, such as double-checking again that the eInvoice aligns with the Peppol standard and performs any other services that it has required to at the time, which might be data transformation services of the customer. Often this looks like checking of business rules, order references, things like that.

The eInvoice data is then sent off to the corner 4, which is the buyer's finance system. When the finance system receives the eInvoice, the first check that's done is basically on the supplier's NZBN. So, if the buyer has that NZBN in their supplier records, then that invoice is able to be assigned automatically to that supplier account. And I'll just stress that, you know, of course, there are lots of different systems that are eInvoice receive capable and the workflows are all a bit different. They all vary across systems but generally, there is scope in those, especially in those bigger products, where you can manage additional workflows, such as those for purchase orders. All right, so moving on. Actually, I will just say before I move on, sorry, as a side note, in this four-corner model, there's also scope to allow confirmation of successful and unsuccessful delivery between the four actors. I'll talk about that a bit more soon.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Implementation overview” is displayed.

The slide is divided into three numbered sections.

“1 Software” displays:

“eInvoicing can be implemented using different software/systems. Identify the business software you use (or plan to use) to send and receive eInvoices. This may include:”

• ERP software
• AR automation software/mailhouse service
• AP automation software/OCR provider
• EDI/VAN network

“2 eInvoicing Connection” displays:

“Determine whether your chosen software is capable of sending and/or receiving eInvoices, or whether you need an access point provider to connect you to the eInvoicing network.”

“3 Business Process/Trading Partner Onboarding” displays:

“Consider if any wider business process change may be required to maximise the benefits of eInvoicing, for example:”

• Any change/update to business processes
• Staff communication and training (change management)
• Supplier/customer communications and onboarding
• Invoice Reference Requirements for Central Government Agencies

Link in this slide:

Invoice Reference Requirements for Central Government Agencies(external link)

Audio

Lise Archbold: Right. So, moving on to the implementation piece, there are three distinct steps to a successful implementation. These are software, eInvoicing connection and business process trading partner onboarding. And we'll cover these in a bit more detail in the next few slides.

Visuals

On screen, a section labelled “1 Software” is displayed.

The slide title reads: “eInvoicing can be implemented using different software/systems”.

The following text is displayed:

“Identify the business software you plan to use to send eInvoices”

“eInvoicing works best using your natural business software. Think of eInvoicing as an additional channel that best sits alongside existing channels (e.g. PDF/email, post, mailhouse and EDI) within the system/s you currently use to send invoices.”

“Example 1: ERP (Sending/Receiving eInvoices)”

• If you send/receive and process invoices via your ERP
• eInvoicing may require upgrading to a cloud version and additional invoice sending/processing modules – talk to your provider

“Example 2: AR Automation/Billing Software/Mailhouse (Sending eInvoices)”

• If you use additional software (outside of your ERP) to send B2B invoices
• Bunnings/Placemakers examples – opt in/out approach
• eInvoicing becomes a customer channel preference

“Example 3: EDI/VAN Network (Sending/Receiving eInvoices)”

“Many EDI/VAN networks offer Peppol as a channel”

Audio

Lise Archbold: So, your first part is to actually identify the software you're planning to use to send eInvoices. So the key here is actually to focus on your primary accounts receivable billing system, the one which you mostly, you send most of your invoices. As a general rule, it does work best if you use eInvoicing belongs in your natural business software, and by this we mean your billing or your finance system, or maybe you use a mail house, for example. It's really.... eInvoicing is just really another channel to that sits along your existing channels for delivery of invoices. And just as another side note here, just with respect to how we've seen some organisations roll out the sending of invoices. So, if I call out Bunnings, for example, they went with an approach where they essentially did a check to see which of their customers were registered on the Peppol network. And then if they were registered on the Peppol network to receive invoices, they would just send them. the invoices as eInvoices by default, and it would be more of an opt-out situation where if the customers didn't want to receive the eInvoices, they would need to let Bunnings know. And then we've seen other options like Placemakers and Amazon Web Services, where they have a portal where customers log in and actually select their preferences around it, whether they perefer to receive eInvoices or not?

Visuals

On screen, a section labelled “2 eInvoicing Connection” is displayed.

The slide title reads: “Establish a connection to the secure Peppol eInvoicing network”.

“Is your chosen software already able to send eInvoices?”

“Determine whether your chosen software can already send and/or receive eInvoices:”

• Check MBIE’s list of eInvoicing enabled software products
• Talk to your software provider about how to get started

“Most eInvoicing enabled software providers have an in-built access point connection to the eInvoicing network. However, many ERPs require you to also set up your own Peppol access point connection – see below.”

“Access point connection”

“You need an access point provider to connect you to the Peppol eInvoicing network if:”

• Your software (or its current version) is not yet eInvoicing enabled, or
• Your software is eInvoicing enabled but requires you to set up a separate access point connection

“Check MBIE’s list of eInvoicing access point providers.”

“Some organisations may choose to connect to an access point directly for strategic reasons, e.g. system complexity, wider project scope/value-added services e.g. additional accounts payable processing functionality offered by some access points.”

A callout reads: “If your software provider is not yet enabled, ask them if they plan to add eInvoicing in the near future.”

Audio

Lise Archbold: Okay, so moving on to the eInvoicing connection, this is really about ascertaining how your software is going to connect to the Peppol eInvoicing network. So, when we look at how you connect to the network, we're looking at two aspects. So, the first is whether your software already has functionality to send eInvoices. And the second is identifying whether your software is actually able to directly connect to the Peppol network with its own inbuilt access point or whether you need to engage a separate access point. So, step one, it's really, it's ideal if you're software is already eInvoice send capable, and many of them are. If I just list a handful off the top of my head, Technology One, Oracle Fusion, JD Edwards, Microsoft Business Central, SAP, Xero, and MYOB, they're all capable of sending invoices, and there are so many more. If you're in doubt, though, just ask your software provider and they'll be able to tell you pretty quickly. And just to assist you as well, on our website, we have a list of eInvoicing capable software products and Alison will put a link to that in the chat.

And if your software isn't capable, then there are still options available. So maybe if you use a mail house, maybe they can help with a plug and play option for you or an access point provider might be able to fill in the gaps as well. So yeah, there are always ways to do this. And we're also, I guess, aware that some of you may have your own purpose-built ERPs, in which case you'll have to plan an investment, I suppose, in adding that eInvoicing functionality in.

So, the second step to this is actually looking how the software is going to connect to the network. So, the step, that's the access point. So, there are some products some software sending products that already have an inbuilt access point. And so, to name a few, SAP and Xero and MYOB all have an access point hidden away under the hood there. But in most cases, you'll organisations will need to engage an access point provider as a separate service. And if you wish to view the entire list of our access point providers, as Andrew said, they're all accredited by the New Zealand and Australian Peppol Authority, so Australian Peppol Authority being the Australian Tax Office. We have about 50 of them on our list, and so you're welcome to go and have a look on that list as well. And again, the link will be posted for that in the chat.

Links in this slide:

eInvoicing software products

eInvoicing access point providers

Visuals

On screen, a section labelled “3 Business Process/Trading Partner Onboarding” is displayed.

The slide title reads: “Consider customer onboarding and any wider business process change”.

A section titled “Business processes” includes:

“Consider if any wider business process change/updates may be required to maximise the benefits of eInvoicing, for example:”

• Improvements to internal practices for sending invoices to people instead of buyers’ systems
• New system workflows

A section titled “Change management (Staff communication and training)” includes:

• eInvoicing is another channel to deliver invoices to your customers.
• The transition from PDF to eInvoices will take time. The speed of change is up to you and your plan to encourage trading partners to shift channels

A section titled “Customer/supplier communication and onboarding” includes:

• It is important to focus on transitioning your customers to eInvoicing to maximise benefits to your organisation
• The eInvoicing website contains a range of support materials and communication guides

The following links are displayed:

• eInvoicing change management guide
• Invoice Reference Requirements for Central Government Agencies

Links in this slide:

eInvoicing change management guide(external link)

Supplier communications toolkit(external link)

Audio

Lise Archbold: All right, so the third piece of the puzzle is the onboarding piece. So, beginning with your business processes, essentially, we recommend that you first go about reviewing your current processes and considering those that need to change to accommodate eInvoicing. We've seen the most successful implementations of those where the processes are updated to wrap around eInvoicing rather than the opposite. And it's a great opportunity to dig into your existing business processes that may need to adjust to accommodate the eInvoicing workflows.

The next part is the change management, and some of us might say this is the hardest bit. It requires buy-in from your staff or users. We strongly recommend stressing to your users that eInvoicing is just another channel. There may be a few changes to everyday tasks and how maybe the software looks, but over time, everyone's going to see the benefits. And it's important to call out really that, because this is a this is a big one when we see the change management piece rolling out. The transition from PDFs to eInvoices does take a bit of time. One thing we see a lot is staff, particularly approvers, are so used to PDFs and a new look of an eInvoice and the ERP can take some getting used to. It's still common to see purchasers have their suppliers send invoices to them directly by email before they pass them on to the finance team. Absolute nightmare for anyone that works in the finance team and has to process invoices with any speed. So, there are clearly a few things wrong here, but it's mostly that it just breaks usual business processes. And overall, the time to process the invoice is much, much longer. It's just something that takes time to address, though. And with the appropriate training, you'll get there. It does get easier.

And then the third piece of this puzzle is around the supplier-customer communication and onboarding. So, once you've got your team on board, then it's important to put some focus into transitioning your suppliers and customers to eInvoicing. So that said, it can be a bit of a long game. We suggest starting with your obvious low-hanging fruit first that those that will kind of, you'll see the benefits for more quickly. Perhaps you have some trading partners who you know already receive eInvoices and again, many XERO and MYOB users are already able to receive, so they could be a really good place to start. And we have a range of resources, and we actually have a separate slide dedicated to resources, but yeah, we do have some really valuable resources on our website, such as the eInvoicing Change Management Guide and the Supplier Communications Toolkit.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “PINT A-NZ Peppol billing specification” is displayed.

The slide states that the specification contains a structured set of approximately 200 elements or fields, some of which are mandatory, including:

• Supplier Details: Legal name, physical address, and GST registration number.
• Customer Details: Legal name, address, and GST registration number (if applicable).
• Invoice Specifics: Unique invoice number, date of issue and key references.
• Payment Terms: Due date.
• Item Details: A clear description of the goods or services provided, quantities, and unit prices.
• Tax and Totals: Total amount payable, GST amount (or breakdown).
• Currency: NZD or AUD.
• References: Either one or both of a buyer's reference or purchase order number is required.
• NZBN: The use of the New Zealand Business Number (NZBN) for identification of both parties.

The following additional text is displayed:

• Fields in the specification map to your usual accounts receivable (and payable) fields
• Mandatory for all Peppol access point providers for sending and receiving eInvoices in New Zealand and Australia
• Allows cross border trade between countries

Audio

Lise Archbold: Right, okay, so I'm just going to gloss over the really geeky, techy stuff and just mention a couple of parts to it. So, there are two main technical pieces that underpin Peppol eInvoicing. The first is the actual specification. So, the specification is called the PINT ANZ Peppol Billing Specification. So, PINT, essentially Peppol International Invoice. Essentially, when you are sending or receiving an eInvoice across the Peppol network, you must use that PINT ANZ specification, which means your access providers in effect must use that specification. If you think about the fields that you populate when you create an invoice in your system now, supplier details, customer details, all the specific invoice information, all of that information is actually mapped into a peppol field, well, mostly at least within reason. unless you have a lot of fields that you're supporting and you're sending a solution. and so, in the specification, there are 25 to 30 mandatory elements, and then as well as that, there are around 200 elements in total that can be included. It's just a case of making sure that they can be ingested at the other end if you're sending them to your customers. So yeah, as I said, the specification is mandatory for all access point providers transmitting eInvoices in New Zealand and Australia, and it does allow cross-border trading. So effectively, you could send an eInvoice to an Australian customer and it that should be ingested correctly. And just to note that New Zealand and Australia were the first to adopt this specification and the rest of the world is just working on rolling it out at the moment. We've had our international PINT specification in use for maybe 16 months now.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Industry Practice Statement for Invoice Content” is displayed.

The following text is displayed:

• Developed by New Zealand & Australian Peppol Authorities and Digital Service Providers of Australia and New Zealand
• Not mandatory but strongly recommended. A useful resource that provides a user-friendly view of considerations for organisations implementing eInvoice capability
• Recognises that sending only the mandatory data elements required in the PINT A-NZ Billing specification doesn’t give medium to large business and government buyers enough information to be able to process and pay eInvoices and aims to provide guidance to access point and software providers to ensure government buyers can process eInvoices smoothly and efficiently.

“Ratings: Determined by how commonly the elements are required and how important elements are for interoperability”

• Required for interoperability: frequently required by buyers and are vital to enable automatic invoice processing
• Recommended: These elements help buyers achieve quicker, more straightforward processing such as 3-way matching
• Conditional: may be included to support buyer processing by including rich

business information where possible.

The following link is displayed: “A-NZ Industry Practice Statement for Invoice Content”.

Link in this slide:

A-NZ Industry Practice Statement for Invoice Content(external link)

Audio

Lise Archbold: Right. So, the other part of the technical considerations just around the additional data that you're looking to send and receive on your invoices. So, if you look and only include those mandatory fields that I was mentioning in the previous slide on the front specification, it might just be that your contextual data that is key to processing those invoices is being missed.

And so, if we think about, say, those reference fields that we see commonly supported, the buyer reference and the purchase order reference, the Peppol specification says you actually only need to use one of those, but we know in practise that it's a better experience for both parties if you can actually support both. So, with this wider consideration in mind, we've developed the industry practise statement for invoice content. It's not mandatory to follow, but it's strongly recommended and it's actually a really good sense check. It gives you a more comprehensive view of the fields that are available and worth considering when you're building your solution. And just to assist, we've gone through and rated the fields that we've had feedback on and know ourselves are the more important ones. They're basically rated based on importance required for interoperability being the most important recommended next down and then conditional ones that tend to be ones that aren't always supported by your receivers. So, and Alison was going to add a link to that in the chat.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Pro tips and learnings” is displayed.

The heading reads: “The goal when exchanging eInvoices is faster processing and payment of invoices”.

The following text is displayed:

• Start collecting NZBNs now and update your customer and supplier master data
• Get the right people on the project team
• Purchase order and buyer references and getting the data mapping right
• Support of fields can vary with software. Treatment of multiple fields in Xero: Send an eInvoice – Xero Central
• Credit note handling – some software doesn’t support this document type but can use invoice only (negative invoice)
• Document processes and map these to Peppol to identify gaps
• Run workshops with your key trading partners. Consider onboarding tools such as an onboarding questionnaire
• When you get to the stage of testing, ensure your test partners cover a good cross-section of scenarios to avoid surprises
• Consider Peppol to replace EDI in the short to long term

Link in this slide:

Send an eInvoice – Xero Central(external link)

Audio

Lise Archbold: Right, and I promise I'll stop talking soon. I'm just going to run through a few pro tips and learnings around eInvoicing. So, basically, with respect to all of these tips and learnings that I'm going to cover, they all lead back to the goal of eInvoicing. So, and that is faster processing and payment of invoices. So here are a few of those tips now. I'll try to talk quickly so that there's some time for questions at the end. So, while you're working on your technicalities of the implementation, we strongly recommend that you get going on collecting your NZBNs and make it a priority to update your customer master data.

Next thing is make sure that you've got the right people on your project team and ensure that you've got a project sponsor just to keep things moving along nicely. You should have a good mix of users and technical experts just to get the best solution. I'd really like to call out data mapping. Really important that you go through a data mapping exercise just to make sure that you know that all of the information that's useful that you're sending to your customers now is then still going to be passed through naturally with eInvoicing. And also, with respect to sending fields and elements, it's just really important to know that depending on the software that your customers are using to receive the eInvoices, sometimes software just isn't able to receive some of those fields, or maybe it has a certain way of managing multiple fields. And so, and if I talked about the XERO example around managing fields, and I know that we have quite a few XERO users in this webinar, is on the face of it, it looks like you have one reference field box on the screen, and so you essentially could only send one reference. But actually, there is a way of actually sending multiple references to your customer so that they can receive a buyer reference as a new general, a generic buyer reference as well as a purchase order reference other references as well, such as tenders and contracts and things like that. So, there is a certain syntax that you can use to be able to support sending those additional references. And there's a link here that we'll put in the chat around from the Xero website, giving advice, on how that works.

Something else I'll just call out is around credit note handling. So, there are actually two different ways to manage the sending of a credit note and with eInvoicing. And the first way goes down a simple route. It's around basically using the one specification that the company encompasses a positive and a negative invoice. The other one is using a separate specification for credit notes, but the thing you need to be aware of there is that some software such as Xero is unable to ingest an eInvoicing credit note, so we strongly recommend that you just go with the simple way and it's just less work later and you're not having to worry too much about kicking in a whole lot of different exception processes and things like that.

Right, documenting of your processes and mapping them. So yeah, a really good idea to just go through that process mapping exercise. And in particular, exception management is a really important one. You know, you might see now when you send an invoice to someone and then you, it might be it might be that they will call you or email you if it comes through with with with information or lacking information. You know, it looks a bit different in the eInvoicing world, but there is messaging available within Peppol that is worth talking to your service provider, the access port provider about where, as I said earlier, the four corners can talk to each other and provide confirmation of transmission.

And just the last thing I'll mention is that we've seen some really good results from running workshops with your key trading partners. For example, when Datacom were testing their, we're getting ready for their building their solution back, I think it was maybe two years ago now, they were, they worked with MBIE directly, and so we had weekly or fortnightly meetings with them to talk about all the different billing scenarios, and actually there were quite a few. And it was so beneficial because we were able just to flush out some old processes that yeah, on the face of it, were going to mess a bit with the efficiencies that we were going to get from eInvoicing. Datacom also did something else pretty cool, which was they've developed an onboarding questionnaire, which means every time they go to onboard a customer, they send out this onboarding questionnaire. It's such a good way to capture requirements.

Yeah, make sure also when you get to the point of testing, you select a good cross-section of scenarios, different customers using different systems just to make sure you've got it all covered.

And just calling out EDI, my last statement, if your organisation is currently using an EDI, then maybe to send off your invoices, maybe Peppol eInvoicing might be a good place to transition as well. And I think that's it for me. Passing you back to Andrew.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Invoicing website – tools and resources" is displayed.

A screenshot of the eInvoicing website is displayed.

The “Get set up for eInvoicing" section is highlighted with a red box.

Within the page, “Advice for large businesses" is highlighted with a red box.

A link titled “Advice for businesses trading with government" is highlighted with a red box.

On the right side of the slide, the following links are displayed:

Home

Advice for businesses trading with government

Advice for large businesses

Audio

Andrew Cooke: Actually, I was going to pass the reins over to Roshan for the section, I think.

Lise Archbold: Okay.

Roshan Pandey: Yep, thank you. Thanks, Andrew. Thanks, Lise. I mean, look, I mean, over the next few slides, I'm going to talk about some of the tools and resources that Lise briefly mentioned. But this slide particularly highlights the eInvoicing website and the support that is available for organisations that are at different stages of their eInvoicing journey.

Whether you are a small business, a large enterprise, or a government agency, the website provides tailored guidance to help with implementation and adoption. We have recently expanded our resources, including dedicated guidance for large businesses and practical advice to suppliers, trading with government agencies to support compliance with the procurement Rule 36 and Rule 44. I would encourage everyone to explore these resources and share them within your network. They're designed to help organisations understand the benefit of eInvoicing, navigate implementation, and access support from software provider and the wider eInvoicing community.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Resources” is displayed.

The following resource sections and links are shown:

“Website”

• www.einvoicing.govt.nz (sign up to receive the latest updates)

“eInvoicing ready vendors and their products”

• eInvoicing software products | eInvoicing
• eInvoicing access point providers

“Scoping/business case”

• Case studies
• Business case guidance doc

“Implementation”

• A-NZ Peppol eInvoicing Business Guide - July 2025 [DOCX, 2.3 MB]
• Technical self-service resources [XLSX, 28 KB]
• eInvoicing change management guide - July 2025 [DOCX, 1 MB]

“Onboarding resources”

• Communications toolkit for eInvoice senders
• Get your suppliers ready to send you eInvoices

“List of businesses capable of receiving eInvoicing (gets updated every month)”

• nz-businesses-registered-to-receive-einvoices.xlsx

“Government agencies readiness for eInvoicing (gets updated regularly)”

• Advice for businesses trading with government | eInvoicing

Links in this slide:

• einvoicing.govt.nz(external link)
• eInvoicing software products | eInvoicing(external link)
• eInvoicing access point providers(external link)
• Case studies(external link)
• Business case guidance doc(external link)
• A-NZ Peppol eInvoicing Business Guide - July 2025 [DOCX, 2.3 MB](external link)
• Technical self service resources [XLSX, 28 KB](external link)
• eInvoicing change management guide - July 2025 [DOCX, 1 MB](external link)
• Communications toolkit for eInvoice senders(external link)
• Get your suppliers ready to send you eInvoices(external link)
• nz-businesses-registered-to-receive-einvoices.xlsx(external link)
• Advice for businesses trading with government | eInvoicing(external link)

Audio

Roshan Pandey: Now, let me talk to some of the key resources available to support organisations implementing eInvoicing. There are three core areas to focus on. Number one, business case. Number 2, implementation, And Number 3, onboarding and change management has been highlighted by Lise before. For organisations starting their eInvoicing journey, these resources can significantly reduce the effort required to scope, plan, and implement eInvoicing successfully. We also maintain an up-to-date information on eInvoicing enabled software products, access point providers, registered businesses, and government agencies readiness, all available through our website. So, we'll share the pack. Please do drop into these links and they'll be really helpful and valuable for you.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Working groups” is displayed.

The following text is displayed:

“We have worked with industry to promote adoption of eInvoicing. We have also worked closely with our government finance community across NZ”

“Including:”

• eInvoicing Adoption Leaders Group (eALG)
• eInvoicing Community of Practice (eCoP)
• Procure to Pay Community of Practice (P2PCoP)

Audio

Roshan Pandey: And finally, you know, some of the information on the working group I talked earlier during my introduction. We have several working groups. and, you know, forums that are there to help us progress the eInvoicing opportunities and work through practical eInvoicing learnings. The purpose of this group is to bring the right people together, test real world problems, and avoid agencies and suppliers having to solve the same issue in isolation.

The first one here is the eInvoicing Adoption Leaders Group. Since its inception in 2021, the forum is regularly attended by the Minister of Small Business. The forum is co-chaired by the Managing Director of Westpac and our NZ eInvoicing sponsor. The forum discusses a range of topics like New Zealand Business Number, on payment, consumer data right, that is open banking, open electricity, and obviously eInvoicing being the core area of discussion. This forum is attended by CFOs and executives of large businesses in New Zealand.

The second one is the eCoP. We call it the eInvoicing Community of Practise. This operational forum is co-chaired by Datacom and Westpac, along with the support from MBIE. The group meets online every quarter to brainstorm some of the implementation and operational challenges. There are breakout rooms covering various topics related to eInvoicing and prompt payment. If you are in an implementation phase, please feel free to contact us to be a part of this forum.

And finally, we run a similar forum for our government agencies called Procure to Pay Community of Practise that brings over 100 plus attendees from 60 plus government agencies, including local councils. So, if you're interested to join any of these groups, please do reach out to us and we can talk further. I'll now pass over to Andrew to run a quick poll. Hopefully, we've got time, and then we'll obviously open the floor for question and answer. Over to you, Andrew.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Questions and feedback poll” is displayed.

The following text is displayed:

• Use the Q&A function
• For specific implementation questions, email einvoicing@mbie.govt.nz

Audio

Andrew Cooke: Thanks, Roshan. Yeah, I just want to, want to stress, so the eInvoicing Community of Practise, or the eCoP, that's probably the best fit for any of you who, you know, who are large organisations early on in their eInvoicing journey and wanting to share notes with other suppliers who have already done it or are doing it.

Right now, I'm just going to do another just quick poll if that's all right. So, because I do realise, we're out of time and we'll stick around after the poll for any further questions that come in. But I'm just going to, Alison, if you could just paste a link in the chat, that's the same link as we had earlier.

Visuals

The screen transitions to a live polling interface. A QR code is displayed along with a text “menti.com” and a code to enter. First question is displayed: “Are you interested in attending another eInvocing webinar later in the year?” with options “Yes”, “No”, and “Unsure”. The number of responses increases and the chart updates dynamically as participants submits answers.

Audio

And I can see. Some of you already started logging in, which is great. So yeah, quite simply, I am interested in attending another webinar down the track. So, this is, I think, our third round of webinars, and they're quite widely attended. We usually get at least 100 people coming along, so it's really worth our time. And so again, just really thank you for coming along and joining us today. And it looks like it's a big yes. For those of you, so it looks like we'll be doing another round, probably an early Christmas present.

Visuals

On screen the chart stabilises showing final results for the question: Yes gets 33 responses, No gets 2 responses, and Unsure gets 5 responses.

Visuals

The screen transitions to the next question which is a free-text response question.

The question reads, “Please enter any specific topics you would like covered in another webinar?” and asks participants to provide suggestions for topics they would like covered in future webinars. The following topics were suggested by the participants:

• more technical and practical information, less sales pitch
• How to fix if we send the wrong invoice
• How to achieve eInvoicing if our ERP does not do it by default.
• Who to approach for support
• how to on xero?
• more seeing how it actually works, talking and diagrams is helpful only to a certain point
• How to build without implementing a new system?
• How to with Aderant
• More guidance for implementing sending function in Tech One.
• More on technical know-how and timeline requirements
• More help with the transition process
• explaination of your $800m figure from the first sales pitch slide
• What if the company is not ready on 1 January 2027? Can they continue with current process?
• if we have enabled e-invoicing, is there onboarding needed to Gov agency to start using the e-invoicing?
• Most frequent asked document will be good in due course as reference for easy troubleshooting.
• How about the payment reminder or if they need the invoice again?
• How to exchange more fields using peppol such as cube and weight of each items line item on invoice.
• What would be the situations for large organisations receiving funds and are not required to invoice for these but occasionally on some specific fund schemes invoices may be required.

Audio

Now, this one here, this is open-ended, right? Just have any specific ideas, any specific things which you think should be covered off in the webinar, which.... stuff which either we haven't covered today or something that you'd want to go into a little bit more detail on that we have covered. So, I'm just going to give it a little bit of time, some more technical and practical information, less sales pitch. Damn it, it's less of me and more of Lise. Okay. All good, good to know. So, I think what we're hearing there, Lise, is we want more of a... technical focus rather than the why. They want to learn about the how. That's very good feedback, and I do appreciate that. I'll just give another 10-15 seconds before we....How to fix if we send the wrong invoice? Good question. How to achieve eInvoicing if our ERP does not do it by default? Yeah, Lise did cover off some of that, but there's a lot more to the story. Absolutely. What approach for support? Yeah. How to on XERO. Now how to on XERO. So, we have just completed a webinar for SMEs that will be uploaded to our website shortly. But we do have previous webinars for SMEs as well, which have been saved in a website, and they outline everything you need to know if you're on XERO.

So, I understand there are quite a few XERO users today. We do a lot of resources on our website, which will tell you how to do it, and it's pretty easy. I think one of the points for a XERO user, it's really about getting the reference information correct. Right, more help with transition to process, how to build without implementing a new system. Okay. More on technical know-how and timeline, timeline requirements. Okay, sure thing. And just briefly, I'll just recap on the timeline requirements. I think you really just need to assess what contracts you currently have with government and when they're coming up for renewal or when you're likely to submit a tender for an RFP. But the reality is, as I said, showing intent to becoming eInvoicing capable should be enough to get you through a procurement process. I just need to acknowledge these things do take time. There's some really good feedback. I'm not going to go through anything else, but I do really appreciate it. We're going to take on board all of this and we're going to try and shape this in our communications and webinars going forward.

Visuals

The screen then transitions to the next poll question. The question reads: “Did you find this webinar useful?”

A chart is displayed with response options “Yes”, “No”, and “On the fence”. The number of responses increases and the chart updates dynamically as participants submits answers.

Audio

And lastly, we just want to know whether it's been worthwhile. And then we'll have a look at what questions haven't been answered. We'll be handing over to Linda, who will be triaging any remaining questions. Okay, I'm sorry for that. One person didn't find it useful. We try our best. Most of you got the idea, so thank you very much. Do appreciate feedback. Right. I'm going to stop sharing now.

Visuals

On screen the chart stabilises showing final results for the question: Yes gets 25 responses, No gets 1 response, and On the fence gets 1 response.

Visuals

The poll interface closes and the screen transitions to webinar speaker view and remains same for the rest of the webinar.

Audio

Question: How can I join the eInvoicing implementation group?

Andrew Cooke: Yes Linda?

Linda More: Question from Tania: How do I join the implementation group?

Just email us at eInvoicing@mbie.govt.nz and we will add you to the distribution list. Sorry, I didn't have time to answer that before you asked that.

Question: Does the large supplier requirement apply only to invoices sent to government agencies?

Linda More: So, Megan has is it, Megan? Somebody has put a question in from Ben.
Just got a couple of questions. If you supply government agencies and your organisation meets the definition of a large supplier, then you fall within the requirements. Question. I presume this means from January 2027, you only need to provide your government agency customers invoices via eInvoicing, and not necessarily all of your customers. Just pause here to let you answer that.

Andrew Cooke: That's it. Yep, that's correct. That is correct. However, if you can invest in an eInvoicing, it just makes complete sense to scan your customer base to see who's registered to receive, because of all the benefits I harped on about earlier on in the webinar.

Question: Which invoices must government agencies pay within five business days?

Linda More: And then there's a second question. Payment terms. Want to confirm, you're only required to meet the five-day payment terms if you are a government agency who's been supplied by a large supplier.

Andrew Cooke: No, it's not entirely correct. Any invoice submitted by eInvoice has the expectation for agencies to pay within five business days. And just confirming that you stand with the PDF invoices, that's 10 business days.

Linda More: Yeah, and so just confirming that government agencies are required to meet these payment terms, payment requirements.

Question: Do large suppliers need to be able to receive eInvoices?

Linda More: And then third question, as a large supplier, do we need to be able to receive invoices?

Andrew Cooke: No, you do not. So, sometimes that the, you know, the configuration for send and receive, you know, its different business rules, etc. So, no, it is not a requirement, but we strongly encourage you to assess the viability of that. It could be easier than you think.

Question: What is being done to improve eInvoicing awareness across government agencies?

Linda More: Okay. A few more questions in now. In our experience, some of our customers at government agencies that support eInvoicing are unaware of eInvoicing. What is being done about education across government agencies?

Andrew Cooke: Okay, what has been done about education across government agencies? We're on a crusade. We are on a crusade. We spend a lot of our time supporting government, either directly or through one of the groups that Roshan mentioned earlier, the Procurement Pay Community Practise. We have a variety of working groups as well. And we also encourage a huge amount of collaboration. We've got a number of champions across government and a lot of them work together. So, it's not all about MBIE leading the way. There's actually sort of quite a few agencies who are really supporting other agencies and businesses as well.

Question: Are Local government also part of the eInvoicing adoption?

Andrew Cooke: And I can just see that Marcus is asking about local government? Absolutely. So, we're very much supporting government. Our focus has been on wider government and not local, but we're shifting that focus. Late last year, the Minister for Local Government, the Minister for Small Business, wrote to Council Chief Executives asking that they kick off eInvoicing. And I think as it stands, there's about 8 councils who are currently capable of receiving eInvoices and many more to come. But I do need to stress that local government does not, are not subject to the New Zealand government procurement rules. They are encouraged to follow the rules, so it's all voluntary.

Linda More: Andrew, I might just add as well is obviously government agencies are large organisations and have lots of people within the business. So, there is still a lot of work to be done to ensure that their people within the government agency are aware that their agency can receive eInvoices. And that will take some time, so it's an ongoing, an ongoing thing that we're doing.

Question: Will government agencies reject invoices that are not eInvoices?

Linda More: Now Sarah has asked, will government agencies reject invoices that aren't invoices, i.e. smaller businesses or those that haven't had time to comply?

Andrew Cooke: I'm going to hand this one to Lise, if you don't mind.

Lise Archbold: No, they aren't going to reject invoices just because they're not eInvoices. Well, they shouldn't be.

Andrew Cooke: Yeah, they certainly shouldn't be.

Lise Archbold: No.

Question: Is onboarding required before sending eInvoices to government agencies?

Linda More: Okay, another question. If we are enabled with eInvoicing, is there any onboarding needed with government agencies to start using the tool?

Andrew Cooke: That's a big yes. I'm going to hand that one to Lise as well, though, if that's right.

Lise Archbold: Yeah, so we have one of our resources is invoice reference requirements list. So that has about 100 agencies on it, listing out the references and information they prefer to receive on their eInvoices. So that's a really good place to start to find out what information they are looking for. And there is also probably a response for Catherine Down's question around the invoice line level detail. The invoice line level details might be a little bit more as well, but we do have information about that additional data on that resource as well.

Question: Can an access point provider and APIs enable eInvoicing when a finance system does not support it directly?

Linda More: Next question, would using a provider like Tickstar and building a system with APIs be a valid solution if our finance tool does not directly support eInvoicing?

Lise Archbold: Yes, that could certainly work. Yeah. Yeah, that could work. Yeah, definitely talk to Tickstar, or access point provider of your choice to talk about options. There are a few ways to do it.

Andrew Cooke: All the which are outlined in our website.

Lise Archbold: Yeah.

Linda More: I think that's all the questions. List of misting.

Andrew Cooke: Well, I do acknowledge we have gone 12 minutes overtime and there's still about 85 of you with us. So, we're going to wrap up. And I just want to say thank you very much for your time and for your really useful questions. You'll hear from us later in the day with a copy of the presentation. And it's great. All the best, everyone. Thank you very much.

Lise Archbold: Have a great day, everyone.

Visuals

On screen, a title slide displays the following text:

“eInvoicing demystified for SMEs”

“4 August 2026”

eInvoicing branding elements are displayed on the slide. The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) logo and the New Zealand Government logo are displayed.

Audio

Linda More (eInvoicing Team) begins speaking

….. eInvoicing – what it is and isn’t, the benefits and most importantly, how you can make the most of eInvoicing. So many of you may be here today because you've recently registered to receive eInvoices or your software provider or accountant has done it for you, but you're still not sure what it's all about. So welcome and hopefully we can demystify that for you today.

So I'm Linda More and I'm part of the eInvoicing team here at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. Also supporting me here today is Andrew Cooke. Andrew, can you introduce yourself, please?

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Introductions” is displayed.

Profile photographs of Linda More and Andrew Cooke are shown.

The following names and roles are displayed:

• “Linda More – Communications and Partnerships Manager”
• “Andrew Cooke – Government Innovation Manager”

Audio

Linda More: So, I'm Linda More and I'm part of the eInvoicing team here at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. Also supporting me here today is Andrew Cooke. Andrew, can you introduce yourself, please?

Andrew Cooke (eInvoicing Team): Yes, I'm Andrew. I'm the Government Innovation Manager with MBIE's eInvoicing Team, and my focus is on adoption, stakeholder engagement, supplier readiness, data and insights, and helping organisations realise the benefits of eInvoicing. Back at you, Linda.

Linda More: Thank you. I'd also like to introduce Alison Smith, who'll be supporting us today in the background. Just giving you a wave now. So, you'll receive some links and guidance from her as we progress. We also have Nandu in the background too, helping out. So, this is a practical session, so I hope you've logged into your XERO or MYOB account and are ready to go, but before we get started, we've got a couple of questions to ask.

Andrew Cooke: Linda, I'm just thinking, should we just run through the housekeeping around Q&A?

Linda More: Oh, that's a good point. Good, thank you for calling that out. So, there will be time for questions at the end of this webinar, but you are free to use the Q&A function to ask your questions anytime during the session. Note that we are recording this webinar and we will be publishing that on the eInvoicing website. After this webinar, we will also send out a copy of this presentation. Thanks for that. I forgot about that, housekeeping.

Andrew Cooke: It’s all good. So okay, yeah, and just to reinforce, try not to use the chat function, the Q&A is where we will be monitoring for any questions, but Alison will be pasting links into the chat throughout. And she's about to paste one now for a very short poll.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Online Poll” is displayed.

The following text is displayed:

“Please answer three brief questions via the link in the chat”

Audio

Andrew Cooke: So, I'm going to share my screen.

Visuals

The screen transitions to a live polling interface. A prompt is displayed reading “Join at menti.com with the code to enter”. A question is displayed: “Which accounting platform or system do you use?”.

A chart is shown with response options “Xero”, “MYOB”, and “Other”. The number of responses increases and the chart updates dynamically as participants submits answers.

Audio

Andrew Cooke: Bear with me. Right, we'll just give you some time to click on that link. So, yeah, just three short questions, and this will just help us tailor some of what we're going to share with you today. What we found from previous webinars is most of you tend to be on XERO in the small to medium-sized enterprise space. And that is clearly evident in the results coming up now. Yeah, that's enough of an indication for us. We'll move on to the next question.

Visuals

On screen the chart stabilises showing final results for the question: Xero gets 14 responses, MYOB gets 0 response, and Other gets 2 responses. The screen then transitions to the next poll question.

The question reads: “Have you already registered to receive eInvoices?”. A chart is displayed with response options “Yes”, “No”, and “Don’t know”. The response counts increase as participants continue voting and the chart updates in real time.

Audio

Andrew Cooke: So, we're quite interested to know if any of you have already registered to receive eInvoices. Good to see some of you have. Fantastic. Well, I hope that those of you that have selected "no" that at the end of this webinar that you'll sign up, you'll find that it's very easy, especially if you're on XERO or MYOB. Fantastic. Right, let's move across to the last question.

Visuals

The chart onscreen stabilises showing final results for the question: Yes gets 6 responses, No gets 8 responses, and Don’t know gets 2 responses. The screen then transitions to the next question that reads: “Do you supply goods or services to government agencies?”. A chart is displayed with response options “Yes” and “No”. The response counts increase and the chart updates as participants submit answers.

Audio

Andrew Cooke: Now, do you supply goods or services to government agencies?

Alright. So just the one so far, two? Okay, four of you. Okay, so we'll make sure we cover off a little bit of content that will be relevant for you, and apologies for those of you who don't. Okay, and I think we will leave it at that. I'm going to stop sharing and hand it over to Linda, who's going to start sharing her screen again.

Visuals

On screen the chart stabilises showing final results for the question: Yes gets 5 responses and No gets 8 responses.

The poll interface closes and the screen returns to speaker screen briefly and then to the presentation.

Audio

Linda More: Fantastic. Thank you, Andrew. That was really useful to get the answers to that. So next, we are just going to show you a quick video which explains what eInvoicing is, and then Andrew will pick it up from there.

Visuals

The presentation transitions from the slide deck to a video explaining eInvoicing. An animated video plays.

Animated icons and text appear on a plain background. The text reads: “If you’re in business today, you’ll want to know about eInvoicing”.

Simple animated graphics accompany the text, including icons representing businesses and documents. The text changes to: “It’s a digital offering that brings a smarter approach to invoicing”.

Icons showing paper invoices, email symbols, and document graphics appear briefly. The animation transitions to a new section with the text: “Let’s set a few things straight.”

Icons representing paper, PDF files, scanning, and email appear one by one. Text appears sequentially: “No paper” “No PDFs” “No scanning” “No email”

The animation transitions to a diagram showing two systems or devices. Text appears: “It’s an exchange of invoice information directly between suppliers’ and buyers’ financial systems”.

Animated lines or pathways connect the two systems, indicating data moving between them. The animation continues, showing that the systems can be different. Text appears: “Even if these systems are different”.

The animation shows multiple systems connected through a central network structure. The text changes to describe benefits: “It improves accuracy and security” “Reduces processing time” “Speeds up payments” Icons appear alongside each phrase, including a shield for security, a clock for time, and currency symbols for payments.

The animation transitions to a highlighted statement: “Great news for cash flow” Currency symbols or arrows indicating movement of money are displayed.

The animation then changes to a calltoaction. Text appears: “To get started, talk to your accounting or financial software provider about their plans to provide eInvoicing enabled services”

An icon of a person and a software interface appear. Final text appears: “Find out more at einvoicing.govt.nz” The animation ends with the closing statement: “eInvoicing — the smarter way of invoicing”.

Audio

A narrator reads the text as shown onscreen.

Visuals

The screen then transitions back to the presentation slides with a slide divided into two sections.

The left side is titled “eInvoicing is:”. Below this heading, five statements are displayed, each preceded by a tick icon. The statements read:

• Digital exchange of invoice information between a buyer’s and supplier’s accounting systems – using a common agreed standard,
• Structured, computer-readable data,
• Cleaner, standardised data which automates entry into systems & automated processing
• A standard for B2B invoicing, and
• Sits alongside existing P2P / PO processes.

The right side is titled “eInvoicing is not:”. Below this heading, five statements are displayed, each preceded by a cross icon. The statements read:

• Invoices generated by software and emailed as a PDF to buyers,
• Paper or emailed invoices which are processed manually,
• Scanned and OCR’d paper and PDF invoices,
• A system that performs AP automation checks and automatically reconciles & pays invoices, and
• A standard for B2C invoicing.

Audio

Andrew Cooke: Fantastic. Thank you very much for that, Linda. Right, well, now into the core content of this webinar. So now that you've seen that video, you'll hopefully realise that eInvoicing is not emailing a PDF to your customers. So hopefully most of you are already aware of what an eInvoice is. So, to recap, invoices go directly between suppliers and buyer’s systems, even if their systems are different by using a global network standard called Peppol. This is a common agreed standard used in New Zealand and globally by nearly 50 countries and territories and counting. This is one network for all businesses. For example, large suppliers often use their own invoicing solutions. They're usually bespoke EDI or portals, which some of you may be familiar with. And this puts a burden on you on SMEs. eInvoicing levels the playing field. Current invoice processes have been inherently inefficient. There are delivery areas, there is, largely because of post and email. I think roughly 70% of all emails are delivered, whereas roughly 30% aren't. There's processing errors, payment delays due to manual processes, and quite a significant lack of security. And I hate to say, you know, there's an increase in invoice scams and fraud these days. Lost invoices and chasing up payment progress. All of this changes with eInvoicing. So, when you're talking to your clients or trading partners, you may have to dispel them of this myth when they ask you to send or receive eInvoices instead of PDFs.

Visuals

A slide titled “Key benefits for SMEs” is displayed. Four sections are displayed across the slide, each containing an icon and text.

• The first section from left, reads: “eInvoices always reach the right place” “never lost or stuck in someone’s inbox”.
• The second section reads: “Complete information straight into your system” “makes coding easier, and more efficient”.
• The third section reads: “Smoother process = faster payment” “improves cashflow”.
• The third section reads: “Safeguards against fraud” “Unlike emails that can be intercepted and PDFs tampered with”

The following text is displayed at the bottom:

“eInvoicing is free and natively available for most NZ SMEs via Xero and MYOB today.”

• “Plus 65 other software products support eInvoicing in NZ”

Audio

Andrew Cooke: Now, I'm going to talk a little bit more about some of eInvoicing benefits for SMEs. eInvoices don't get lost. Unlike emailed PDF invoices that can end up in spam folders or inboxes, eInvoices are delivered directly into the recipient's accounting or finance system. There's fewer errors and less rework. Invoice information moves directly between accounting systems as structured data. This reduces manual data entry, correcting mistakes, and chasing missing information. Faster payment is one of the big benefits of eInvoicing, especially for SMEs. The potential for faster payment is quite big. When invoices arrive straight into your customer's finance system and don't need to be manually entered or corrected, they can move through approval and payment processes much more efficiently. There's less administration and more time for your business. eInvoicing removes much of the manual work involved in sending, receiving, and processing invoices, freeing up your time to focus on customers and growing your business. There's greater protection against fraud. eInvoicing uses a secure, trusted network and reduces reliance on emailed invoices, which can be intercepted or altered. Lastly, it makes doing business easier. As more businesses, government agencies, and large organisations adopt eInvoicing, SMEs can use the same digital process across more customers and suppliers. Now, we're going to show another short video from a real business about their experience of eInvoicing.

Visuals

The presentation transitions from the slide deck to a customer testimonial video. The case study-style video segment starts playing. A small business setting is shown. A person is seated indoors in an office environment. As the person speaks, no additional text overlays are displayed. The camera remains fixed on the person speaking.

Audio

The same person in video speaks throughout: Normally we have coaching clients and we invoice them for a package of coaching, generate an invoice on Xero, send it to them as a PDF and it goes off to their finance department and we wait until they run all their invoices at once. That can be weeks.

So as a small business you can go uh. But what eInvoicing does means that we just get given an NZBN number and we put the number on our invoice in Xero and it just match, gets approved really quickly and we can get paid within days.

With eInvoicing it's just so simple, yeah. Our business admin here has got a lot faster because I have to do it, so I'm grateful. How it's changed is that once I get the NZBN number of the organisation I'm sending it to, that can be the trickiest, but then we're off, never have to say to them again.

Oh, what's happened to that invoice? Because it's just gone to a number. And then through the magic of eInvoicing, all the numbers get matched up with what the work is for and it gets paid. So, it preserves our coaching relationship and keeps it trusted, strong and confidential and positive.

Visuals

The screen now displays a slide titled “Why MBIE is behind this?”. Below the title, a series of bullet points are displayed as below.

• “With over 280 million business to business invoices exchanged in New Zealand each year, savings to our economy through eInvoicing are estimated to be $4.4 billion over 10 years”.
• “Creates an open market to enable all businesses (especially SMEs) to participate in digital trading”.
• “Reduce accounts payable cost and inefficiencies associated with manual accounts payable”.
• “Increase the speed of payments and move money around the economy faster.”

At the bottom of the slide, a shaded box is displayed with the heading: “MBIE’s role is:”. Within this boxed section, two bullet points are displayed as below.

• “Manage the eInvoicing standards, network and accreditation as the Peppol Authority for New Zealand”.
• “Promote eInvoicing and support the adoption for New Zealand business”.

Audio

Andrew Cooke: Thank you very much for that, Linda. Now, so I'm just going to briefly go through a few more of a little bit more background on eInvoicing and then also give a little bit of a lens for those of you that supply to government before Linda takes the reins and we'll talk a bit more about the hands-on side of things. So, this slide on screen, so why is MBIE behind this?

So, MBIE is supporting eInvoicing because it's important to understand that this is bigger than just changing how invoices are sent and received. The opportunity for eInvoicing is estimated at around 800 million in annual productivity savings per year. That comes from the many productivity benefits I outlined earlier. So, for MBIE, this is also about creating a more open and accessible digital trading environment, particularly for SMEs like yourselves. We want businesses of all sizes to be able to participate without needing expensive or complex systems. One of the previous slides highlighted the faster payment benefit. When invoices arrive directly into finance systems, with the right information, they can be processed more quickly. That helps move money through the economy faster, which is good for suppliers, customers and New Zealand businesses more broadly. Next slide, please, Linda.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “eInvoicing is growing in NZ” is displayed.

The slide is divided into three sections.

• A section titled “Businesses” includes the following text:
  • 110,000+ NZ businesses are registered to receive eInvoices
  • More than 1 million eInvoices exchanged
  • A significant portion of SMEs are can send and receive eInvoices through their accounting software (e.g. Xero, MYOB)
• A section titled “Software” includes the following text:
  • 67+ eInvoicing ready software products – with more coming
  • Software providers are promoting eInvoicing to their customers
• A section titled “Government” includes the following text:
  • 77 government agencies can receive eInvoices and 36 can send
  • Other Government Procurement Rules will accelerate adoption among suppliers to government

Audio

Andrew Cooke: Now, Alison should be pasting a link into the chat shortly. Now, there are more than 110,000 New Zealand businesses registered to receive eInvoices. That number has actually doubled in the last couple of months, which we're really proud of. And that's thanks to XERO's latest round of bulk registrations. That's really important because the value of eInvoicing really increases as more and more businesses join the network.

For SMEs, one of the biggest questions is often, "Will any of my customers or suppliers actually be able to exchange eInvoices with me?" Well, increasingly, the answer is "Yes". With more than 110,000 New Zealand businesses now registered to receive eInvoices, there's a growing likelihood that your existing trading partners are already eInvoicing ready, or at least it will be soon. Importantly, most of these organisations are SMEs themselves using eInvoicing capable software such as XERO, MYOB, and also Reckon One. This means a large number of businesses can already send and receive eInvoices today, often at no additional cost through software that they already use.

Now, there are over 67 eInvoicing capable software products, and growing, so if you can check this list, if you don't use XERO and MYOB, these software products are listed on our software products web page, which Alison has posted into the chat. Now, many large businesses are sending eInvoices to their SME customers or implementing the technology so that they can do so. A good example is Bunnings. They've been sending thousands of eInvoices each month for, I think it's about a year and a half now. Additionally, the likes of OfficeMax, Datacom, NXP, One New Zealand, Farm Source, which is a branch of Fonterra, and Robert Walters, just to name a few, are driving a significant volume of eInvoices in New Zealand. We anticipate many more high-volume senders to join on the back of the new government procurement rules where agencies must require their large suppliers to send them eInvoices from January next year. There are about 75 government agencies who can send or receive eInvoices and there are many more set to follow in the coming months.

So, government is really leading the way. This is a successful formula used by some European countries, and we're just following suit. While it's still early days, the Peppol eInvoicing Network has grown sustainably and consistently, not just in New Zealand, but around the world.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “eInvoicing and invoice payment times requirements” is displayed.

The slide is divided into two sections.

• The first section is titled “Government Procurement Rules require 100+ government agencies to:”
  • Be eInvoice send and receive capable if they send/receive more than 2,000 invoices per year
  • Pay all eInvoices received within 5 business days
• The second section is titled “Government agencies are required to:”
  • Ensure large suppliers send People eInvoices from 1 January 2027

Audio

Andrew Cooke: And this is the last slide for me, for those of you that supply to government. As I noted earlier, there are about 75 government agencies, including councils, who can send or receive eInvoices. Now, it's quite important to hear they must also aim to pay their eInvoices within five business days. eInvoices are paid faster than standard invoices, and so it's a great incentive for you.

Late last year, it was announced agencies must ensure their large suppliers send them eInvoices and to also pay their subcontractors on government contracts on terms which are no less favourable than those they receive from government. These new rules are aimed to improve payment times to small businesses like you and ramp up eInvoicing adoption. They will help ensure that government leads by example in supporting improved cash flow and fairer payment practises for suppliers and their subcontractors. These large businesses will also want to send eInvoices to the other business customers like yourselves. It's not just government. That's where the real benefit is business to business eInvoicing. They provide further confidence for businesses to adopt eInvoicing and realise the benefits already been experienced by many New Zealand organisations.

So what all this means is many of your trading partners across private and government are eInvoicing or will be soon. I'm going to shortly hand the reins over to Linda, who will get to the more practical aspects of sending and receiving eInvoices through XERO and MYOB. But now I'm going to be behind the scenes working through any questions you may have. Please fire away and I'll do my best to answer them. On that note, over to you, Linda.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Is your NZBN record in order?” is displayed.

The slide is divided into two sections. The left-hand side has the following text displayed:

• eInvoicing registration requires NZBN validation as part of KYC requirements
• All data entered
• Set data to Public (not Private)
• Update NZBN record by logging into MyNZBN account

The following link title is displayed below:

“Updating your NZBN details | New Zealand Business Number”

The right-hand side has a screenshot of the NZBN website with details of Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment displayed.

Link in this slide:

Updating your NZBN details(external link) - New Zealand Business Number

Audio

Linda More: Thanks, Andrew. And just noting that there is time at the end for us to answer any remaining questions. So don't be concerned if you don't have your questions right now. So, before we launch into the how-to aspect of this session, let's talk about the importance of the New Zealand business number. Alison is going to add a link to the NZBN website that talks about how you can update your NZBN. But you may have been wondering it's how does the eInvoicing system know where to deliver eInvoices to? Well, it's the NZBN number, which is the unique identifier that ensures you’re eInvoices get to the right place. So, it's like a phone number or a postal address.

So when a business is registering to receive eInvoices, your business is validated by the details in your NZBN record. So, this is part of "know your customer" requirements that eInvoicing registrations require. So, what it does, it validates you against particular primary data in your NZBN records, like your business name, address, including your postcode. If these data points are set to private instead of public, then the validation and therefore the eInvoicing registration will fail. So just a real watch out for that. And just note that for sole traders who have registered for an NZBN, the default is to have their business name set as private. So, you'll need to consciously change that to be public so that when you're registering for eInvoicing, it is a much more smoother process. So many sole traders NZBN records currently are likely to have their business name set to private and you'll need to change this. So just something to be really aware of in that space.

Visuals

On screen: A slide titled “Before you register in Xero (Business Edition Users)”.

Below the title, to the left-hand side, the slide text reads: “Make sure your organization settings has your NZBN”

On the right-hand side, a screenshot of Xero organisation settings is displayed. The screen shows organisation details, with the “New Zealand Business Number (NZBN)” field highlighted. This indicates where users need to enter or update their NZBN before registering for eInvoicing.

Audio

Linda More: So, let's crack into the how-to part of the session. So, we'll cover how things work in XERO, and I might skip MYOB because at the start of the session, we asked if you used MYOB or XERO, and there were no MYOB users. But if there is an MYOB user attending today, can you just use the thumbs up function and we can definitely go through that if you need that. Okay, I've seen some hands have raised. So yes, we will cover, we'll cover MYOB as well as XERO.

Alright, so. Even if you don't use XERO or MYOB and use other platforms, it's still really useful for you to understand what the experience is like for XERO or MYOB users, because many of your trading partners will be using these platforms. And also, the basic principles and user experience is probably very similar in those other accounting systems. So just even if a business decides not to receive eInvoices, but you know, why wouldn't you after hearing about all those benefits? You still need to have your NZBN number and your organisation details to be able to send eInvoices. So just really important just to check and your organisation settings that you have your NZBN number detailed in there. And then you're set to go.

Visuals

On screen a slide is displayed titled “Register to receive eInvoices – in Xero”.

The Xero bills screen is displayed with a highlighted button labelled “Set up eInvoicing”.

A navigation path is shown: “Business > Bills to pay > Set up eInvoicing > register to receive eInvoices”.

The registration process is shown in two sections.

• The first section, “Verify your business details”, includes a field for entering a “New Zealand Business Number (NZBN)” used to verify your business, and a button labelled “Yes, these details are correct”.
• The second section, “Add a representative for your business”, includes fields for contact details and a checkbox to agree to the terms and conditions, followed by a button labelled “Complete registration”.

Audio

Linda More: All right. So, there were many of you today that said that you haven't registered to receive eInvoices. This is a real easy way to get set up and get registered for eInvoices. Take you a couple of minutes. For XERO users, you go to the business, drop down to bills to pay, and you'll see in the top right corner that there's "set up eInvoicing", and you choose to register to receive eInvoices. You simply enter your NZBN number. It might already automatically

prepopulate and you just verify that those details are correct. Add a few more details and you complete the registration. So, it's as simple as that.

Really easy. You'll get a message at the bottom left of your screen saying you've been successfully registered and any eInvoice you receive will be automatically created as a draft bill. We'll get to that later. So, for those who are in attendance today and use XERO, hey, maybe you've logged into your XERO account you can go and do this right now.

Visuals

On screen: A slide titled “Registering to receive eInvoices with MYOB”.

Below the title, the slide includes a link: “eInvoicing (myob.com) MYOB Business Essentials and AccountRight (in a web browser)”

• On the left side, the following text is shown: “Tips If you're an AccountRight desktop user, you need to have an online company file to be able to use eInvoicing. You can then register for eInvoicing when you access your company file in a web browser. Once you've completed your registration, you'll see this indicated in your MYOB sales settings (business name > Sales settings > eInvoicing tab).”
• On the right side, a screenshot of the MYOB registration screen is displayed. The screen shows a “Register for eInvoicing” form where users enter business details, including business name and NZBN, and confirm their details to complete registration.

The following MYOB website links are also shown on the slide:

• eInvoicing(external link) - MYOB
• Online company file(external link) - MYOB
• Access your company file in a web browser(external link) - MYOB

Audio

Linda More: For MYOB users, it's very similar. So, if you're an account-right desktop user, you need to have an online company file to be able to use eInvoicing. And then you can register for eInvoicing when you access your company file in a web browser. So again, you just complete the details as usual and then register for eInvoicing. Really simple and easy to do as well. So, a two-minute job there to register to receive. So not hard at all.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Preparing to send eInvoices” is displayed.

The slide is divided into two sections.

On the left side, the following text is displayed:

“Customer or Contact records must contain the customer’s NZBN.”

On the right side, a screenshot of a contact record screen is displayed. The screen shows contact details, including a field for the New Zealand Business Number (NZBN). The NZBN field is highlighted, indicating where the customer’s NZBN must be entered. The screen also includes a link to search for the contact’s NZBN.

Audio

Linda More: Now, before we get on to sending eInvoices for through those two platforms, another watch out is that you need you’re, the customer or contact records must contain the customer's NZBN. So, as we said earlier, that you know the NZBN is the unique identifier that makes sure that eInvoices get to the right place. And so for the accounting system to know that who they are sending it to, they need to have that NZBN number in the customer contact record.

Visuals

On screen a slide titled “Preparing to send eInvoices” is displayed.

Below the title, the following text is shown: “Tips: Some businesses have similar names. Check with your trading partner to make sure you have the right one.”

Below the text, a screenshot of the NZBN Register search is displayed. The screen shows a search for a business name and a list of matching results with similar names, each with an NZBN and registration status. This demonstrates the need to confirm the correct business when selecting an NZBN.

Audio

Linda More: Now, you're wondering, well, how do I know or how do I find out what my customers or trading partners NZBN number is? Well, that's easy. You can, there's a couple of ways that you can do that. You can search the NZBN register, so on the nzbn.govt.nz site you can just type in the name of the business, and it should pop up with that business's NZBN number. Now what I've illustrated here on the screen here is that many businesses have very similar names. So just be really careful that you check with your trading partner that you have the correct name of their business and therefore get the correct name of the correct NZBN number. So, as you can see in this example, Wellington City Council, there's a few options that appear there. So, it just really pays to check that you've got the right one.

Visuals

On screen a slide titled “Preparing to send eInvoices” is displayed.

The slide text reads “Your customer must be registered to receive eInvoices:” Options are shown as “Ask them”, or “Check the list of registered businesses (there’s 110,000+ and growing)” with link for this displayed below.

Link in this slide:

New Zealand businesses registered to receive eInvoices [XLSX, 15 MB]

Audio

Linda More: But you can always ask your trading partner. The other thing is that your customer must be registered to receive eInvoices. So again, you could ask them. Or one of the things that we do is we actually publish a list of all the businesses that are registered and we put that on the eInvoicing website. Alison would have put the link to that chat, link to that in the chat. So, you can download that list, and it provides the name of the business and their NZBN number. So that's a way to get their NZBN number.

We've also got a couple of filters that you can use on sector or on region. And so, you could check all the businesses in your region to see if they're registered to receive eInvoices and they might be your trading partner. Or you can just use that list to compare against your own list of trading partners. So, it's really easy to check if your businesses are registered to receive.

Visuals

On screen a slide titled “Sending eInvoices” with the Xero logo displayed. A link is shown: “Send an eInvoice (external link) — Xero Central”

The slide is divided into three sections.

• In the first section, a screenshot of a Xero invoice screen is displayed. The “Send as an eInvoice” toggle is shown turned off, with a message indicating the contact is set up to receive eInvoices.
• In the second section, a screenshot of a Xero invoice screen is displayed. The “Send as an eInvoice” toggle is shown turned on, indicating the option to send the invoice as an eInvoice.
• In the third section, the following text is shown: “✓ Customer’s NZBN is entered in contact record ✓ Customer is registered to receive eInvoices” Below this text, a screenshot of the Xero invoice screen shows the “Approve & send” button highlighted, indicating the action used to send the eInvoice.

Link in this slide:

Send an eInvoice(external link) - Xero Central

Audio

Linda More: So, within XERO, they've also got a great little tool there that you don't even have to do any of those things. So, when you're preparing an invoice for one of your customers, you would just complete an invoice as normal. And as you can see down the bottom here, there's a "send as an eInvoice" little toggle, and it conveniently tells you that this contact is set up to receive eInvoices. So even if you don't know if your customer can receive or not, this will tell you within XERO. But that's really important that you've got their NZBN number in your contact record. And then you simply just change the toggle to send as an eInvoice. So, you would complete the invoice as normal move that toggle along and then just approve and send. So really simple and not much difference from what you're doing now. It's just a simple one more step to do.

Visuals

On screen a slide titled “Sending eInvoices” with the Xero logo displayed. A link is shown: “Send an eInvoice (external link) — Xero Central”

Below this, a screenshot of a Xero invoice screen is displayed. The screen shows invoice details, with the “Reference” field highlighted and containing an example value “PO:PN123456”. This indicates where reference information, such as purchase order or contract numbers, should be entered when sending an eInvoice.

Link in this slide:

Send an eInvoice(external link) - Xero Central

Audio

Linda More: There is just a little bit of a watch out. As you can see, many large organisations and government agencies might require a purchase order number. And up here in the reference area is where you would enter that purchase order number. One of the things to make sure that that purchase order number gets into the receiver's, into your customers accounting system in the right place, which helps with automated matching and processing. You do need to put PO colon and then the number that your customer has given you. It might be a number; it might be a number of letters. In this example, the customer has asked the format to be PN123456. So, it may differ for your customer, each of your customers. So just a watch out and to be aware of that.

Visuals

On screen a slide titled “Sending eInvoices” with the MYOB logo displayed.

• On the left side, a link is shown: “eInvoicing (myob.com)” The slide includes the following text: “Create invoice as normal” “You must complete the Invoice Description to send as an eInvoice”
• On the right side, a screenshot of the MYOB invoice creation screen is displayed. The screen shows fields for entering invoice details, with the “Description” field highlighted, indicating where information must be entered. A field for “Customer PO number” is also highlighted, showing where reference information can be added when creating an eInvoice.

Link in this slide

eInvoicing(external link) - MYOB

Audio

Linda More: Now, sending through MYOB, very much similar to how it is in XERO. So, you would complete and create an invoice as normal. One thing you do need to make sure is that you complete the invoice description section to ensure that that content goes through as an eInvoice. And as you can see, MYOB has a specific field for purchase order numbers.

Visuals

On screen a slide titled “Sending eInvoices” with the MYOB logo displayed.

On the left side, the following text is shown: “From the Share menu, choose ‘Send eInvoice’ “

At the Send eInvoice confirmation:

• Check the summary of the eInvoices you’re sending
• Note that a PDF version will automatically attach when you send the eInvoice
• Click ‘Send eInvoice’”

On the right side, a screenshot of the MYOB invoice screen is displayed. The “Share” menu is open, showing a list of options. The option “Send eInvoice” is visible in the menu, indicating where users select to send the invoice as an eInvoice.

Audio

Linda More: So, you would complete it as normal, and then when you're ready to send it, you go to the top right and share, and then in the drop-down section, there's a send eInvoice. Note that you can attach a PDF if you wish. For MYOB, that automatically happens. Just going back to XERO, you do have a choice of whether you want to send a PDF along with that eInvoice information. And just noting when you're choosing that, you're selecting a PDF version. It's not being emailed to your customer, it is being transmitted along with the invoice data along to your customer. So really easy, whether you're using XERO or MYOB, to be able to send eInvoices to your customers.

Visuals

On screen a slide titled “Receiving eInvoices” is displayed.

On the left side, the Xero logo is displayed. A link is shown: “Register to receive eInvoices – Xero Central” The following text is shown:

• It will automatically appear in Xero as a draft bill.
• Approve and schedule payment as usual

On the right side, the MYOB logo is displayed. A link is shown: “Receiving eInvoices (myob.com)” The following text is shown:

• It appears in Uploads
• Click the ellipsis (…) button for the eInvoice and choose Create bill.
• From there, you can decide whether to create a bill from the invoice, download it, or reject it.

Links on the slide:

• Register to receive eInvoices(external link) – Xero Central
• Receiving eInvoices(external link) - MYOB
• Uploads(external link) - MYOB

Audio

Linda More: Now in terms of receiving eInvoices, Alison is going to put some links in the chat as well that will take you to some help for XERO and some help for MYOB. But really, if you're registered to receive eInvoices with XERO, it will automatically appear in XERO as a draft bill, and you'll be able to approve and schedule payment as usual. In MYOB it appears in the uploads. Again, you can just choose to create a bill from there, and you can decide whether you want to create it, download it or reject it. One thing else I'd also like to point out that eInvoices meet IRD's record-keeping requirements for taxable supplies. So again, Alison is putting a link in the website that takes you off to some information on the IRD website. You may recall a couple of years ago they changed GST legislation where it changed information about taxable supplies instead of a tax invoice. And that also allowed, from a record-keeping perspective, that eInvoices are acceptable for IRD's requirements. So just to be clear about that.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Receiving eInvoices" is displayed. The Xero logo appears in the top right corner. The slide contains two screenshots of a draft bill in Xero.

• The screenshot on the left shows a PDF version of the supplier invoice within the draft bill. The PDF invoice preview is highlighted with a red box.
• The screenshot on the right shows the draft bill details, including invoice information, tax details and the invoice total. At the bottom of the screenshot, the “History & Notes" section is highlighted with a red box. The following text is displayed inside the highlighted section: "Received through E-Invoicing"

Audio

Linda More: One other question we've had in the past about receiving eInvoices is, well, I need to see the PDF and or somebody wants to see the PDF to be able to approve it. So you'll be able to view a PDF version of the invoice in the draft bill for XERO, as you can see outlined there on the top left. But all of the information has come through as an eInvoice in the data there.

And also, you'll be able to see that the invoices come through as an eInvoice. When you look in the history and notes, when you scroll down, you'll be able to see that it's been received through eInvoicing.

So just also know that how that eInvoicing changes how the bill arrives in XERO or MYOB, but not what you do with the bill afterwards. So, once you received it, it behaves much like any other supplier bill for coding, approval, project costing and customer on charging purposes. So, it's really just about how it arrives in your XERO account.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Maximising the benefits of eInvoicing” is displayed.

The following text is displayed:

“Change your billing preferences to receive Xero subscription bills as eInvoices”

The slide is divided into two options.

• The first option is titled “Opt in via your online subscription invoice:” followed by navigation path: “Options>Receive as an eInvoice (enter NZBN of your business) >register and submit”
• The second option is titled “Opt in via your billing account:” followed by navigation path: “Your organisation name>My Xero> Billing accounts>Edit billing contact> Receive Xero subscriptions bills as eInvoices>confirm”

On the right side, a screenshot of a Xero subscription invoice is displayed. A banner prompting user to opt in to receive Xero subscription bills as eInvoices, and an “Options” section where “Receive as eInvoice” can be selected are highlighted areas indicating where users can enable eInvoicing for subscription bills.

Audio

Linda More: Now, you really want to make the most of eInvoicing, and one of the ways that you can do that for XERO users is that you can change your billing preferences to receive your XERO subscription bill. Again, Alison is going to include a link in the chat that explains about how you can do this.

But at the beginning of the session, we talked about how eInvoicing can help you reduce admin and potentially get paid faster and all those other great benefits. So, the more that you do eInvoicing, the greater the benefits. So just here's one quick way that you can start receiving eInvoices, and that is receiving your XERO subscription bill is in the invoice. And there's a couple of ways that you can do that. You can opt in via your online subscription invoice. When you get that, you can see down the bottom there, these are options and you just choose to receive it as an eInvoice. You'll be asked to enter the NZBN of your business, register and submit and you'll start receiving your XERO subscription bill from then on. If you don't want to wait for that, that's okay. You can go via another way, which is, you know, clicking on your organisation name, My XERO, and navigate your way through billing accounts, edit billing contact and you can choose receive XERO subscription bills as eInvoices and you confirm that. So that's one way to quickly get

started receiving invoices.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Let your trading partners know” is displayed.

The following text is displayed:

• Download the ‘eInvoicing capable’ image from our website
• Add eInvoicing information to your email signature

The following link title is displayed:

“Guide for using eInvoicing capable badge [PDF, 481 KB]”

The following suggested wording is displayed:

“We prefer to receive eInvoices instead of PDFs. Our NZBN is xxxxxxxxx

We prefer to send eInvoices instead of PDFs – to make it faster and easier for you to process our invoices. Let us know if your business can receive eInvoices and provide us your NZBN.”

Links in this slide:

Download 'eInvoicing capable' image

Guide for using eInvoicing capable badge [PDF, 342 KB]

Audio

Linda More: But the best thing really is it really takes 2 to tango. So, you really need to let your trading partners that you can send or receive. So, communication is really key. So, I liken it to when businesses moved away from cheques to internet banking and the communications that you did when you wanted your trading partners to change their behaviour.

So you would have said at some stage, I don't want to receive cheques anymore. Can you just pay me via internet banking? Or I'm not going to send you cheques anymore. I'm just going to pay you via internet banking. So, we've reached that stage now. Again, you would have, when you were getting paper invoices through the post, you would have said, stop posting it to me. Can you just email me a PDF? And now you need to say to them, look, I don't want a PDF of the invoice anymore. Can you just send that to me via eInvoicing? So, it really is just important for you to communicate with your trading partners.

We've created this awesome little eInvoicing capable badge that you can add into your email signatures as a way to let your trading partners know. And there's some suggestions about what wording you could use to accompany that eInvoicing capable badge. That's a way for you to provide your trading partners with your NZBN number. So that's a good way to do that.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Check list, questions” is displayed.

The slide includes the following text as checklist items:

• Register to receive eInvoices
• Opt in to receive your Xero subscription bill as an eInvoice
• Check the list of registered businesses (on eInvoicing website) to find trading partners to exchange eInvoices with
• Ensure all your customer records include your customers’ NZBNs
• Send invoices as eInvoices where you can
• Encourage others to send you eInvoices – let them know your NZBN and that you prefer to receive eInvoices

The following contact information is displayed:

“Questions: email us at eInvoicing@mbie.govt.nz”

Audio

Linda More: Now before we, we've come to the end of our how-to and information there, but before we get to the questions, just a few things for you to think about before you leave this webinar today. If you haven't already during this session registered to receive eInvoices, I encourage you to go and do that. As you've seen, that's a real quick and easy way to do.

Go and opt in to receive your XERO subscription bill. Go and check that list of registered businesses on the website. See if there are any trading partners there that you can already exchange eInvoices with. You know, go and update all your customer records. Make sure you've got the NZBNs there. And I just encourage you to send eInvoices where you can and encourage your trading partners to do that.

Visuals

On screen a slide titled “Resources”. The slide provides a list of links to eInvoicing resources is displayed.

Links in the slide

Home — eInvoicing home page with link to list of registered businesses.

• Advice for small and medium businesses - eInvoicing
• Register to receive via Xero(external link) - Xero Central
• Send an eInvoice(external link) - Xero Central
• eInvoicing(external link) - MYOB
• Receiving eInvoices(external link) - MYOB
• Getting set up for eInvoicing: Xero Business Edition - November 2024 [PDF, 714 KB]
• Getting set up for eInvoicing: MYOB Business Essentials / AccountRight - November 2024 [PDF, 687 KB]
• Businesses registered to receive eInvoices - Downloadable spreadsheet list updated monthly [XLSX, 15 MB]

Receive Xero subscription invoices via eInvoicing directly into Xero(external link) — Xero Central

Audio

Linda More: In the next screen, we've got a whole bunch of resources that you can use and we've talked about through many of them today, but you'll get that when we send out a copy of this webinar after the session, but now we will get to the Q&A's and I will stop sharing my screen.

Visuals

The slides end and the view returns to powerpoint screen and speaker tiles. The screen continues to remain on speaker tiles till end of the presentation.

Audio

Question: Question on Reckon, accounting software and its eInvocing capability

Andrew Cooke: Hey, well done, Linda. Cheers for that. Sorry, multi-tasking and trying to answer questions at the same time. So, there's only been a handful of questions. The one that I haven't had to address, and I don't know how well we've got to cover it today is Colin's quite keen to learn a little bit about Reckon and eInvoicing. Are you able to give a little bit of background on that, Linda, by any chance?

Linda More: I'm really unfamiliar with Reckon, but they do have eInvoicing capability, and they may have a cost to using eInvoicing through theirs, whereas XERO and MYOB, there's no extra cost. It's already part of your subscription. But Reckon do have eInvoicing capability, so I just recommend that you go to the website and look at instructions there.

Question: Question on definition of eInvoicing

Andrew Cooke: Thank you, Linda. I'm just answering a question from Rachel Griffith. Now, there's one thing I've just noticed sort of broadly with some of the questions coming in, and I think it's around the definition of an eInvoice. And I often say eInvoicing is just another channel. It's how the invoice data gets into the system. All the approvals and checks and measures that remains the same, alright? It's just it's just a medium, a mechanism to send or receive.

Linda More: Yes, and I'll just add some more there, you know, it doesn't allocate the correct code, account code, or there, you still have to enter that in there. And you might, but the good thing is the description of that, of the goods and services that have been provided should come through automatically and you're not having to summarise that. It's already come through. So that would help with being able to quickly code things there. But no, you still have to do that task.

Question: If we're already paying bills by direct debit, what are the benefits of switching to eInvoicing?

Andrew Cooke: Now I'm answering a question from Roz Freeman who says, if you're paying bills by direct debit already, is it better to change to eInvoicing?

But the answer is kind of "it depends". Generally, direct debits are working fine. I mean, one of my many sayings in life is if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And direct debit is a payment mechanism. So, yeah, direct debit is how you pay the invoice. While eInvoicing is how you receive it or send it. So, many businesses use eInvoicing to streamline and invoice process and continue to pay by direct debit, so, especially if it's the same standard monthly amount as well.

Question: How does eInvoicing work if our client uses Hubdoc to automate bill processing in Xero, including coding and PDF attachments? Would switching to eInvoicing make the process more manual?

Andrew Cooke: Next question, I haven't read it yet, from Dee. My question is, how would this work if our client uses Hubdoc to get all their bills into XERO? Hubdoc remembers coding and can be very automated. It also attaches the PDF to the bill in XERO. Changing to eInvoicing would mean they wouldn't use Hubdoc and they would have to add account codes each line again. Would this mean it becomes manual again?

Linda More: That's a good question, and I'm not sure we have the answer to that. We might have to take that one away and see if we can find out a little bit more and come back to you directly, Dee.

Andrew Cooke: Yeah, I think we'll park that one Dee. I think it's safe to say, I mean, there's a lot of add-ons in XERO, and the eInvoicing works quite well for those add-ons, but it just a lot of it really depends at what stage in the process, in your procure to pay process that a thing happens. And, as I've already said, eInvoicing, it's just a channel, It's just a channel. Now, I don't think we actually have any more questions at this stage, and we've still got more time, so I really encourage those of you still with us to fire away more questions, so don't be shy. We'll give it another minute or so, and if we don't hear from you, we might wrap things up.

Question: Troubleshooting registering for eInvoicing?

Andrew Cooke: Okay. Well, if that's the case, Linda, anything? Oh, we've got one. We've got a question. Fantastic. Mark, thank you. I'm currently trying to register and it's not working. Well, might need you to be a little bit more specific there, I'm afraid. Murray Kay, sorry.

Linda More: Yeah, just, I'll just, you know, reiterate some of the sort of quirks of your NZBN record. So, when you're registering for eInvoicing, one of the validation points is it goes to the NZBN directory, checks that the NZBN number for your business is matching what's in the NZBN record is looking to see what the business name is and making sure that that's correct. So, if some of those things are not right or they're set to private instead of public, then that will definitely mean that any registration for eInvoicing will fail. So, I would just encourage you to check your NZBN record. You have to log in through your My NZBN and check that those things are in order. So that's my tip for that. Hopefully that will answer your question. And just a reminder, please use the Q&A section for your questions as we're not answering them through the chat function.

Question: Can Austendo, which is used for job costing and project costing, receive eInvoices?

Andrew Cooke: The next question is from an accounts team asking if Austendo, which they use for costing, can receive eInvoices?

So, I'm not too sure. I'd recommend checking with Austendo or your implementation partner to confirm whether your system can receive eInvoices. And if so, what set up is required. I suspect it's not native. But it's not currently on our eInvoicing capable software list.

Question: Is there still a benefit to receiving eInvoices if most recurring transactions are already automated using templates and rules?

Linda More: I see Rachel has asked. In summary, if you have a template for most of your recurring transaction, there doesn't appear to be much benefit to receiving eInvoices.

Yes, so for recurring invoices, XERO have advised us that they are intending to make those

work for eInvoices, but that functionality is not there at the moment. We've been told that it's not an "if", it's a "when", but we don't actually know when that when is.

Question: Can the Ministry of Education share how eInvoicing works with their systems and what benefits they have experienced?

Andrew Cooke: Thank you, Linda. I was going to go down one question to Murray Robertson, who's just saying it would be good to get information from the Ministry of Education on how it works with their systems.

So, the Ministry of Education is very active with eInvoicing. They both send and receive eInvoices. And I'm not sure if it's useful, but maybe Alison, you could dig it up. So, we've got something that we call the cheat sheet. It's wider government invoice reference requirements. And this outlines all of the information, which was required to be on any invoice, not just an eInvoice, but any invoice for every single government agency, including the Ministry of Education. So, Alison, if you wouldn't mind digging that up, and I think just popping it on the meeting chat.

Question: How does Xero handle draft invoices if they are accidentally deleted?

Andrew Cooke: Now, I'm up to a question from 2 minutes ago from Natalie. And Natalie says, do we know how XERO handles draft invoices if they're accidentally deleted?

So, I believe based off Xero's guidance, if delete the draft bill, it won't automatically reappear. Deleted bills can still be viewed in XERO's. deleted or voided records. But if you need the eInvoice back in your workflow, you may need to copy the deleted bill or ask the supplier to resend it.

Andrew Cooke: And that's, I think, similar to the next question from Dee, which was 3 minutes ago. So, the next one I'm up to now, Linda, is from Philip from 2 minutes ago.

Linda More: Yeah, he said eInvoices appear simply as bills in XERO, correct? That is correct. Have I gone too far?

Andrew Cooke: Hey, you have gone too far. I need to go down.

Question: I'm currently not using eInvoicing and am considering using Solo. Does Solo support eInvoicing?

Andrew Cooke: So, this is 2 minutes ago from Philip C. I currently don't use eInvoicing and have been thinking of using Solo.

I haven't heard of Solo, I'm afraid.

Linda More: Yeah, I don't believe that's on the list of software products that have eInvoicing capability. I just encourage you to go and contact them directly and ask when they might be building that capability into their system.

Question: Is eInvoicing only available to limited liability companies, since an NZBN is required?

Linda More: So, Colin has said this is only available to limited liability companies as you need an NZBN number.

An NZBN number is not just for companies; it is for other entity types such as sole traders and partnerships. Those who were on companies, you usually get the NZBN number allocated to you automatically as part of registering to be a company. But for all others, you need to go in and register for an NZBN yourself, noting that there are over a million entities that have an NZBN number. So, most businesses do. There still will be a lot out there and probably sole traders that don't have an NZBN, but they can go and get one.

Question: Are all government agencies already using eInvoicing?

Andrew Cooke: Nice one, Linda. The next question is from the accounts team again, from 3 minutes ago. They're asking, so all government agencies are already using eInvoicing.

The answer is "kind of". So, I didn't go into the specifics earlier, but there's a threshold for government agencies' requirements for eInvoicing, and that is that they must receive or send 2,000 domestic invoices per year to be in scope for the eInvoicing requirements, in saying that there are a number of smaller agencies that process under that number of invoices who are set up for eInvoicing. So, depending on how you look at it, there's about 100 or so wider government agencies and roughly 80 councils depending how you define government. So, of that 100 or so government agencies, about 65 or so are set up to send and/or receive eInvoices. And about, I think we're up to close to, well, just under 10 councils are set up to receive. But as I say, that's all growing, but all of the big ones are all set to receive, all the big ones. There's a couple more who are just putting the finishing touches on their eInvoicing implementations, Linda.

Linda More: Yeah, yeah. Just if you want to check that on again on our website under "get started", there's a government section and it's got, there's a section for advice for businesses trading with government and we list all the government agencies and their eInvoicing capability status. So, you'll be able to see if they can send or receive or both, and you'll also be able to get their NZBN number, so you can always check that.

Andrew Cooke: And I've just put the link in underneath that question as well.

Question: If we currently invoice government agencies through a bespoke CRM, can eInvoicing be integrated with that process, or is there an export function from Xero that could be used instead?

Linda More: Okay, sweet. So, Roz has said we currently we invoice government via a bespoke CRM. Other agencies bill us and we then have to invoice the government agency via the CRM. I imagine automation of this process would need to be developed by the CMS or is there an ex.......OK

Andrew Cooke: I’ll answer this one, Linda, if you want. So, potentially, yes. The automation would usually need to be built into your CRM or through an integration with your accounting software. I think the aim of the invoice is to reduce the need to manually re-enter invoice information into different customer portals. But how that works in practise depends on your software and integration. So, if you're using a bespoke CRM today, I'd suggest checking with your software provider about eInvoicing roadmap and integration options.

Question: Can you explain what free eInvoicing portals are available and how businesses can use them to send and receive eInvoices?

Linda More: Fantastic. Alison has popped one in for Henry. Henry would like some explanation about the free portals to be provided.

Yes, there are. So, if you don't have eInvoicing capable software and you want to be able to send eInvoices to your trading partners, then there are some free portals available. Again, we have them listed on our website. When you look through the list of software providers, software with eInvoicing Ready capability, when you look through the list on there, there are a couple that are free portals. So, Caladium is one of them that comes to mind. So, you could have a look at that if you wanted to.

Andrew Cooke: They're pretty user friendly. That Caladium portal I've used and it's pretty straightforward in the grand scheme of things.

Question: If a company changes its name or address but keeps the same NZBN, will this affect its ability to send or receive eInvoices?

Andrew Cooke: Next question from Lalit. They're asking if a company changes its name or address, will this affect the eInvoicing process even if its NZBN remains the same?

So, the answer is generally no. The NZBN is the identifier used to route the invoices. So

if your NZBN remains the same, a change of company name or address shouldn't affect the eInvoicing process. However, it's important to keep your NZBN record and eInvoicing registration details up to date.

Linda More: Yeah, I mean, I would just encourage you to let your trading partners know those exact things.

Linda More: What else have, we got here. Peter has asked, hang on, have I missed?

Question: How can I check whether my NZBN details are set to public?

Linda More: Have I missed one, yes. Roi has asked in the chat how they can find out if their NZBN is set to public.

You would need to, well, you could easily just do a search by the NZBN registry, put in your own NZBN number and see what actually appears, and you'll be able to see if nothing comes up at all or whether some parts of your information appears. So, you can do that. That's an easy way to check.

Question: When an eInvoice is received as a bill in Xero, is a PDF version of the invoice also available on the same screen?

Andrew Cooke: Right, Peter has asked, as a bill in Xero, an invoice comes up a PDF version available on the same screen.

I don't know how to interpret this correctly, but yes. Go on Linda.

Linda More: Yeah, yeah, that's what I showed throughout the webinar there. There's a screenshot there. So, when you, you know, view a draft bill, all the information will come up and on the top left will show you a PDF version of that on the screen. So that's where you would see that.

Question: Is there currently no export function for eInvoices from Xero?

Andrew Cooke: Our next question from Roz 2 minutes ago. So just to clarify, there is currently no export function for eInvoices from XERO.

Linda More: I think that would, It depends on, there are a whole lot of, as Andrew has mentioned before, there are a whole lot of plugins available that do plug into XERO. So, but not sure if that you would call that an export function. Yeah, that might be something we'll have to do some digging on that and come back to you with an answer.

Audio

Andrew Cooke: Fantastic. Now, the next question is actually a comment from Dee, and I love this comment. So, we had a small business client, and we did set him up so he could do eInvoicing with Fire and Emergency New Zealand and it seems to be working very well.

So, Fire and Emergency New Zealand recently just were given our quarterly eInvoicing Excellence Award and one thing I love about Fire andEmergency New Zealand, at last check, guess how many customers they're receiving any invoices from? 111!

Linda More: One, one, one, yeah. So, yes, that's exactly right, and we know that fire and emergency are able to pay those suppliers much quicker.

Andrew Cooke: I think one thing we found on this journey is this is a new thing. And with any early adoption, sometimes there's a few speed bumps and it's really just, you know, it's largely around invoice reference requirements. And sometimes just a little bit of patience is required for that first one, for that first eInvoice with a supplier or customer, and then you're off, and then that just just hums along. So, you know, but I think I think we've sold it to you, at least I hope we have, and that appears to be the last question, Linda, and I think we're out of time.

Linda More: Yes, and we have, yes, we have gone over time, and I do appreciate people staying on the line to hear these questions and answers. So good that you've stayed on for a bit longer and I appreciate you taking time out of your busy day. But we will finish up there and wish everyone a great day. And just a reminder, we will send you a copy of this presentation.

Andrew Cooke: And again, thank you everybody and thank you for the really good questions. We appreciate it. And if you haven't registered, go forth and do it now. And yeah. Thanks, everyone. Cheers.

[Transcript ends]

Visuals

On screen, a title slide displays the text “A practical session for accountants, bookkeepers and advisors”. The date “28 July 2026” is shown. eInvoicing branding elements are displayed on the slide. The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) logo and the New Zealand Government logo are displayed.

Audio

Linda More (eInvoicing Team) begins speaking

...so much for joining us today to learn about eInvoicing, what it is and isn't, the benefits, and most importantly, how you and your clients can make the most of eInvoicing. So just a little housekeeping before we start. This webinar will be recorded and published on the eInvoicing website. After the webinar, we'll also send out a copy of this presentation. And also note there is, there will be time for questions at the end. I just ask if you could please use the Q&A function to provide your question and you can do this anytime during the session. Please just don't use the chat function. So just to reiterate, please use the Q&A function for your questions.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Introductions” is displayed.

Profile photographs of Linda More and Andrew Cooke are shown.

The following names and roles are displayed:

• “Linda More – Communications and Partnerships Manager”
• “Andrew Cooke – Government Innovation Manager”

Audio

Linda More: So, I'm Linda Moore. I'm the Communications and Partnership Manager here at the eInvoicing team at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. Also supporting me here today is Andrew Cooke. Andrew, do you want to introduce yourself, please?

Andrew Cooke (eInvoicing Team): Yes, sure. Thanks, Linda. Thank you. So, Kia ora. Obviously, Andrew Cooke. I'm the Government Innovation Manager of MBIE's eInvoicing Team. I've been with the team for about 6 years now, and I've been focusing on adoption, stakeholder engagement, supplier readiness, data and insights, and just helping organisations realise the benefits of eInvoicing. Back to you, Linda.

Linda More: And I'd also like to introduce Alison, who will be supporting us in the background during this webinar. You'll receive some links that we'll put in the chat and some guidance as we progress through the day. Alison, if you want to give a wave, you probably already have. And also in the background, we've got another team member, Nandu, who is helping out.

Look, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day. This is a practical session, so I hope for those who use XERO or MYOB, you can log into your account, and you might be able to follow along with some of the things that we talk about today. So, before we get started, we do have a couple of questions to ask.
Andrew.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Online Poll” is displayed. Below the title, the slide text reads: “Please answer three brief questions via the link in the chat”.

Audio

Andrew Cooke: Sure thing, Linda. So, it's always useful for us to get a bit of a sense of who's with us today. And so, I'm just going to, I think Alison's about to put a link in the chat, if she hasn't done so already, to an online poll, which I'm shortly going to set up. So just bear with me, I'm just going to share my screen. We've got three questions all up.

Visuals

The screen transitions to a live polling interface. A QR code is displayed along with a text “menti.com” and a code to enter. First question is displayed: “Are you a…” with options “Accountant or Bookkeeper”, “Client” and “Neither”. The number of responses increases and the chart updates dynamically as participants submits answers.

Audio

Andrew Cooke: Right. Well, it looks like we've already started. So, it's useful for us to know whether or not you're an accountant or bookkeeper or a client of an accountant or bookkeeper. We're expecting most of you will be accountants or bookkeepers.

That's very much as expected. Good, so this content is obviously very much targeted at accountants and bookkeepers. You might be aware we have another couple of webinars coming up directed at SMEs and large businesses and suppliers to government. So, this content is very much tailored for you and very much around MYOB and XERO.

Just give another 20, 30 seconds or so, and we'll move across to the next one. Okie dokie.

Visuals

On screen the chart stabilises showing final results for the question: Accountant or Bookkeeper reaches 44 responses, Client reaches 3 responses, and Neither reaches 8 responses.

Visuals

The screen then transitions to the next poll question.

The question reads: “Are you registered to receive eInvoices?”. A chart is displayed with response options “Yes”, “No”, and “Unsure”. The number of responses increases and the chart updates dynamically as participants submits answers.

Audio

Andrew Cooke: Alrighty. Right, so one question I'm quite interested in, are you registered to receive eInvoices?
And this is one of the perspective of you as an accountant or bookkeeper firm, not so much your clients.
It's good to see that quite a few of you are registered, and I really hope and encourage those of you who are not registered to get set up at the end of this webinar.
Right, moving on to the last question now. Thank you for that.

Visuals

On screen the chart stabilises showing final results for the question: Yes gets 15 responses, No gets 36 responses, and Unsure gets 13 responses.

Visuals

The screen then transitions to the last poll question.

The question reads: “Do you or your clients supply goods or services to government agencies?”. A chart is displayed with response options “Yes”, “No”, and “Unsure”. The number of responses increases and the chart updates dynamically as participants submits answers.

Audio

Andrew Cooke: Now, do you supply, do you or your clients supply goods or services to government agencies?
So, some of you do. Part of our strategy with eInvoicing in New Zealand is to really kick off in government. We're following a model which a number of other European countries have successfully implemented. Start with government and private sector follows. Okie dokie, I think that's enough for that one. We can start sharing screen again, please, Linda.

Visuals

On screen the chart stabilises showing final results for the question: Yes gets 21 responses, No gets 37 responses, and Unsure gets 5 responses. The screen returns to the speaker tiles.

Audio

Linda More: Then, I'll just do the first thing we'll do is...give you a rundown of what eInvoicing is. So, this short video will help give a really good explanation of what eInvoicing is.

Visuals

An animated video plays.

Animated icons and text appear on a plain background. The text reads: “If you’re in business today, you’ll want to know about eInvoicing”.

Simple animated graphics accompany the text, including icons representing businesses and documents. The text changes to: “It’s a digital offering that brings a smarter approach to invoicing”.

Icons showing paper invoices, email symbols, and document graphics appear briefly. The animation transitions to a new section with the text: “Let’s set a few things straight.”

Icons representing paper, PDF files, scanning, and email appear one by one. Text appears sequentially: “No paper” “No PDFs” “No scanning” “No email”

The animation transitions to a diagram showing two systems or devices. Text appears: “It’s an exchange of invoice information directly between suppliers’ and buyers’ financial systems”.

Animated lines or pathways connect the two systems, indicating data moving between them. The animation continues, showing that the systems can be different. Text appears: “Even if these systems are different”.

The animation shows multiple systems connected through a central network structure. The text changes to describe benefits: “It improves accuracy and security” “Reduces processing time” “Speeds up payments” Icons appear alongside each phrase, including a shield for security, a clock for time, and currency symbols for payments.

The animation transitions to a highlighted statement: “Great news for cash flow” Currency symbols or arrows indicating movement of money are displayed.

The animation then changes to a call to action. Text appears: “To get started, talk to your accounting or financial software provider about their plans to provide eInvoicing enabled services”

An icon of a person and a software interface appear. Final text appears: “Find out more at einvoicing.govt.nz” The animation ends with the closing statement: “eInvoicing — the smarter way of invoicing”.

Audio

A narrator reads the text as shown onscreen.

Visuals

On screen, a slide comparing what eInvoicing is and is not is displayed.

The slide is divided into two sections.

• On the left side, a section titled “What eInvoicing is:” is shown.

The following text is displayed:

• Digital exchange of invoice information between a buyer's and supplier's accounting systems, using a common agreed standard
• Structured, computer-readable data
• Cleaner, standardised data faster, which automates entry into systems and enables automated processing
• A standard for B2B invoicing
• Sits alongside your existing P2P/PO processes
• On the right side, a section titled “eInvoicing is not:” is shown.

The following text is displayed:

• Invoices generated by software and emailed as a PDF to buyers
• Paper or emailed invoices which are processed manually
• Scanned and OCR’d paper and PDF invoices
• A system that performs AP automation checks, automatically reconciles or automatically pays invoices
• A standard for B2C invoicing

Audio

Andrew Cooke: Thank you very much, Linda. Now that you've seen that video, you'll realise that eInvoicing is not emailing a PDF to customers. Though hopefully most of you were already aware of that, about what an eInvoice is. So, to recap, invoices go directly between suppliers and buyer systems, even if their systems are different, by using a global network standard called Peppol. eInvoicing levels the playing field. Current invoice processes are generally pretty inefficient. There's delivery errors, especially by post and e-mail, processing errors, payment delays due to manual processes, and a lack of security, increased invoice scams and fraud, lost invoices, and chasing up payment progress. This all changes with eInvoicing. So, when you're talking to your clients or your trading partners, you might have to dispel them of this myth when they ask to send or receive eInvoices instead of PDFs. Next slide, please, Linda.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Key benefits for accountants and bookkeepers” is displayed.

The following text is displayed from left to right:

“eInvoices are always in the system – never lost or overlooked.”

“Complete information makes coding easier, and more efficient.”

“Less end-of-year queries, confusion and follow ups.”

Audio

Andrew Cooke: So hopefully the video provided more clarity about what eInvoicing is and the benefits to you and your clients. For you as a bookkeeper or accountant, you can be assured that eInvoices always get into your accounting system. We've heard a lot of positive feedback from your colleagues. Think about how much time is spent keying in invoice data, checking PDFs and fixing mistakes.

eInvoicing takes a lot of that manual work away. Instead of chasing invoices, correcting errors, and re-entering data, accountants can spend more time on analysis and advice. eInvoices arrive straight into finance systems with complete, structured information, making processing much faster. That reduces the back and forth that comes with missing information, coding issues and invoice disputes. For bookkeepers, that means less administration and more time focusing on the numbers that matter. At month end, less time is spent reconciling invoices, and more time can be spent generating insights for business. Ultimately, eInvoicing shifts effort away from processing invoices and towards adding real value. Next slide, please, Linda.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Key benefits for SMEs” is displayed.

The following text is displayed from left to right:

“eInvoices always reach the right place - never lost or stuck in someone’s inbox”

“Complete information straight into your system - makes coding easier, and more efficient”

“Smoother process = faster payment - improves cashflow”

“Safeguards against fraud - Unlike emails that can be intercepted and PDFs tampered with”

The following text is displayed at the bottom:

“eInvoicing is free and natively available for most NZ SMEs via Xero and MYOB today.

• Plus 65 other software products support eInvoicing in NZ”

Audio

Andrew Cooke: So here are some of the other benefits of eInvoicing for small to medium sized enterprises. With these benefits in mind, I encourage you to think about eInvoicing, not just as a technology change, but as a client advisory opportunity. There are now more than 110,000 New Zealand businesses registered to receive eInvoices, and many of your clients may already have access through XERO or MYOB. As trusted advisors, you're in a unique position to help clients understand what it is, how it works, and how to get the most out of it. The businesses that get started now will be well positioned as adoption continues to grow across New Zealand.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Why MBIE is behind this?” is displayed.

The following text is displayed:

• With over 300 million business to business invoices exchanged in New Zealand each year, annual savings to our economy through eInvoicing are estimated to be $800 million
• Creates an open market to enable all businesses (especially SMEs) to participate in digital trading
• Reduce accounts payable cost and inefficiencies associated with manual accounts payable
• Increase the speed of payments and move money around the economy faster.

At the bottom a box is displayed with a heading “MBIE’s role is:” is shown.

The following text is displayed underneath:

• Manage the eInvoicing standards, network and accreditation as the Peppol Authority for New Zealand
• Promote eInvoicing and support the adoption for New Zealand business.

Audio

Andrew Cooke: So why is MBIE behind this? So, it's because it's important to understand that this is bigger than just changing how invoices are sent and received. In New Zealand, there are more than 300 million business to business invoices exchanged every year. So even small improvements to the way invoices are processed can add up to a very significant benefit across the economy. The opportunity for eInvoicing is estimated at around 800 million in annual savings, and that's largely driven by productivity. That comes from reducing manual handling, cutting down errors, speeding up processing, and removing some of the back and forth that happens when invoice information is incomplete or get stuck in the wrong place. For MBIE, this is also about creating a more open and accessible digital trading environment, particularly for SMEs. We want businesses of all sizes to be able to participate without needing expensive or complex systems.

The previous slide highlighted the faster payment benefit. When invoices arrive directly into finance systems with the right information, they can be processed more quickly. That helps move money through the economy faster, which is good for suppliers, customers, and New Zealand businesses more broadly. So, our role at MBIE is to support that shift. As New Zealand's Peppol Authority, MBIE manages eInvoicing standards, network and accreditation, and we also work to promote eInvoicing and support adoption across New Zealand businesses. So, at its heart, this is about making invoicing simpler, safer, and more efficient, and helping businesses spend less time in administration and more time on work that adds value. On to the next slide.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “eInvoicing is growing in NZ” is displayed.

The slide is divided into three sections.

• A section titled “Businesses” includes the following text:
  • 110,000+ NZ businesses are registered to receive eInvoices
  • More than 1 million eInvoices exchanged
  • A significant portion of SMEs can send and receive eInvoices through their accounting software (e.g. Xero, MYOB)
• A section titled “Software” includes the following text:
  • 69+ eInvoicing ready software products – with more coming
  • Software providers are promoting eInvoicing to their customers
• A section titled “Government” includes the following text:
  • 76 government agencies can receive eInvoices and 36 can send
  • Other Government Procurement Rules will accelerate adoption among suppliers to government

Audio

Andrew Cooke: Now, Alison should be putting a link in the chat shortly. So, as mentioned earlier, there are over 110,000 businesses registered to receive eInvoices in New Zealand. I do believe that we are currently ranked 6th in the world, which means we really are punching above our weight. Most of these organisations are SMEs who use eInvoicing capable software such as XERO or MYOB and Reckon One. This means users of these products can send and receive eInvoices free of charge today. There are over 69 eInvoicing capable software products and growing. These software products are listed on our eInvoicing Software Products page. Alison, next link, if you can pop that into the chat, please.

Now, many large businesses are sending eInvoices to their SME customers or implementing the technology so they can too. For example, Bunnings have been sending eInvoices to their customers for almost a year now. Additionally, the likes of Office Max, Datacom, NXP, One New Zealand, Farm Source, which is a branch of Fonterra, and Robert Walters, just to name a few, are driving a significant volume of eInvoices in New Zealand. Notably, most of those are suppliers to government, but many of them are supplying and sending eInvoices to their private sector clients as well. We anticipate many more high-volume senders to join on the back of the new government procurement rule, where agencies must require the large suppliers to send them eInvoices from the 1st of January 2027. I think that's relevant to some of you, based off the poll results earlier.

Now, about 75 government agencies can send or receive eInvoices, and a bunch of them are set to follow in the coming months. So, government really is leading the way. This is a successful, as mentioned earlier, this is a successful formula used by many European countries. While it's still early days, the Peppol eInvoicing Network has grown sustainably and consistently. Not just in New Zealand, but around the world.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “eInvoicing and invoice payment times requirements” is displayed.

The following text is displayed under the title “Government Procurement Rules require 100+ government agencies to:”

• Be eInvoice send and receive capable if they send/receive more than 2,000 invoices per year
• Pay all eInvoices received within 5 business days

The following text is displayed under the title “Government agencies are required to:”

• Ensure large suppliers send Peppol eInvoices from 1 January 2027

Audio

Andrew Cooke: eInvoicing and invoice payment time requirements. So, as I noted in the previous slide, there are more than 75 government agencies who can send or receive eInvoices. A key point here is they must also pay eInvoices within five business days, which is pretty quick. Late last year, it was announced agencies must ensure their large suppliers send eInvoices to government and suppliers to pay their subcontractors on government contracts on terms no less favourable than those that they received from government. These new rules are aimed to improve payment times to small businesses and ramp up eInvoicing adoption. They will help ensure that government leads by example in supporting improved cash flow and fairer payment practises for suppliers and their subcontractors.

These large businesses will also want to send eInvoices to their other business customers, like yourselves. It's not just about government. They provide further confidence for businesses to adopt eInvoicing and realise the benefits already being experienced by many New Zealand organisations. Meanwhile, Simon Watts, who is Minister for Local Government, recently set an expectation for councils to adopt eInvoicing. And we're already seeing a lot of momentum of councils already enabled
and more set to follow. What all this means is many of your trading partners across private and the government sector are eInvoicing or will be soon. I'll hand the reins over to Linda now, who will get to the practical aspect of sending and receiving eInvoices through XERO and MYOB. Thank you.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Before you register in Xero (Business Edition Users)” is displayed.

The following text is displayed on the left side:

“Make sure your organisation settings has your NBZN.”

On the right-hand side, a screenshot of Xero organisation settings is displayed. The screen shows organisation details, with the “New Zealand Business Number (NZBN)” field highlighted. This indicates where users need to enter or update their NZBN before registering for eInvoicing.

Audio

Linda More: Awesome. Thank you, Andrew. So, we know that many of you who are on the call today use XERO or MYOB, or your clients use those platforms. So, I'm going to start with XERO. But one of the things that we perhaps didn't cover off when we were talking about what eInvoicing is and how it works is you're probably wondering, How does a system know where my eInvoice needs to go to to ensure it reaches my customer if I'm sending eInvoices? And that's where the New Zealand Business Number comes in place. So that's the unique identifier that ensures eInvoices get to the right place. So, it's sort of like a phone number when you're using your cell phone and you need a phone number to be able to talk to someone. Well, this is the same thing. You need the NZBN number of your customers to be able to ensure that the invoices that you are sending reach them. But even if a business decides not to receive eInvoices, they still need to have their NZBN and their organisation settings to be able to send eInvoices. So, I've just got an example here of for XERO, who business edition users, that is important for you to just have in your organisation details your NZBN number. And so just make sure that you have that in there.

Visuals

On screen a slide is displayed titled “Register to receive eInvoices – in Xero”.

The Xero bills screen is displayed with a highlighted button labeled “Set up eInvoicing”.

A navigation path is shown: “Business > Bills to pay > Set up eInvoicing > register to receive eInvoices”.

The registration process is shown in two sections.

• The first section, “Verify your business details”, includes a field for entering a “New Zealand Business Number (NZBN)” used to verify your business, and a button labeled “Yes, these details are correct”.
• The second section, “Add a representative for your business”, includes fields for contact details and a checkbox to agree to the terms and conditions, followed by a button labeled “Complete registration”.

Audio

Linda More: And...to register to receive eInvoices, and I noticed that there are many of you that are registered, but many of you are not registered. The good thing is it's super easy to be able to register to receive eInvoices for yourself, but also for your clients. You simply just go into the business, bills to pay, set up eInvoicing, as you can see in the top right-hand corner, there's a little tab there, and you simply register to receive, choose to register to receive eInvoices, fill in your details, your NZBN number might automatically come up. If not, you can enter that in and you have an opportunity there to just validate that those details are correct. Complete who's being the representative for your business. And you're all registered. So, it's really simple, easy, Two-minute task to do.

Visuals

On screen: A slide titled “Registering to receive eInvoices with MYOB”.

Below the title, the slide includes a link: “eInvoicing (myob.com) MYOB Business Essentials and AccountRight (in a web browser)”

• On the left side, the following text is shown: “Tips If you're an AccountRight desktop user, you need to have an online company file to be able to use eInvoicing. You can then register for eInvoicing when you access your company file in a web browser. Once you've completed your registration, you'll see this indicated in your MYOB sales settings (business name > Sales settings > eInvoicing tab).”
• On the right side, a screenshot of the MYOB registration screen is displayed. The screen shows a “Register for eInvoicing” form where users enter business details, including business name and NZBN, and confirm their details to complete registration.

The following MYOB website links are also shown on the slide:

• eInvoicing(external link) - MYOB
• Online company file(external link) -  MYOB
• Access your company file in a web browser(external link) - MYOB

Audio

Linda More: And similarly for MYOB users, you can also register just as easily. So, you just need to access your company file in a web browser if you're using, if you're an account-right, desktop user. But you simply go to sales settings, business name, sales settings, and eInvoicing tab. And again, you just enter your details and register for eInvoicing. So, it's really simple for both of those platforms. And the other thing to note is that eInvoicing within those two platforms is part of your subscription, so it's available already and it's at no extra cost to you.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Preparing to send eInvoices” is displayed.

The slide is divided into two sections.

On the left side, the following text is displayed:

“Customer or Contact records must contain the customer’s NZBN.”

On the right side, a screenshot of a contact record screen is displayed. The screen shows contact details, including a field for the New Zealand Business Number (NZBN). The NZBN field is highlighted, indicating where the customer’s NZBN must be entered. The screen also includes a link to search for the contact’s NZBN.

Audio

Linda More: In terms of preparing to send eInvoices, as I mentioned earlier, the NZBN, the New Zealand Business Number, is the unique identifier to ensure that eInvoices reach the right destination. So that means you need to have your customers' NZBN numbers and record them in the contact record or the customer record within your platform. So, it's important you go and update those and maybe it's an opportunity to check that your customer records are up to date. So, before you are able to send an eInvoice, you must have the NZBN number in the contact record.

Visuals

On screen a slide titled “Preparing to send eInvoices” is displayed.

Below the title, the following text is shown: “Tips: Some businesses have similar names. Check with your trading partner to make sure you have the right one.”

Below the text, a screenshot of the NZBN Register search is displayed. The screen shows a search for a business name and a list of matching results with similar names, each with an NZBN and registration status. This demonstrates the need to confirm the correct business when selecting an NZBN.

Audio

Linda More: Now, you're wondering, how do I get the NZBN number? Well, there's a few ways that you can do that. And on the screen here, one of the easiest ways is to search the NZBN register, which is nzbn.govt.nz. Type in the name of the business that you're wanting to send eInvoices to or get the NZBN number and it should pop up with the details there. What I've illustrated here is that many businesses have very similar names. So, it's really important for you to make sure you're choosing, you're selecting the right business name and therefore the right NZBN number. So, it pays to just check with your customers and your buyers, just confirm what their NZBN number. So that's a simple way for you to find out what the NZBN number is. Obviously, one way is to just simply ask your customer.

There also is an option that if you've got a lot of suppliers, the NZBN Service provides a business match service where you send in a list of all your customers or suppliers and they will then search out what those NZBN numbers are and we put them in the file and send that back to you. So that's if you've got a whole lot of suppliers or customers that you want to get the NZBN number for.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Preparing to send eInvoices” is displayed.

The following heading is shown:

“Your customer must be registered to receive eInvoices:”

The following text is displayed:

“Ask them”

“Check the list of registered businesses (there’s 51,000+ and growing)”

The following link title is displayed:

“New Zealand businesses registered to receive eInvoices”

Link in this slide:

New Zealand businesses registered to receive eInvoices(external link)

Audio

Linda More: So... Obviously, before you can send an eInvoice, that your customer must also be registered to receive eInvoices. And again, you're wondering, so how do I know if my customer can receive eInvoices? Again, you could just ask them. But we do publish the list of registered businesses on our website. And I've said there's 51,000 growing. It's not 51,000...it's 110,000 and growing. And we publish that on the eInvoicing website and that's updated every month. Within that list is the name of the business and their NZBN. So, there's a way for you to get the NZBN number of your customers. We also have a couple of filters on the list, so you could filter by region or by sector. So that's a way if you want to just see, you know, who's in my region, and that might just shrink the list a little bit instead of you having to look through that whole file. But you can obviously use the filters and things to try and locate your trading partners.

Visuals

On screen a slide titled “Sending eInvoices” with the Xero logo displayed. A link is shown: “Send an eInvoice (external link) — Xero Central”

The slide is divided into three sections.

• In the first section, a screenshot of a Xero invoice screen is displayed. The “Send as an eInvoice” toggle is shown turned off, with a message indicating the contact is set up to receive eInvoices.
• In the second section, a screenshot of a Xero invoice screen is displayed. The “Send as an eInvoice” toggle is shown turned on, indicating the option to send the invoice as an eInvoice.
• In the third section, the following text is shown: “✓ Customer’s NZBN is entered in contact record ✓ Customer is registered to receive eInvoices” Below this text, a screenshot of the Xero invoice screen shows the “Approve & send” button highlighted, indicating the action used to send the eInvoice.

Link in this slide:

Send an eInvoice(external link) - Xero Central

Audio

Linda More: So, but in Xero, sending eInvoices is really easy. So as you can see, we've got the NZBN number needs to be entered in the contact record for the customer that you're going to send an eInvoice to, and that the customer is registered to receive eInvoices.

And on the screen here, the great thing about XERO is when you're completing an invoice, on the bottom right, as you can see, there's a "send an e-invoice", and it tells you that this contact is set up to receive eInvoices. So, the great thing is that'll tell you if those customers are registered to receive eInvoices. You simply move the toggle along, complete an invoice as normal, and then select approve and send. So incredibly simple and easy to do within your XERO account. So, if you're giving some advice to clients that, oh, this is really hard, it's not hard at all. And very, very simple to do.

The other thing is that when you're sending eInvoices, you can also choose to attach documents such as a PDF of a copy of the invoice, or it could be a CSV file with time sheets or extra detail about the goods and services you've provided. So that's optional to do as well. And you'll be able to see that the eInvoice is confirmed as sent in the history and notes section. And it also displays in the contacts activity tab. So, after you've sent an eInvoice, it just might take a few minutes to update but that's a way for you to see that it's been sent as an eInvoice.

Visuals

On screen a slide titled “Sending eInvoices” with the Xero logo displayed. A link is shown: “Send an eInvoice (external link) — Xero Central”

Below this, a screenshot of a Xero invoice screen is displayed.

The screen shows invoice details, with the “Reference” field highlighted and containing an example value “PO:PN123456”.

This indicates where reference information, such as purchase order or contract numbers, should be entered when sending an eInvoice.

Link in this slide:

Send an eInvoice(external link) - Xero Central

Audio

Linda More: One of the watch outs for sending eInvoices from the XERO platform is that many, particularly large organisations and government agencies, so this is relevant for those who supply to government, your customer might request for you to put a purchase order number within the reference. So, one of the things here is that, as you can see, it's highlighted. To ensure that the purchase order number goes to the right place at your customer's accounting system, just prefix the purchase order number with PO colon and then add in the purchase order number that your customer has given you. And so that's a really important way and it helps your customer just to be able to do some automation and matching and hopefully pay you faster. So, just to watch out for there.

Visuals

On screen a slide titled “Sending eInvoices” with the MYOB logo displayed.

• On the left side, a link is shown: “eInvoicing (myob.com)” The slide includes the following text: “Create invoice as normal You must complete the Invoice Description to send as an eInvoice”
• On the right side, a screenshot of the MYOB invoice creation screen is displayed. The screen shows fields for entering invoice details, with the “Description” field highlighted, indicating where information must be entered. A field for “Customer PO number” is also highlighted, showing where reference information can be added when creating an eInvoice.

Link in this slide

eInvoicing(external link) -  MYOB

Audio

Linda More: Now with MYOB, very similar again. So, you just create an invoice as normal. It's important that the description has some content. And you can see that if applicable, there's an area for you to include the customer's purchase order. And again, it's optional, but you can attach and support any documents by dragging them onto the send eInvoice screen or clicking browse for files to select them.

Visuals

On screen a slide titled “Sending eInvoices” with the MYOB logo displayed.

• On the left side, the following text is shown: “From the Share menu, choose ‘Send eInvoice’ At the Send eInvoice confirmation:
  • Check the summary of the eInvoices you’re sending
  • Note that a PDF version will automatically attach when you send the eInvoice
  • Click ‘Send eInvoice’”
• On the right side, a screenshot of the MYOB invoice screen is displayed. The “Share” menu is open, showing a list of options. The option “Send eInvoice” is visible in the menu, indicating where users select to send the invoice as an eInvoice.

Audio

Linda More: And again, in terms of sending the eInvoice, you just go to the share menu, which is in the top right, and select send eInvoice. So, really simple to do it in either MYOB or XERO's Platforms.

Visuals

On screen a slide titled “Receiving eInvoices” is displayed.

On the left side, the Xero logo is displayed. A link is shown: “Register to receive eInvoices – Xero Central” The following text is shown:

• It will automatically appear in Xero as a draft bill.
• Approve and schedule payment as usual

On the right side, the MYOB logo is displayed. A link is shown: “Receiving eInvoices (myob.com)” The following text is shown:

• It appears in Uploads
• Click the ellipsis (…) button for the eInvoice and choose Create bill.
• From there, you can decide whether to create a bill from the invoice, download it, or reject it.

Links in this slide:

• Register to receive eInvoices(external link) – Xero Central
• Receiving eInvoices(external link) - MYOB
• Uploads(external link) - MYOB

Audio

Linda More: So, what about when you're receiving an eInvoice? Well, for XERO users, it will automatically appear as a draft bill. So, it's probably really important to note that while it automatically comes into your accounting system, it's not automatically approved and not automatically paid. So, you still have control over approving and scheduling that payment as usual. So that's really important.

For those who use MYOB, it appears in your in the uploads, and you have the option to choose to create a bill. It's probably also important to note that eInvoices meet the IRD record keeping requirements for taxable supplies. I'm sure those accountants and bookkeepers that are out there are well familiar with IRD's GST legislation and a couple of years ago it was changed to be called taxable supply information for GST. So, there's some information on the on the website that just reassure you that sending eInvoices meets those IRD requirements. Alison would have been putting a few links in the chat that gives you links to either XERO site or MYOB site if you want to get more detailed help information and as well as getting that link to the IRD website. So again, really, really easy and simple to use within your MYOB and XERO platforms.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Maximising the benefits of eInvoicing” is displayed.

The following text is displayed:

“Change your billing preferences to receive Xero subscription bills as eInvoices”

The slide is divided into two options.

• The first option is titled “Opt in via your online subscription invoice:” followed by navigation path: “Options>Receive as an eInvoice (enter NZBN of your business) >register and submit”
• The second option is titled “Opt in via your billing account:” followed by navigation path: “Your organisation name>My Xero> Billing accounts>Edit billing contact> Receive Xero subscriptions bills as eInvoices>confirm”

On the right side, a screenshot of a Xero subscription invoice is displayed. A banner prompting user to opt in to receive Xero subscription bills as eInvoices, and an “Options” section where “Receive as eInvoice” can be selected are highlighted areas indicating where users can enable eInvoicing for subscription bills.

Audio

Linda More: So, it's all very well to be able to be registered to receive or send invoices, but we really want you to maximise the most out of eInvoicing, and that is by receiving or sending them. So, one of the easiest things that you can do is change your billing preferences to receive a XERO subscription as eInvoices. And there's a couple of ways that you can choose to do that. You can opt in via your online subscription invoice. So, when that comes in via email, you can go down to the options section at the bottom there and choose to receive as an eInvoice, register and submit or you can go via your billing account. If you don't want to wait for that next invoice to come in, you can do it this other way, which is going via your organisation, choosing my XERO, billing accounts, edit billing, next contacts, receive, and then you choose receive XERO subscriptions as eInvoices and confirm. So that's a real easy way to start receiving at least one eInvoice.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Let your trading partners know” is displayed.

On the left side, an “eInvoicing capable” badge is displayed.

On the right side, the following text is displayed:

• Download the ‘eInvoicing capable’ image from our website
• Add eInvoicing information to your email signature

The following link title is shown:

“Guide for using eInvoicing capable badge [PDF, 481 KB]”

The following suggested wording is displayed:

“We prefer to receive eInvoices instead of PDFs. Our NZBN is xxxxxxxxx

We prefer to send eInvoices instead of PDFs – to make it faster and easier for you to process our invoices. Let us know if your business can receive eInvoices and provide us your NZBN.”

Links in this slide:

Download 'eInvoicing capable' image

Guide for using eInvoicing capable badge [PDF, 342 KB]

Audio

Linda More: But the key thing here is you need to let your trading partners know. So, you know, for your clients, you want your clients to be, you might be able to do it on their behalf, but you want your clients to be able to let their trading partners know that one, they can either receive eInvoices from their suppliers or let the customers know that they prefer to send eInvoices. So, we've got this great little eInvoicing capable badge that you can download from our website and then put that on your email signature as a good way to just communicate with your trading partners. And a good way to say, hey, here's what my NZBN number is, so that they can update the records as well.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Check list, questions” is displayed.

The slide includes the following text as checklist items:

• Register to receive eInvoices
• Opt in to receive your Xero subscription bill as an eInvoice
• Check the list of registered businesses (on eInvoicing website) to find trading partners to exchange eInvoices with
• Ensure all your customer records include your customers’ NZBNs
• Send invoices as eInvoices where you can
• Encourage others to send you eInvoices – let them know your NZBN and that you prefer to receive eInvoices

The following contact information is displayed:

“Questions: email us at eInvoicing@mbie.govt.nz”

Audio

Linda More: So, we're getting nearly at question time, but just a bit of a checklist. I know there was a number of you who had not registered to receive eInvoices. If you haven't done so, even during this webinar, you can do so after that, is to go in and register to receive, as you would have seen. It was really easy to do. Go and opt in to receive your XERO subscription bill as an eInvoice. Go and check that list that's published on the website to see if you've got other trading partners that you can already exchange eInvoices with. Maybe one of the things that you can do for your clients is go and check all their customer records and make sure that they've got the NZBNs of those customers in there. And I just encourage you to send invoices as eInvoices where you can and just encourage others to do that.

Visuals

On screen a slide titled “Resources”. The slide provides a list of links to eInvoicing resources is displayed.

Links in the slide

Home — eInvoicing home page with link to list of registered businesses.

• Advice for small and medium businesses — eInvoicing
• Register to receive via Xero(external link) — Xero Central
• Send an eInvoice (external link) — Xero Central
• eInvoicing (external link) — MYOB
• Receiving eInvoices(external link) — MYOB
• Getting set up for eInvoicing: Xero Business Edition - November 2024 [PDF, 714 KB]
• Getting set up for eInvoicing: MYOB Business Essentials / AccountRight - November 2024 [PDF, 687 KB]
• Businesses registered to receive eInvoices - Downloadable spreadsheet list updated monthly [XLSX, 15 MB]

Receive Xero subscription invoices via eInvoicing directly into Xero(external link) — Xero Central

Audio

Linda More: On the next slide, we have a bunch of resources that are available on our website. We've sort of mentioned a few of them today, but you will get these when we send out a copy of this presentation. But we will move to question time. If we do run out of time and we don't get to your question, you can still email us at eInvoicing@mbie.govt.nz and I will be quiet now and Andrew we might go to you and...

Visuals

The slides end and the view returns to powerpoint screen and speaker tiles. The screen continues to remain on speaker tiles till end of the presentation.

Audio

Andrew Cooke: Sure thing, Linda. Thank you and well done for sharing all of that. I've been, some of you might have seen, have been busy typing away and trying to rustle up answers to a lot of really good questions. Some of them I haven't answered, especially the more recent ones, but there's one I was saving and it's quite a tricky one. So, so John Galt has been asking a few questions and making a few comments around essentially the dialogue around whether or not New Zealand should proceed with an eInvoicing mandate, which is what a number of other countries have done. So, I think what I want to point out here is that eInvoicing in Australia and New Zealand, it's really being driven by the commercial benefits. Whereas a lot of countries in Europe, just like Belgium, for example, Malaysia is going down this path as well. It's around tax reporting and tax collection. So, New Zealand doesn't have any plans at this stage to roll out eInvoicing as a tax collection tool. However, it's one of these things that, given time, as the network grows and demonstrates more and more credibility, the government of the day, in combination with IRD, could very well go down this pathway. Now, IRD and MBIE do work very closely together on eInvoicing, and it's something they're monitoring closely, but at this stage, it's a "no". But, you know, most of most countries have gone down this path. It's a "wait and see" for NZ. Linda, do you have anything to add to that one?

Linda More: No, I think you've covered it off there. Yeah, yeah. We do know this. Okay.

Andrew Cooke: Right. Now, we need to scroll up to the so some of the questions I haven't answered in some. I don't know if you're scrolling up, Linda, but I think...

Question: How does eInvoicing helps with audit verification and documentation requirements?

Linda More: Yes, I think Sharon has got a question. So, I'm right at the top, I think. Sharon, you didn't answer that one. Sharon has asked, our organisation is audited. We are required to hold a copy of the bill issued. What part of eInvoicing ticks audit verification and documentation requirements.

I would just encourage you to go to IRD's website about taxable supplies, and it lists there a whole lot of electronic records are also considered acceptable for to provide evidence of a taxable supply. So, and included that is eInvoicing. So, I would check with IRD specifically if you wanted to ask more questions about that.

Andrew Cooke: Nice one, Linda. Just before I answer the next question, I just going to encourage Linda just to scroll down the Q&As. I'm moving on to Antonia's question, which she put in 7 minutes ago. And then maybe you can do the next one. Look, the next one's about a mandate, but also from Toni.

Question: what is the process government agencies use for approving and scheduling payments and What KPIs drive eInvocing vs PDF invoices?

Andrew Cooke: But anyway, so Antonia, 7 minutes ago, what is the process government agencies use for approving and scheduling payments?

It's a tricky one for us to answer. We work very, very closely with government accounts payable and receivable teams. I think I touched on this earlier on in the webinar that eInvoices, there's a target for eInvoices to be paid within five working days. However, PDF invoices, the target is 10 working days.
And in terms of PDFs, that target has been collectively met by government. Obviously, government agencies will have their own individual KPIs, but those payment times for both eInvoices and PDF invoices are published. So that's really the main KPI is really just trying to give visibility and transparency to really drive faster payment processes across government.
Now, I don't know if you found the questions. Is the next one from Amber Dickson or?

Linda More: Yeah, yeah. From Emmy, I think, or have you answered that one?

Andrew Cooke: Uh, but I think we, I think I answered uh...

Linda More: Ohh, yes, you have here. OK, sorry, I'm still scrolling and looks like Rachel.

Question: Question on purchase order naming structure?

Linda More: Some government departments, hospitals have asked not to put PO at the start of PO number. I'm presuming that is from the perception, from the perspective of a XERO user. That may be, for XERO users, you still do need to use PO colon and then the number that they've asked you to put in. So maybe it's they're asking you not to put PO in front of that number. So hopefully that's answered the question.

Andrew Cooke: Right, I'm just scrolling up to a little bit further to the next question. So, Toni, yes, 9 minutes ago, is eInvoicing intended to be mandated at some point? Already answered that. It's a wait and see.

Question: Does eInvoicing work if I send invoices from another system that syncs with Xero?

Andrew Cooke: Okay, Amber Dixon. How does eInvoicing work with clients that use another system that syncs with XERO? Our invoices are sent out by this project management system and sync to XERO. Will the project management system have to be had to set up some kind of eInvoicing system?

So, I think, and Linda, please feel free to chime when we're talking about integrations here. And so, XERO has quite a variety of other platforms that integrate with it. Over time, more and more of these platforms are integrating with XERO, and I think, but it's, I don't know, it's there's so many of them out there that we're slowly learning about them, and when we find out about some which we feel as if there is high demand, we will encourage and support those organisations.

Linda More: Yeah, I'll probably just jump in here with one thing. So, I understand and I might have this wrong, that there are accountants and bookkeepers who might use Workflow Max. You can import and you might create the invoices in those in that platform. You can then import that into XERO and then send them from XERO as an eInvoice. So hopefully that supported that, that question.

Andrew Cooke: I'm going to give you the next question from Alyssa Wiseman. Linda, do you have that on screen?

Linda More: Alyssa......

Andrew Cooke: Nine minutes ago, so the question is back there.

Question: What happens if an entity type, such as a limited partnership, cannot register to receive eInvoices?

Linda More: Oh yes, yep, yep, yep. So, what about entity types that cannot be registered to receive eInvoices? For example, a limited partnership that has an NZBN number that cannot be registered.

You are right, Alyssa, there are a couple of entity types that can't be registered for eInvoicing. And I'm not sure what the reasoning is behind limited partnerships, but generally other kind of partnerships can register. Hopefully, that answers.

Andrew Cooke: Thanks, Linda. The next one, so I hope I can ask you to answer this one, so I think your better placed. It's from Mike Walton of Redback Global from 6 minutes ago.

I will read it out if you want me to. We have a product management system that sends draft bills to XERO. Then we attach the supplier invoice PDF to this. With eInvoicing, it seems that we would have to double up draft bills.
Not too sure.

Linda More: No, say that again.

Question: How does eInvoicing work if our system sends draft bills to Xero and we currently attach supplier invoice PDFs?

Andrew Cooke: We have a product management system that sends draft bills to XERO, then we attach the supplier invoice PDF to this. With eInvoicing, it seems that we would have to have a double up of draft bills.

Linda More: Draft bills is usually when it's coming in, if you're receiving an eInvoice.
Okay, so what I'm hearing is, yeah, so you would, if you're receiving eInvoices, you would just, you would choose to receive eInvoices rather than the PDF. So, I guess it's about not receiving that PDF into your system. So, you know, you can receive a PDF with a draft bill, but generally, you know, PDFs can be passed through the eInvoicing network to customers along with the eInvoice data. And sometimes it's used for supporting information rather than being the invoice mechanism itself. So over time, PDFs will disappear completely and rather than being used as a support item an eInvoice will do the whole thing.

Question: Where do I set up eInvoicing: Simpro or Xero?

Andrew Cooke: Thanks, Linda. Right, next question from Rhonda. Do I set the eInvoice up in Simpro or XERO?

Not too familiar with Simpro, but all customer invoices are created in Simpro's projects and jobs and then exported to XERO. I think usually you would enable eInvoicing in the system that creates and sends the invoice. If your invoices originate in Simpro and are then exported to XERO, Simpro would generally be the logical place to start. I think the exact approach depends on which product has eInvoicing capability and where you want the invoice to enter the Peppol network.

Linda More: Right. Yep. Yeah, I see there's a question from John Galt, which is quite a long one......

Andrew Cooke: That's one of the early ones. I think John may have copied it out again, because this is where we discussed the mandate.

Linda More: Okay, okay.

Question: If someone sends us an eInvoice, will the invoice automatically be attached to the corresponding record in Xero as part of our approval process?

Andrew Cooke: Right. The next one on the list, and I haven't read it yet, is if someone sends an eInvoice, this is from Rachel Allan, 7 minutes ago, if someone sends an eInvoice, our approval process is the copy of the actual bill, needs to be attached to a XERO record. Will that automatically happen?

Are we asking here is a copy of a PDF invoice also attached to a XERO invoice to an invoice. I think I think that's the question. And I think there's an option for... to allow that to happen.

Linda More: Yeah. We might have to take that one away and see if we can find the answer to that and come back to you, Rachel. Yeah.

Andrew Cooke: Yeah. Alison, can you take note of that question, and we'll get back to Rachel directly. Thank you.

Question: Can supplier invoices received as eInvoices be incorporated into a job bill for materials used and then billed on to the customer?

Linda More: Yeah. So, David, I'm just right at the top now. David Trayner, for supplier invoices received as eInvoices, can these be incorporated into a job bill for the materials used then to invoice out to the customer?

Oh, it's another one I think we'll have to take away. We don't have the answers to that one.

Question: How does eInvoicing work for overseas export invoices, including foreign currencies and required shipping documents?

Andrew Cooke: Another question from Dave from 4 minutes ago. How does the eInvoicing cope with overseas export invoicing with changes in currency and other shipping documents required?

It's a bit of a tricky one, this one. So, there is a very compliant with the PINT specification. That's the Peppol international invoice and it's all set to go, and we are aware of eInvoices being transacted between Australia and New Zealand. I'm not entirely sure how the currency exchange works, but I think that's something that you need to specify up front. eInvoicing will not calculate what the exchange rate should be for you. That's something that needs to happen either manually or in your own system.

Question: How are account codes and charge codes populated in an eInvoice, and what does this look like in Xero?

Linda More: This question from Lalit. How will eInvoicing fill the account and charge code? Do you have an example of how it appears in XERO?

So, that's one thing that you still have to do. So, it doesn't automatically enter in what the charge code is. So, you will still have to do that yourself or your clients. However, because all the other information that has come in with that invoice usually has a lot more detail in there, so it's much easier for you to figure out what the account and charge code should be. So hopefully that answered your question there.

Andrew Cooke: Yeah, sorry I'm just working through.....

Linda More: Yeah, you've answered a lot of questions during the sessions. So, I really hope those who have submitted their questions and have seen those answers satisfy you there.

Question: How does eInvoicing support record-keeping and document retention requirements, such as keeping invoices for seven years, and is there a way to view or bulk export all invoices associated with an NZBN?

Andrew Cooke: So, this is the latest question in from Emmy, and I don't think we can answer this one either.How does eInvoicing work for backing up financial paperwork, holding records for seven years, etc.? Can you bulk download when required, or is there an account you can go to see all invoices associated with an NZBN?

That comes down to your finance system. I mean, Invoicing is just another channel. And so, data is directly exchanged between the two finance systems. So, the data that which would be entered from a PDF or an OCR scanned invoice, it's the same with an eInvoice. So, it's essentially status quo with eInvoicing.

Linda More: Yeah, and just like you have to keep your finance system reports for seven years, you know, similar to paper, which is quite hard for people to get their heads around as, you know, they're used to keeping filing cabinets of paper or the ability to be able to print off a PDF or print off a record. IRD are assuring us that if someone is audited and they can see that they are receiving eInvoices, they still accept that as a record of those expenses.

Question: Do job management systems such as Fergus, Simpro, and ServiceM8 need to support eInvoicing, or will users need to switch to their accounting software (e.g. Xero) to send eInvoices?

Andrew Cooke: Next question from Julie. Job management systems, like Fergus, Simpro, Service Mate, etc., send invoices via the systems. I guess these systems may have to come up to speed with eInvoicing, not just accounting packages. It would make the process pretty painful of having to jump into XERO and send them there.

I think the short answer is yes. Many businesses invoice from job management systems rather than directly from XERO or MYOB. So, for eInvoicing to work smoothly, I think those systems ideally need to support eInvoicing themselves or through an integration. So again, this is...The main accounting platforms are set up, but for some of the other systems and integrators, it will take time and a lot of organisations and software shops are really seeing the value in eInvoicing because their clients are demanding it. So, what I recommend is, you know, engage your contacts for these job management systems and ask for them to enable eInvoicing to get set up.

Question: Can AI look up NZBNs of suppliers?

Linda More: So, Kathy has asked, this was asked in chat and went copy. I'm interested in knowing who has used AI to find the NZBN for all their contacts in XERO.

Oh, good question. I think that's a question for everyone. Yeah, I'd like to see you have a crack at that. I guess it's how good AI at is being able to look in the NZBN directory, which is the source of truth for the NZBN number. Certainly, that's something you could do. I would just add some caution in there and make sure that you do validate that you've got the right NZBN for your customers and your contacts.

Audio

Andrew Cooke: Now, John Galt has been asking a number of questions, just I suppose recapping questions around the mandate from the minutes that we publicly publish. And I think I need to acknowledge that as a public servant, talking about future government policy is not necessarily the space I should be talking about, but what I can say, he's asking here is that around a mandate and the feasibility of business cases for eInvoicing. Now, the business case for eInvoicing is only growing and will continue to grow. I don't pull out this example very often, but the whole Kodak thing, all right? Kodak were a bit slow getting on the whole digital camera bandwagon and they missed out and are almost dead now. It's very much the same, I think, with eInvoicing. It is around the world, as I mentioned earlier, up to 50 countries are doing that and growing. It is becoming the global standard. The business case for eInvoicing for an early adopter is not as strong as it will be in a few years’ time as the network keeps maturing. So, somebody has to start and thankfully, XERO has very much started MYOB as well and all the platforms are becoming eInvoice capable. So, John, I mean, if you really want to talk about this, more than happy to have an offline discussion.

Linda More: Yeah, I mean, and I'd also just like to add in there as well. So, we've been working with a group of large businesses, well-known, influential New Zealand businesses, to get them on the journey of eInvoicing. And that's, as you've mentioned, is where their comment has come from. So obviously, in very large organisations, they have a lot of technology projects that they need to get on their programme. And in terms of priority, sometimes they find it difficult to get eInvoicing up the priority list. And so that's why they've said to us, if you make it a mandate, then we have to do it and then it will give priority in our organisation. So, but there's no doubt that there is benefits to all size organisations. Sometimes it depends on whether you're receiving eInvoices or sending them, but there are benefits on both sides.

So some more than others, and it depends on your organisation, on the maturity of your finance system, the volume of invoices that you're sending or receiving. So sometimes for some organisations, there's more incentive than others. So hopefully, that's just given some more just context around where that sort of sense of in the absence of a mandate. So, and you know, that's really why we've been working with government procurement rules to get government to lead the way to make sure that they are sending and receiving.

And we've put thresholds in place for there. So those government agencies that send more than 2000 invoices a year or receive more than 2000 invoices a year are required to send or receive. So, you know, you do have to have the volumes and things in that. And so that's really important. You do; it does need to stack up from that perspective. So, but for many organisations, and we hear this from software providers as well, if you mandate it, we will build it. So, it's all about, you know, getting things prioritised and in your organisation, hopefully, that's...

Andrew Cooke: Thank you for that, Linda. I'd like to reflect on Norway and their success. So, the majority of their business-to-business invoices are transmitted and received by the Peppol Network. And they started in government and with government mandates, with a business to government mandate. That's what we're doing here. We're following the same formula. And Norway have confirmed that banking over $300 million a year in savings. It's not, if it's going to happen, it is happening. And we're just trying to follow suit. Now, I just realised we've gone 10 minutes over time, and I think it's probably time to wrap up. Are you okay with that, Linda?

Linda More: Yeah. It's just one comment that Amy's made. Don't forget the small business too, though.

And absolutely, you know, 98% of New Zealand businesses are small businesses. And, you know, and that's, you know, one of the benefits for those small businesses is, yes, they can participate and this kind of eInvoicing. And for many, it's at no cost. It's already available to you through the big platforms that are available in New Zealand. There are benefits which we talked about at the beginning. So, there's absolutely something in it for small businesses.

So yes, okay. But yes, you're right, Andrew. We have gone over time and fantastic to see many of you staying a bit longer to hear the Q&As. Hopefully, we've covered off a lot of them today. But if you still have questions, again, please use just e-mail us at eInvoicing@mbie.govt.nz. and we will do our best to get back to you. Thank you very much for your time.

Andrew Cooke: Thank you, everybody, and some really good questions. Enjoy the rest of your day.

[Transcript ends]

Visuals

Webinar starts with speaker tiles displayed.

Audio

Linda More (eInvoicing Team) begins speaking:

Kia ora everyone. We'll just wait a minute or two or three as we let people into this webinar today. That's what that beeping sound is letting in more attendees.

Thank you for joining us. We'll just wait another minute or two to let more people in as they start to join us.

Okay, I think we'll get started. Thanks for your time today and welcome to the supplier onboarding webinar to learn ways to ensure your investment in Invoicing pays off. Let's start with MBIE’s Karakia.

Tāwhia tō mana kia mau, kia māia
Ka huri taku aro ki te pae kahurangi,
kei reira te oranga mōku
Mā mahi tahi, ka ora, ka puāwai
Ā mātau mahi katoa, ka pono, ka tika

TIHEI MAURI ORA

Thank you for joining me today to learn about change management activities, but mostly about onboarding your suppliers so you can make your investment in eInvoicing pay off. The more you send and receive eInvoices, the more you and your trading partners reap the benefits that eInvoicing brings.

I see we have attendees from both the private and government sectors on the call, including many councils. So, thanks for joining. My name is Linda More and I am part of the eInvoicing Team here at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

Also joining me today are my colleagues, Andrew Cook and Alison Smith. Now, just for a little bit of housekeeping. We will send out a copy of this presentation after the webinar. It will contain links of relevance which Alison Smith, our adoption advisor, will be pasting into the chat throughout the webinar. This webinar is being recorded, and it will be saved on our website, which we will share a link with you in two or three weeks.

The core presentation is about 30 minutes, and the remainder of the time will be to work through your questions. If you do have questions that remain unanswered at the end, please redirect them to our email address, which is eInvoicing@mbie.govt.nz. Just a particular note, when you are asking questions, please use the Q&A function, not the chat function. This will help us triage your questions more effectively. Andrew may enter answers to some of these during the session, so do look out for the answers.

Now, before we get started, it will be great to get your answers to a couple of questions. I'll let you share the screen, Andrew, and Alison is putting the link in the chat to this quick poll. Your answers to these will help us in knowing what areas we should put some focus on during this session.

Visuals

On screen the visual changes to a live poll interface with a QR code to participate. The following question displayed, “Where are you at with receiving eInvoices today?” with multiple response choices, “We are live and receiving eInvoices regularly”, “We’re live but volumes are low/inconsistent”, “We’re set up but not receiving yet” and “We’re not set up yet/unsure”.

Audio

Linda More: How are those looking, Andrew?

Andrew Cooke (eInvoicing Team): Refreshing to see we've got five, um, that are live and doing it. Right, so move across to the next one.

Visuals

The poll stabilizes and final results show, 5 responses for “We are live and receiving eInvoices regularly”, 6 for “We’re live but volumes are low/inconsistent”, 4 for “We’re set up but not receiving yet” and 20 for “We’re not set up yet/unsure”.

The screen transitions to the next question which is “What is your biggest supplier onboarding barrier right now?” with multiple response choices, “Don’t know which suppliers are eInvoicing-capable”, “Hard to identify Xero/MYOB suppliers from the AP inbox”, “Need better comms templates / cadence”, “Internal change management / training needed”, “Reference requirements / PO matching complexity”.

A donut chart is displayed on the left side of the screen and updates as participants submit responses.

Audio

Andrew Cooke: So, the next question is, what is your biggest supplier onboarding barrier right now?

Identifying which suppliers are eInvoicing capable seems to be quite common.

Linda More: OK, good to know, alright.

Visuals

The poll stabilizes and final results show, 15 responses for “Don’t know which suppliers are eInvoicing-capable”, 0 responses for “Hard to identify Xero/MYOB suppliers from the AP inbox”, 5 responses for “Need better comms templates / cadence”, 11 responses for “Internal change management / training needed” and 5 responses for “Reference requirements / PO matching complexity”.

Audio

Andrew Cooke: In fact, the majority and the runner up then at this stage, internal change manager training. Very interesting. Thank you for sharing that, everybody.

Visuals

The screen transitions to the presentation screen. A slide titled “Purpose: Realising the benefits of eInvoicing for your agency” is displayed.

The slide contains a highlighted text box with the following text:

“The more eInvoices you send and receive, the more your organisation and your trading partners will realise the benefits of eInvoicing.

Pro tip: allocate ‘supplier onboarding’ resource (e.g. data analysis and communications specialist) to regularly encourage more suppliers to send eInvoices to you.”

Audio

Linda More: Okay. All right. Well, there's probably a few of you today that may not be ready to onboard your suppliers, but it will certainly give you some tips on what you can do to get ready for that.

So, it's all very well to have implemented eInvoicing capability, but for you to get the benefits for your organisation, you need to transition your trading partners, in this case your suppliers, from sending PDF invoices to sending you eInvoices. We recommend you allocate time and resource to make this happen.

This could be internally or your access point provider or service provider, for example, your OCR provider may be able to offer these services. To be successful in getting suppliers on board also means you need to get your people on board. By onboarding suppliers, you're increasing the likelihood that they will send eInvoices to other organisations thus embedding eInvoicing into our economy.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Pro Tips – 2 Cs – Change management and champions” is displayed.

The slide contains the following text:

• Change management is vital for eInvoicing
• Identify your change leaders early
• Use MBIE’s resources

On the right side of the slide, images of the following guides are displayed:

• eInvoicing change management guide
• Communications toolkit
• Supplier onboarding

The following links are displayed at the bottom of the slide:

• eInvoicing change management guide - July 2025
• Get your suppliers ready for eInvoicing with this communications toolkit

Link in this slide:

eInvoicing change management guide - February 2025 [DOCX, 1 MB]

Get your suppliers ready for eInvoicing with this communications toolkit [DOCX, 1.1 MB]

Audio

Linda More: To be successful in supplier onboarding means you need to get your people on board. So, change management is key to being successful. Identify who your change leaders are early on and make use of the MBIE resources to guide you. So, Alison would have put some links into a change management guide and a supplier communications toolkit. So, these have both been developed after years of learning, working with government. They help you get a running start. So, I recommend you download these useful resources. Alison has put the links to these in the chat. We've also developed a simpler supplier onboarding guide, which has specific messages relevant to government agencies. So that includes councils. So, it may not be relevant for private organisations in the private sector, but it will still give you some tips on communicating with your different groups of suppliers. So, for this specific one for government agencies, it includes messages about paying eInvoices within five days and the expectation that large suppliers must send to government agencies from January 2027. So, this is more of a no-frills guide and it's best used to get a few quick wins on board.

We haven't published this on our websites, but we will email this out to you along with this presentation. What's also really important is having strong and visible sponsorship and leadership from within your organisation. So, identify and empower your champions early on. Our observation is that organisations with champions have been more successful today than those without. So really important.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Understanding the change of receiving eInvoices from your suppliers” is displayed.

The slide contains the following bullet points:

• "eInvoice data is received directly into your finance system. PDF invoices will not be emailed or posted to your organisation. You can receive PDF attachments with your eInvoice, but it won’t be emailed to your people."
• "Invoice data in the finance system may look different, be in a different place or presented differently."
• "Not a change but noting that receiving an eInvoice doesn’t mean it is automatically approved. So, the approval process won’t change."
• "The experience for your suppliers in sending eInvoices may differ depending on the software they use. Supplier analysis will be important."

Audio

Linda More: I'll now cover off some of what the changes could be for your people. Although some of what we're proposing is really reasonably simple, we know that even the smallest changes can meet resistance from some of your people. So, the basic premise of eInvoicing is data is received directly into your finance system.

PDF invoices will not be emailed or posted, so your people will need to get used to not receiving an email with a PDF invoice, and they should learn how to identify invoice data in your finance system.

Note that you can receive PDF attachments with your eInvoice. They can be sent through the eInvoicing network along with the data for the invoice itself, but it won't be emailed to your people. Some invoice data in your finance system may look different and may be in a different place or presented differently.

The other thing to point out is that receiving an eInvoice doesn't mean it's automatically approved. eInvoicing is just another delivery mechanism for transmission and receipt of your invoices. So, your approval and processes won't change.

The experience for your suppliers when sending eInvoices may differ as well, depending on the software that they use. So, for example, a supplier using Xero will have a different experience than one that uses Technology One. So, analysing your supplier base will be important and we'll provide some tips on how to analyse your suppliers later.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Begin preparing for the change” is displayed.

The slide contains the following bullet points:

• "Pre-change tasks"
• "Prepare communication material"

Below the bullet points, two example tables are displayed:

• "A table titled “Pre-change tasks”
• "A table titled “Prepare communications material”

On the right side of the slide, the cover page of the “eInvoicing change management guide” is displayed.

Audio

Linda More: Alison previously shared links to the change management guide and the supplier onboarding guide. They both contain checklists and sample communication material, so you don't need to reinvent the wheel. The sample checklist on the screen is probably a little bit hard to read. However, I recommend checking out these pre-change tasks.

For example, getting your supplier master data in order, doing supplier analysis to identify quick wins, preparing your internal communications, updating your finance operational guides, and collecting and validating your suppliers' NZBNs.

This is something we've said in other webinars about NZBN data, and we'll continue to emphasise it. It's something you can do regardless of where your organisation is at on their eInvoicing journey. And it's just good data hygiene practise to have your supply master data in good order. So, there's some things that are really helpful, so I do recommend you download these guides.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Communicate the change internally” is displayed.

The slide contains the following bullet points:

• "Promote or raise awareness of your organisation’s preference to receive and send eInvoices"
• "Leadership forums"
• "Intranet news articles"
• "Email communications to coders, approvers and requisitioners"
• "Drop-in sessions"
• "Share MBIE resources including webinar recordings"

Audio

Linda More: As I mentioned earlier, getting your people on board is key. So please focus on communicating with your people. Promote or raise awareness of your organisation's preference to receive and maybe send eInvoices too. You know, have you used leadership forums to do this? Intranet news articles, email communications to your coders, approvers, and requisitioners have drop-in sessions, and please be free to share the MBIE resources, including the webinar recordings.

Next, I'll move on to supplier onboarding.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Supplier onboarding quick wins” is displayed.

The slide contains the following text:

• "Those already sending to other govt agencies"
• "Those using Xero or MYOB"
• "Those already registered to receive eInvoices"

Audio

Linda More: There are three supplier groups that can provide you with some quick wins. Suppliers already sending to other government agencies, suppliers who are using Xero or MYOB, and suppliers who are already registered to receive eInvoices. I'll talk through each of these separately. To benefit from these quick wins means, you'll not likely need a data analyst or an Excel guru. They're best suited to comparing data sets by generating a list of your suppliers with their NZBN remittance email address and invoice volumes and then match your own list to the resources that we can provide. I'll share more on these data sets shortly.

Your service provider, OCR provider or invoice scanning provider may also be able to assist with some of this analysis and subsequent onboarding activities. But first I'll talk about the information you should provide to your suppliers, which is generally covered in the communication toolkit, but I'll cover it briefly here.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Key information for your suppliers” is displayed.

The slide contains the following bullet points:

• "Your NZBN"
• "Your invoice reference requirements"
• "Note the government invoice reference requirements guidance document may be useful for government agencies to provide to their suppliers, where those suppliers provide goods or services to several government agencies - Invoice Reference Requirements for Central Government Agencies – October 2025"
• "Guidance material if necessary"

Link in this slide:

Invoice Reference Requirements for Central Government Agencies – October 2025 [PDF, 105 KB]

Audio

Linda More: So regardless of which group of suppliers you engage with, it's important that you provide them with your NZBN. Remember, it's your NZBN that makes sure that the invoices they send you reach you and get into your finance system.

The other thing you should provide them is your invoice reference requirements. So, if you need purchase orders or buyers reference information, then you need to provide that to them as well. It's a good opportunity to remind your suppliers what information you need on an invoice when you communicate with them about eInvoicing.

Now note the invoice reference requirements guide may be useful for some government agencies to provide to their suppliers when sending eInvoices for the first time, so they can see what other government agencies may require. So, remember, you can provide your suppliers with guidance material, like that specific to Xero or MYOB. So just keep that in mind when you're thinking about the information you'll need to provide to your suppliers.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Suppliers already sending to other government agencies” is displayed.

The slide contains the following bullet points:

• List available on eInvoicing website
  • Download the list of active eInvoice senders to government | eInvoicing
• Compare to your own list
• They already know how eInvoicing works
• Email template available for this segment
  • See Supplier onboarding – guidance for government document

On the right side of the slide, images of the Supplier onboarding guide and an example supplier email template are displayed.

Link in this slide:

Download the list of active eInvoice senders to government [XLSX, 64 KB]

Audio

Linda More: First of all, let's talk about those suppliers that are already sending to government agencies. They may also be your suppliers. You might not be a government agency; you may be a private organisation and some of these suppliers might be sending to you.

So, we collate a list of these suppliers, and we publish it on the eInvoicing website, and we update it at least quarterly. There are approximately 600 suppliers on the list. And those from government agencies may recall we ask you to provide your list of suppliers sending you eInvoices as part of the quarterly payment survey.

So, the great thing about this group of suppliers is that you don't need to educate them on what eInvoicing is or how to send eInvoices because they're already doing this. So, we've developed an email template tailored for this group that you can pick up and use straight away.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Suppliers using Xero or MYOB” is displayed.

The slide contains the following bullet points:

• "Easy and free for these users to send eInvoices"
• "A guide to ID these in your AP inbox
  • How to guide for searching Outlook for organisations using Xero and MYOB
  • Or ask your OCR provider to provide a list"
• "Xero and MYOB specific guides
  • Get your business eInvoicing today
    • Link to "Getting set up for eInvoicing: Xero Business Edition - November 2024"
    • Link to "Getting set up for eInvoicing: MYOB Business Essentials / AccountRight - November 2024"
• "Email templates tailored for these segments"
  • "Use suppliers’ remittance advice email address to contact them"
• "Consider outbound follow up call to ‘close’"

The Xero and MYOB logos are displayed at the top of the slide.

On the right side of the slide, images of Xero and MYOB eInvoicing guides, a supplier onboarding guide, and a screenshot showing the “Send as an eInvoice” option are displayed.

Link in this slide:

How to guide for searching Outlook for organisations using Xero and MYOB [PDF, 997 KB]

Get your business eInvoicing today

Getting set up for eInvoicing: Xero Business Edition - November 2024 [PDF, 714 KB]

Getting set up for eInvoicing: MYOB Business Essentials / AccountRight - November 2024 [PDF, 687 KB]

Audio

Linda More: Next are the suppliers who use Xero or MYOB platforms. So eInvoicing capability is native for those using those two platforms. So, it's already built into their accounting package and there's no extra cost to them. So, it's all part of the subscription. So, it's very easy for them to switch to eInvoicing and send you eInvoices today. We've heard time and time again from businesses that this is a good way to get runs on the board and provide confidence to your internal teams. We've also heard many instances of where Xero users will just start sending you eInvoices as soon as you're live without telling you that they will do so. This is because the user interface for invoicing will let Xero users know if their customers can receive eInvoices.

So, it's relatively easy to identify those suppliers that use these platforms in your accounts payable inbox, presuming you have a centralised inbox. We've found that about 10 to 20% of invoices received by government agencies are from Xero or MYOB users and it's significantly more for councils who transact with local businesses.

We have a how-to-guide that allows you to search Outlook for organisations using Xero and MYOB, and Alison has put this in the chat. So, as well as Xero and MYOB having their own online help services, we've also developed step-by-step guides for each platform, again, which Alison would have pasted into the webinar chat. So, you can link to or download and attach the relevant “Get Started” guide to the email that you send to those suppliers. These guides are also really useful for your accounts payable people. It gives them an understanding of the customer experience for those suppliers using Xero or MYOB. And again, we've developed an email template tailored for this group. You can use the remittance advice email address to contact these suppliers. Also consider having, do an outbound follow-up calling to get commitment from the supplier to act on sending their next invoice as an eInvoice. There's been a couple of government agencies that have done this with success, for example, Treasury and MBIE.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Watch-out for Xero eInvoices” is displayed.

A screenshot of a Xero invoice entry screen is shown across the top of the slide. The Reference field is highlighted and contains the value “PO:PN123456”.

The slide contains the following bullet points:

• "Only one reference field for both ‘Buyer’s reference’ and ‘order reference’ (POs) – or other references"
• "Some suppliers use this field for their own internal use"
• "Implications for you receiving their eInvoice info"

Options:

• "Preface with ‘PO:'"
• "Consider implementing business rules to map POs to ‘order reference’ field in your finance system to reduce manual/exception work."

On the right side of the slide, a link and screenshot from “Send an eInvoice - Xero Central” is displayed, showing guidance for entering prefixes such as:

• "PO": for purchase order
• "CN": for contract number
• "PN": for project number
• "TN": for tender number

Link in this slide:

Send an eInvoice(external link) - (external link)Xero Central

Audio

Linda More: There's something to watch out for suppliers who do use Xero. As already mentioned, Xero users can send eInvoices today and it's free of charge. If you require your suppliers to include purchase order numbers on invoices, then you need to understand how Xero's reference field works and what your suppliers need to do to ensure the purchase order is mapped to the right place in your finance system.

If Xero users don't put the correct prefix, then it may be mapped to the wrong place in your finance system. Xero offers guidance and online help for this, and Alison would have put the link to this in the chat. Essentially, your suppliers need to prefix the relevant reference before adding the reference number. For example, if you require a contract number, you will ask your supplier to put prefix the number with CN colon. Or if it's a purchase order, then prefix with PO colon.

So, your suppliers are human, so it's possible that despite you providing them instructions, they still might get it wrong. So, you may want to consider implementing business rules to map the purchase orders to the right place in your finance system. This is something Lise Archbold outlined in last week's implementing eInvoicing Receive Capability webinar. So, if you want to learn more, the recording will be available on our website in March. So just to watch out there, something for you to be aware of.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Suppliers registered to receive eInvoices” is displayed.

The slide contains the following bullet points:

• "Likely to be able to send eInvoices too"
• "Likely to understand eInvoicing"
• "List published on website:"
  • "Access from eInvoicing home page"
  • "Updated monthly"
  • "New Zealand businesses registered to receive eInvoices"
• "Email template tailored for this segment"

On the right side of the slide, graphics are displayed showing:

• "52000 Businesses Registered"
• "Enabled Software Products 64"

An example email template is also displayed.

Link in this slide:

New Zealand businesses registered to receive eInvoices [XLSX, 15 MB]

Audio

Linda More: Right, the next quick win, those suppliers already registered to receive eInvoices. So, this is one of the number one questions we get as well, is “How do I know which of my trading partners can send or receive eInvoices?” Not always, but if they're registered to receive, then they're highly likely to be able to send as well.

Again, they're more likely to have a bit of an understanding of what eInvoicing is, so you're not having to educate them. And there’s more than 50,000 businesses who are registered and growing each month. And remember that thousands of businesses, thousands of more businesses have access to eInvoicing ready capable software products now. So, there’s now 64 other software providers, products out there that have eInvoicing capability.

Now we publish this list of registered businesses on our eInvoicing website each month. It contains the legal name of the business as specified in the NZBN directory and the NZBN number. The columns have filters for region and sector. So, if you just want to see which businesses are registered for eInvoicing in your region, you can filter by that. And then you can match them to your own list. Again, we've developed an email template tailored for this group. So really three easy groups that should give you some quick wins.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Suppliers who send large volumes of invoices” is displayed.

The slide contains the following bullet points:

• "Let them all know your preference but identify some key suppliers, and start with one or two"
• "Introductions to key contacts with other organisations"
• "Test, learn, adapt, move to the next one"

The lower half of the slide displays logos from a range of organisations, including:

2degrees, Air New Zealand, Datacom, Freightways, ACC, ASB, Fletcher Building, Kiwibank, ANZ, AWS, Fonterra, KPMG, Beca, BNZ, Foodstuffs, Meridian, Bunnings Warehouse, MYOB, NZ Post, NXP, OfficeMax, One New Zealand, Robert Walters, Spark, Westpac, Woolworths, Xero.

Audio

Linda More: Yeah, not a quick win, but real productivity gains come with volumes but dealing with large suppliers tend to be also more complex. They're like a large ship that takes time to turn around compared to smaller ships, i.e. the Xeros and the MYOBs who are much more nimble to change direction. We recommend that you let all your suppliers know that your preference is for you to them to switch to eInvoices and that you prefer to receive eInvoices. And then consider engaging with maybe one or two key high-volume suppliers to start with.

In some cases, you may need to re-engineer your business processes, depending on how you capture and process invoice data from significant suppliers like telcos, who have a large volume of transaction information. We can connect you with key contacts at various organisations, including government agencies for testing and/or liaising for onboarding. So, I recommend that you test, learn, adapt, and move on to your next large supplier.

We have some templates; template emails tailored for large suppliers that government agencies can use. Those government agencies who must require these large suppliers to send eInvoices under the government procurement rules.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Promote eInvoice preference at all supplier touch points” is displayed.

The slide contains the following bullet points:

• “Include your NZBN across all material”
• “Procurement docs”
• “Remittance and PO advices”
• “External website”
• “Supplier portal (if you have one)”
• “‘New supplier’ onboarding pack/material”
• “Email signatures”
  • “Download eInvoicing capable badge for email signature”
  • “Guide for using eInvoicing capable badge”
• “Auto response emails to those that send Xero or MYOB PDF invoices”
• “Email template for responses to ‘payment’ queries”

On the right side of the slide, an “eInvoicing CAPABLE” badge is displayed.

Links in this slide:

Download eInvoicing capable badge for email signature [PNG, 45 KB]

Guide for using eInvoicing capable badge [PDF, 342 KB]

Audio

Linda More: So, as well as general direct communications to your suppliers, there are also lots of other supplier touch points that can be used to promote that your preference is to receive eInvoices from them. Just a little bit of a side note, the language we recommend you use in your communications is “we prefer”, “This will be our standard practise going forward”. Try and avoid using wishy-washy language like, oh, “like if you're interested”, be really strong about what your preference is and what your desired future state looks like.

Now, in your instructions to your suppliers, provide them with your NZBN. When someone asks you to, when you ask someone to email them, email you, you provide them with your email address, right? So, when you ask them to send you an eInvoice, provide them with your NZBN. They need to know how, where it's going to be delivered to. Now remittance and purchase orders advice, they usually go to the accounts people of your suppliers, the very same ones that usually send invoices on behalf of their organisation. So, they are the best ones to convert to eInvoicing. Get your new suppliers sending eInvoices from the get-go so it just becomes the standard. So, ensure your new supplier onboarding material is updated and your people are also ready for this.

We have an eInvoicing capable badge that you can download and add that into your email signatures for your accounts payable people or other relevant finance supplier accounts people in your organisation. You can also add some rules to your centralised inbox that can send an auto response to those that send Xero or MYOB PDF invoices. We've got some tips on that in the communications toolkit.

Another touch point is when suppliers are querying about where their payment is, they might have a centralised accounts payable queries inbox and they're saying, hey, where's my payment? And they’ve probably sent PDFs. So, it's an opportunity to let them know if they send invoices, they won't be lost within your organisation. They've gone straight into your finance system and therefore they're much cleaner and likely to be paid faster. So, use every touch point that you can. Repetition and consistency really helps drive the message to your suppliers.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “eInvoicing forums” is displayed.

The slide contains the following bullet points:

• "eInvoicing Community of Practice (eCoP) - Private Sector"
• "Procure to Pay Community of Practice (P2P CoP) – Government"

The following text is displayed near the bottom of the slide:

“Want to attend? Email us at einvoicing@mbie.govt.nz”

Audio

Linda More: Right, we're nearly there at that time for questions. Before that, let's just talk about two quarterly forums that we run that you may be interested in participating in, depending on whether you're from the private sector or in government.

So, the eInvoicing Community of Practice, or ECOP as we call it, is for the private sector. And the Procure to Pay Community of Practice, P2PCOP, is for government. Both forums are for knowledge sharing and networking for attendees and financial operational type roles, and we mostly talk about eInvoicing journeys in the ECOP, but we also discuss other digital initiatives of relevance. The P2PCOP also includes discussions about payment times. Both forums are really useful for collectively solving problems. The next ECOP is the 19th of March and the next P2PCOP is on the 31st of March, which may be of interest to councils who have already started their prompt payment and eInvoicing journeys. Please email us if you'd like to attend either of these forums.

And now it's time for your questions.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Questions” is displayed.

The slide contains the following bullet points:

• "Use the Q&A function"
• "Email einvoicing@mbie.govt.nz"

Audio

Linda More: So, remember, just use the Q&A function for your questions, not the chat function. And again, if we've run out of time, you can email our team with your questions. Hopefully, you're suitably equipped to get suppliers to send you eInvoices. And if you have other successful approaches that we haven't talked today about today, we'd love to hear from you.

I'm going to stop sharing now and we will begin with the questions.

Visuals

Presentation ends and screen transitions back to speaker window.

Audio

Andrew Cooke: Linda, Andrew here. No questions yet. So, there's about 107 of you out there. So come on. I mean, Linda's presentation was great, but you must have some questions. So, fire away, please.

Otherwise, we'll be sitting here in awkward silence, making small talk with each other.

Linda More: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I could start filling the gap a little bit. One thing we didn't talk about a lot in this webinar is about the large end of town when you've got more complex, larger suppliers. They send lots of volume, but by the nature of their business, they're usually more complex. So, we will consider thinking about how we have whether we have a webinar, just focusing on what are some ways to help get those suppliers on board. So yeah, a bit of a watch out for that.

Yeah. Gosh, no questions. I'm interested.

Andrew Cooke: Well, that could very well be a compliment, Linda, because we've had a lot of questions on previous webinars, but maybe that indicates that what you provided is so comprehensive and everyone listening has got enough takeaways to consider. Oh, we have a post. Let's have a look. Yay.

Linda, have you got the questions in front of you? We've got two questions.

Question: What is the experience of agencies sending both normal invoice and eInvoice?

Andrew Cooke: Yeah, I was going to say, so in some cases, and just hopefully I'm interpreting this question correctly, but in some cases, there's suppliers that send eInvoices and then sometimes back to PDF invoices via email, or sometimes they do both. And that can cause a little bit of friction with your AP team in terms of duplication of effort.

Usually, there's controls in place to ensure these things don't get through, but, and so this comes down to the change management piece, really. It's, I don't know, Linda, anything further to add on that one?

Linda More: Yeah, you're right. So again, this is your people who deal with the suppliers directly and they go. Oh, send me a PDF because I want to see what it says. And in the meantime, an eInvoice has turned up in the finance system. And Andrew's right, if you, your people in your organisation also send on that PDF to AP team it ends up being duplicated. One thing you could say to your suppliers is if they, we shouldn't really encourage this, but they could add on when they email a PDF to their contact within the organisation as to say, this has already been sent as an eInvoice, you know, or label it that way to do that. But it's, yeah, we do want, you do want to start getting your people used to not receiving a PDF via e-mail and reassure them that they will be able to see the eInvoice in the finance system. So, you know, and it won't get approved until somebody within the business unit has approved it. So, yeah, it results in duplicate invoices for your finance team, so it's not great practice.

Question: What are the meeting dates for the next eInvoicing Community of Practice & Procure2Pay Community of Practice?

Linda More: Now, Katie has asked, what are the dates of the ECOP and PCOP?

So, the 19th of March is the ECOP and the 31st of March is the P2PCOP.

Question: How to deal with consolidated invoices with multiple purchase orders as reference?

Andrew Cooke: The next one from Vicki-Lee McCoy is a tricky one to answer actually. How do you deal with suppliers that do consolidated invoices with multiple purchase orders referenced on them?

Interestingly, we're about to establish a working group to look at exactly this sort of thing, because it can be quite complicated because these things often require business process change, which means there's often multiple stakeholders within an organisation you need to get across the line which takes effort, and sometimes there can be conflict, so there's no short answer to this one.

Linda More: Short answer is we don't have, yeah, we don't we don't have the answers on that one, but please watch this space. We are, you know, we are, we are, it's on our work program. Yeah.

Question: Any update on the list from Inland Revenue Department of New Zealand Government procurement large suppliers that can send eInvoices from January 2027?

Linda More: Fiona has asked, I believe there's a list of large suppliers coming from NZGP info from IRD to support identification.

No, unfortunately, no, there isn't. Sorry, Fiona. We haven't been able to obtain a list from IRD of which suppliers fit into that criteria to send eInvoices to government from January next year. But Andrew has another plan. Another way.

Andrew Cooke: A cunning plan. So, of course, the Companies Office is part of MBIE, and it came to our attention that they actually had the reporting criteria or the fields available, and we have actually captured what we believe is quite a reliable view of that data, Fiona. So, and probably the next quarterly government payment times survey, I'm looking to collect the top supplier list from each agency, like top 100, or maybe more, consolidate that, and then reference that, and then send it back to you so that you have a list. So that's the plan, but it's months away.

Linda More: Yeah, so again, a work in progress, but feel free to do some of your own internal work to see if there are, to figure out if you probably have a good guess on who are your large suppliers that fit into that category.

Question: Are there currently any councils that send eInvoices via PEPPOL network?

Linda More: Peter has asked, are there any councils out there sending invoices via PEPPOL? Which is the PEPPOL eInvoicing Network that we use. Andrew?

Andrew Cooke: Short answer is no, Peter, and hi Peter, it's been a while, we should catch up. Short answer, no. The reason being is most types of invoices that councils send have quite unique and specific reference requirements, and a lot of them are driven by regulations of sorts. So, we're looking for pilot councils at the moment, but what we're finding is with councils on the other side of things, they're really the ones who are, but most of their traffic is actually from MYOB and Xero users, and so the prize for them initially is on receiving eInvoices. But I'm meeting a large council next week, actually, to discuss sending eInvoices, so hopefully we'll get someone across the line soon, Peter.

Question: How to meet the government procurement rule if there is a policy to pay only after receiving a reconciled statement?

Linda More: The next question we have is from Joe. Not sure if we can answer this one. What should we do if our policy is to pay only upon a reconciled statement?

Andrew Cooke: I have no idea how to answer that. I'm sorry.

Linda More: Yeah, I guess, yeah, John, I'm guessing that perhaps you're indicating that you are part of the government procurement rules requiring to pay within 10 days for standard invoices and five days for eInvoices. And so, but currently the way your policy works is that you may not be able to meet those standards? I'm guessing that might be, if you want to elaborate, we'll see if we can answer that.

Question: How can you ensure suppliers on the privacy of the data in eInvoicing transactions?

Linda More: Liam has asked, how do we convince the more conspiracy-minded of our suppliers that eInvoicing isn't just being used by government to spy on transactions? Is there a resource that clearly explains who can see what, what's encrypted between each point, etc.?

Great question. Well, just for the benefit of everyone on this call, you can be reassured that the government does not see the invoice data that goes through the eInvoicing network. We do not have access to that data. It's just a pipeline for invoices, eInvoices to reach the various end points, and we don't get access or see that. And you’re also probably aware that the access point providers have to go through a rigorous accreditation process, which includes security aspects of using that network. So, you can be reassured about that. We don't have a specific resource that clearly explains that. We might just take that away and see what we can do in that space. Perhaps they're not your low-hanging fruit. If they're conspiracy-minded, then maybe eInvoicing is not for them to start with.

Question: How to increase eInvoices received volume?

Andrew Cooke: Right, next question from Elisa Lamb. It's quite lengthy, so I'll try and paraphrase it, but essentially, Elisa's organisation has been unable to receive since November and have been reaching out to vendors but have had reasonably limited uptake. The question is, should they keep following the same formula?

Well, one of the most successful things we've done in MBIE is what we call warm calling, which is identifying suppliers who we believe are candidates for eInvoicing and picking up the phone. And some of our team members did this and had a fantastic time. And I think we hit 10% of our inbound invoices within about three months of activity of doing that, mostly from MYOB and Xero suppliers.

Linda More: Yeah, yeah. We found that it's quite hard for people to say no when you're talking to them over the phone. So, you know, and sometimes it's just about reassuring them about how, you know, how to do it. And it's just that fear of change thing sometimes. So, you could point them to our eInvoicing webinar that we've had for small, medium enterprises specifically aimed at Xero and MYOB users. So, for those that didn't attend that one, that was a couple of weeks ago, it's likely we'll run some more of those in the future, and we will publish the link to that recording in the next couple of weeks. That could be something that you do. You could decide to have an event for your Xero and MYOB users and bring all the accounts people together. We've done an in-person event in the past. And that again, it's just giving them reassurance of how easy it is to do. So, you just might have to try a couple of different techniques. Yeah, so try some of those and see how you get on.

Question: How often is the list of active senders of eInvoice to Government updated?

Andrew Cooke: Quick one from Michelle from NZ Trade and Enterprise. Hi, Michelle. How often is the spreadsheet of Active Senders to Government updated?

Once a quarter, however, every now and then our eInvoicing champions across government will drip feed us additional suppliers, those that are doing active supplier onboarding, and as it as it builds, we sometimes do updates in between as well.

Question: Should suppliers wait for Government agencies to confirm they are eInvoice capable before investing on a software provider?

Nikita has asked, we are suppliers, and we use Microsoft 365 Dynamic. Should we wait for our government agencies to confirm they're using PEPPOL and happy to accept eInvoices or should we invest in getting one of those softwares like Xero or MYOB. Who should take the first step?

I think. Again, not sure if people are aware of this as well, we do publish on the website all the government agencies that are registered to receive eInvoices, and it lists the name of that government agency and includes their NZBN and whether they can send and receive or both.

So, you can check that list to see if they're ready and either get in touch with them and say you want to send eInvoices or you could just fire one through and see what happens. So yeah, I don't necessarily think you need to wait, but perhaps if you have, if they have complex requirements or you have complex situation, it might be good to get in touch with them on that directly.

Question: Link to supplier onboarding resource?

Linda More: Can we please have the link to the supplier onboarding? Not sure if I missed it in the chat.

There are 2 onboarding ones that we've developed, one that I'm pretty sure Alison did put in the chat, which is a supplier communication toolkit. And then we've got a separate one which we're going to email out with this presentation. And that's aimed more for government agencies for them to use because it references five-day payment and things like that. But you could, as a private organisation, could also use that. But there'll be an attachment that will go out in the email in the next couple of days.

Audio

Andrew Cooke: I think we're just about there, Linda, just a little bit of feedback from Peter from Landcorp, saying that he's happy to pilot with a council.

Linda More: Yes, so I know there are probably quite a few councils on this call, so if you're looking for some test partners, we have some here.

Andrew Cooke: Yeah, I expect Landcorp receives invoices from a variety of councils across the country will be my expectation. But anyway, that looks like that's the end of the questions. Right on 11.45 pretty much, Linda.

Linda More: Yeah, well, thank you so much for attending the session today. I hope it's been really useful and given you some ideas on to get cracking on onboarding suppliers, looking to hear how you go. So please give us feedback. Love to hear what's working, what's not. We'd love to do some more case studies in this space. So, please do let us know if you have any success stories to share.

Andrew Cooke: Yeah, nice one. Alright, thank you.

Visuals

On screen, a title slide displays the text “Webinar: Implementing eInvoicing send capability”. Below this, the date “February 2026” is shown.

eInvoicing branding elements are displayed on the slide.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) logo and the New Zealand Government logo are displayed.

Audio

Lise Archbold (eInvoicing Team) begins speaking

Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us at this webinar around send capability. We'll just wait a few minutes for everyone to log in.

If you've just joined us, we're just going to wait a couple more minutes for people to join into the webinar.

Okay, well, the people dialling in has slowed down now, so let's get started.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today, and welcome to this webinar during which we'll talk about implementation of eInvoicing Send Capability. My name is Lise Archbold. I'm the implementation manager on the eInvoicing team here. And if you ever have any technical type of queries, I'm generally the person you'll speak with.

So now for a bit of housekeeping, we'll send out a copy of the presentation after the webinar. So, this will contain links of relevance that I mentioned through the webinar and Alison, our adoption advisor, will be pasting into the chat throughout the webinar also. We're also recording the webinar. It'll be saved on our website, and we'll share a link with you in about two weeks.

The core presentation is around 30 minutes, maybe a bit longer, and the remainder of the time will be to work through your questions. And if your questions do remain unanswered at the end of the webinar, then please redirect them to eInvoicing@mbie.govt.nz

And I will just say around questions as well that please could you use the Q&A function rather than the chat? That's much as much easier for us to see your questions and we're just looking at one area of the webinar rather than both. So please use the Q&A, not the chat. We'll be putting a few online polls towards the end of the webinar and once again, Alison will drop a link in the chat for you closer to the time. And lastly, many of you who joined us today are from local government organisations. This webinar is more targeted towards you, but then also suppliers to government in general, and the content's very relevant for all of you. I also see some of you have joined us from the private sector. I'd like to think that you'll all get something out of this webinar.

Right, so let's move on and hand over to my colleague, Linda, who is going to go through the MBIE Karakia. Thanks, Linda.

Visuals

A slide titled “MBIE Karakia” is presented. The slide displays the following text:

“Tāwhia tō mana kia mau,

kia māiaKa huri taku aro ki te pae kahurangi,

kei reira te oranga mōku

Mā mahi tahi, ka ora, ka puāwai

Ā mātau mahi katoa, ka pono, ka tika

TIHEI MAURI ORA”

Below this text, a section titled “TRANSLATION:” appears. The translation text reads:

“Retain and hold fast to your mana, be bold, be brave

We turn our attention to the future, that’s where the opportunities lie

By working together we will flourish and achieve greatness

Taking responsibility to commit to doing things right

TIHEI MAURI ORA”

Audio

Linda More (eInvoicing Team) reads the karakia as shown on screen.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Agenda” is displayed.

The slide includes the following bullet points:

• “Purpose of webinar”
• “Resources available & pro tips”
• “Questions”

Audio

Lise Archbold: Thank you, Linda. Right, so if we could move over to the agenda, please, on the next slide. So, here's what we'll cover today. In November, we ran a webinar that covered eInvoice send capability at a higher level. Today's session is a follow on from this and will involve us diving a bit deeper into the technical side of implementation.

We'll also cover the resources we have available and some pro tips that we've picked up along the way. I should say that the content we're covering assumes that audience is already on the journey, whether it's planning or whether it's testing or going live or whatever. So, hoping that the content won't be completely foreign to any of you.

I'd also like to note that many of the attendees here today also attended our webinar on eInvoice receive capability last week. So just wanted to say in advance that you'll probably note some duplication of content in some areas, but there's also important send specific content being covered as well.

Okay, so just to give background on the eInvoicing team's role in PEPPOL, we essentially are the New Zealand PEPPOL Authority, and which sits within MBIE. We have a small team, but we cover many aspects such as the PEPPOL standards, specifications, stakeholder engagement and the technical and non-technical side of how to implement eInvoicing. We work closely with the Australian PEPPOL Authority, which is inside the Australian Tax Office, and we share the Australia/New Zealand PEPPOL standard amongst other functions. For example, we have a mutual accreditation programme for access point providers.

All right, next slide, please.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “eInvoicing Business Guide” is displayed.

Below the title, the following text is shown: “Use this guide to plan your implementation: ANZ Peppol eInvoicing Guide July 2025.docx”

An image of the ANZ Peppol eInvoicing Business Guide document is shown.

On the right side, a contents page from the guide is displayed, showing sections and page numbers.

Link in this slide:

A-NZ Peppol eInvoicing Guide July 2025 [DOCX, 2.3 MB]

Audio

Lise Archbold: So, I'm going to start off with talking about the eInvoicing Business Guide first. This was written by us and in conjunction with the ATO, Australian Tax Office, sorry. And really just documenting our experiences and some how-to information around implementations after having learned a lot of lessons from about 60 or so government eInvoicing implementations. We also had some valuable input from some of the champions for eInvoicing in some of the government agencies and also some industry specialists.

Most things you'll need to know are covered clearly in this document and it's written to cover a wide range of readers. So, whether you are a technical person working on the technical side of the project, whether you are a project sponsor, whether you're a user, it should all be relevant and it's written to apply to everybody.

And you can lean on other resources available from MBIE as well, your provider and other agencies. There will be links to our resources as we move through the webinar and Alison will add these links in the chat. Thank you, Alison.

So, next slide, please.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “What is Peppol?” is displayed.

A diagram illustrating the four-corner model of eInvoicing is shown.

The diagram includes four sections:

• “C1 Sender’s system”
• “C2 Access Point”
• “C3 Access Point”
• “C4 Receiver’s system”

The diagram shows the flow of an eInvoice from a supplier’s system, through access point providers, to the buyer’s finance system.

Above the diagram, the following text is shown:

“Access Point calls the PEPPOL registry using the Buyer’s NZBN to find the address of the Buyer’s Access Point”

Below the diagram, the following text is displayed:

“eInvoicing is the digital exchange of invoice information directly between buyers’ and suppliers’ financial systems. The transfer of invoice information is made possible by using enabled software and an access point provider who uses the common international standard (Peppol).”

Audio

Lise Archbold: So, what is PEPPOL? PEPPOL eInvoicing is a digital exchange of invoice information directly between suppliers and buyers’ financial systems. This transfer is made possible by the sender and receiver, each having eInvoice enabled software and an access point provider or two in the middle to transmit, using the common PEPPOL standard. So, let's just touch on the NZBN first. The essential requirement for both suppliers and buyers is that both parties need to capture in their respective systems the other's NZBN. So, the supplier's customer record must

must hold the customer's NZBN, and the buyer's supplier must record must hold the supplier's NZBN. And that's because the NZBN is the key identifier that enables the different systems to recognise each other as the correct buyer or supplier. And in the eInvoicing environment, it effectively replaces the role that an email address played when sending PDF Invoices. Right, so how it works in practice, the data flows through the four-corner model like this. You'll see in my diagram; we've got these little pictures labelled C1 through to C4. So C1 means corner one, and that's the suppliers billing system or financial management information software. So, the supplier system creates the invoice and that has to include the supplier's NZBN and the buyer's NZBN. Because we need to know who the buyer is and how the network is going to identify that buyer.

So, under the old PDF email model, the invoice was delivered via an email address. With eInvoicing, it relies entirely on the NZBN, so including it is absolutely essential. Then once prepared, the invoice is passed from corner one to the supplier's access point provider, which is corner two. The supplier's access point provider receives the eInvoice, does its initial checks, such as verifying all of the mandatory PEPPOL fields, such as supplier and buyers NZBN, and then looks up the NZBN for the buyer on the PEPPOL network. So, so this is why the NZBN also is so important, and then the look up checks that the buyer is registered, and then if they are, to make sure that they are able to receive eInvoices, and then also identifies who the access point provider is that looks after that buyer. If all these conditions are met, then the access point provider for the supplier sends it off to the corner three, which is the buyer's access point provider. So, they're the access point provider that is actually acting for the buyer. So, they go through and perform all their further checks, and they revalidate the eInvoices coming through, just to make sure again that it aligns with the PEPPOL standard, and then it applies any data transformation rules that have been requested by the buyer. And then, and then at that point, if all is well, then then the corner three, the access point provider for the buyer, sends off the invoice to the buyer s financial management software, which is the corner 4. When the eInvoice arrives at the corner 4, it typically passes through a processing queue in the FMIS, just always, there are so many different systems, the actual workflow differs system to system, but generally that's how it works, it turns up in a processing queue first. And the 1st and most important match performed is on the NZBN.

If the buyer has the supplier s NZBN stored correctly in their supply records, then the invoice can be automatically assigned to the correct supplier account. From there, the system performs additional validation, such as checking references. If all of the required information is present, the invoice can progress through the buyer's internal workflow, potentially all the way to approval and payment, depending on which FMIS is being used and how it has been configured. And as I said, the workflows will vary much between systems, but the correct NZBN matching is the fundamental part to making automation possible. The access point providers, as I mentioned, with respect to data transformation services, they offer a number of services in that sort of in that corner two, corner three, corner four area, and we'll cover that a bit more soon when we talk a little bit about messaging. Okay, next slide, please.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Implementation overview” is displayed.

The slide is divided into three sections:

• “1 Software”
• “2 eInvoicing Connection”
• “3 Business Process/Trading Partner Onboarding”

The following text is displayed under “Software”:

“eInvoicing can be implemented using different software/systems. Identify the business software you use (or plan to use) to send and receive eInvoices. This may include:

• ERP software
• AR automation software/mailhouse service
• AP automation software/OCR provider
• EDI/VAN network”

The following text is displayed under “eInvoicing Connection”:

“Determine whether your chosen software is already eInvoicing capable, or whether you need an access point provider to connect you to the eInvoicing network.”

The following text is displayed under “Business Process/Trading Partner Onboarding”:

“Consider if any wider business process change may be required to maximise the benefits of eInvoicing, for example:

• Any change/update to business processes
• Staff communication and training (change management)
• Supplier/customer communications and onboarding”
• A link is also shown: “Invoice Reference Requirements for Central Government Agencies | eInvoicing”

Link in this slide:

Invoice Reference Requirements for Central Government Agencies [PDF, 105 KB]

Audio

Lise Archbold: So, there are three distinct parts to a successful implementation. There's the software piece, the eInvoicing connexion piece, and the business process trading partner onboarding piece. We'll cover each of these in more detail on the next slides. Could we go to the next slide, please?

Visuals

On screen, a section heading labelled “1 Software” and a slide title “eInvoicing can be implemented using different software/systems” is displayed.

Below the title, the following text is shown:

“Identify the business software you plan to use to send eInvoices”

“eInvoicing works best using your natural business software. Think of eInvoicing as an additional channel that best sits alongside existing channels (e.g. PDF/email, post, mailhouse and EDI) within the system/s you currently use to send invoices.”

The slide includes the following examples:

Example 1: ERP (Sending/Receiving eInvoices)

• “If you send/receive and process invoices via your ERP”
• “eInvoicing may require upgrading to a cloud version and additional invoice sending/processing modules – talk to your provider”

Example 2: AR Automation/Billing Software/Mailhouse (Sending eInvoices)

• “If you use additional software (outside of your ERP) to send B2B invoices”
• “Bunnings/Placemakers examples – opt in/out approach”
• “eInvoicing becomes a customer channel preference”

Example 3: EDI/VAN Network (Sending/Receiving eInvoices)

• “Many EDI/VAN networks offer Peppol as a channel”

Audio

Lise Archbold: The first step is to confirm the software that will send your eInvoices. So, you may use a few different types of software for your billing, especially the larger suppliers. And we see it quite often with larger businesses that have acquired other businesses along the way that they end up with using different software for different things.

So, it's worth noting that the NZ government procurement rules have recently been upsized to include councils and wider government. And I know that we have a number of representatives from both of those today, both of those sectors today. And then along with this, as of January next year, there'll be a requirement for government agencies to request eInvoices from their large suppliers as well. And I'm guessing that's also why some of you are here. The business guide contains detailed information about ways of implementing eInvoicing, but the key is that the government procurement rules refer to your primary system. So that's the main system from which you send your customer invoices through now. And when we think about software send capability, eInvoicing works best in your natural business software. And by this, we mean your billing or your finance systems, your ERPs, mail houses. It's really just another channel that sits alongside your existing channels. And with respect to mail houses, I just thought I'd call this out. We've seen some quite interesting, good ways of onboarding their customers, essentially, it's around opting in or opting out. So, Bunnings, for example, when they went live a year or so ago, they basically, they registered all of their customers who were registered on the network already, and then they let their customers know when they, if they didn't want to be receiving eInvoices from them. And then we've seen other ones, other implementations where they've done an opt-in situation where people have to, all companies have to make contact with them to opt in. Right, next slide please.

Visuals

On Screen section heading labelled “2 eInvoicing Connection” and a slide title “Establish a connection to the secure Peppol eInvoicing network” is displayed.

The following text is displayed:

“Is your chosen software already eInvoicing enabled?

Determine whether your chosen software can already connect to the eInvoicing network:

• Check MBIE’s list of eInvoicing enabled software products
• Talk to your software provider about how to get started

Most eInvoicing enabled software providers have an in-built access point connection to the eInvoicing network. However, many ERPs require you to also set up your own Peppol access point connection – see below.”

A section titled “Access point connection” is displayed with the following text:

“You need an access point provider to connect you to the Peppol eInvoicing network if:

A) Your software (or its current version) is not yet eInvoicing enabled, or

B) Your software is eInvoicing enabled but requires you to set up a separate access point connection

Check MBIE’s list of eInvoicing access point providers.

Some organisations may choose to connect to an access point directly for strategic reasons, e.g. system complexity, wider project scope/value-added services e.g. additional accounts payable processing functionality offered by some access points.

To view access point providers on the syndicated panel:

PEPPOL capabilities and associated services (including eInvoicing)”

A callout box on the right side of the slide contains the text:

“If your software provider is not yet enabled, ask them if they plan to add eInvoicing in the near future.”

Link in this slide:

eInvoicing enabled software products

eInvoicing access point providers

PEPPOL capabilities and associated services (including eInvoicing)(external link) - New Zealand Government Procurement

Audio

Lise Archbold: So, this one is about connecting to the PEPPOL network and it's really how your software is going to get into that PEPPOL network.

And really here, we're talking about two aspects. So, we are first talking about whether your software already has functionality to create and send eInvoices, as well as whether the software can directly connect to the PEPPOL network. I mentioned access points earlier in corner two and corner three, so some software has an inbuilt access point, a few of them do at least, many don't, but this is the difference between a system that where you don't necessarily need to engage an access point provider to send. And for example, the software that I would mention right now that has that has the inbuilt access point system such as SAP and Xero MYOB. They essentially have an access point working in behind the scenes.

And so, it's one of the first things to check whether that's the case and or whether you need to engage an access point. And so, we've got so many systems around which are already capable of sending eInvoices. If I just list a handful, and particularly ones that government are using, technology one, Oracle Fusion, Microsoft Business Central, SAP, Xero, MYOB, Magic, they're all capable. And if you're not sure, just contact your provider and find out. We also have a list of eInvoicing capable software products on our website, and the link is there on the slide and Alison will add it to the chat too. If your software isn't capable, then there are still options available to you. For example, your mail house provider may have a plug and play option, or an access point provider may also be able to help. We're also aware that some of you may have your own purpose-built EAPs, in which case you're probably going to have to invest in having that eInvoicing functionality added. So, the next thing to consider is how your software is going to connect to the network. And I have touched on it a little already, but what I would say is that we have a list on our website of all of the access point providers and also all of these access point providers are accredited with the New Zealand and Australian PEPPOL Authorities and the link to that has been posted in the chat.

And if you're a government agency and you need the services of an access point provider, then there's a government syndicated panel in place with seven providers to choose from. MBIE has done the procurement on your behalf, so you don't need to run a full process of procurement. And all of these panel providers have done many successful implementations.

If you haven't already, go to the NZ Government Procurement website for detail about the open agreement and to check what the process is for requesting the buyer's guide. Generally, you start by emailing the Commercial Services Desk and it will involve signing an NDA. Alison will post a link in the chat to our list of, sorry, to our list of panel providers on our New Zealand Government procurement website.

Okay, could we go to the next slide, please?

Visuals

On screen, A section heading labelled “3 Business Process/Trading Partner Onboarding” and a slide titled “Consider customer onboarding and any wider business process change” is displayed.

The slide includes the following sections:

Business processes

“Consider if any wider business process change/updates may be required to maximise the benefits of eInvoicing, for example:

• Improvements to internal practices for sending invoices to people instead of buyers’ systems
• New system workflows"

Change management (Staff communication and training)

• "eInvoicing is another channel to deliver invoices to your customers."
• "The transition from PDF to eInvoices will take time. The speed of change is up to you and your plan to encourage trading partners to shift channels”

Customer/supplier communication and onboarding

“It is important to focus on transitioning your customers to eInvoicing to maximise benefits to your organisation

• The eInvoicing website contains a range of support materials and communication guides”

The following links are displayed at the bottom of the slide:

“eInvoicing change management guide”

“Invoice Reference Requirements for Central Government Agencies”

Link in this slide:

eInvoicing change management guide [DOCX, 1 MB]

Invoice Reference Requirements for Central Government Agencies [PDF, 105 KB]

Audio

Lise Archbold: So, the next piece is about business process, change management, customer onboarding areas, which all kind of fit together quite nicely. The transition from emailing your PDFs to sending eInvoices is going to take some time and we have to be realistic about that. And the speed at which this happens is really up to you and depends on the rate on how you can, how quickly you can transition your customers to this channel. It also of course is about what the enablement is of your receiving customers. So, if we talk about business process first, this is all about reviewing your current processes and consider those that will need to need to change to accommodate eInvoicing.

We've seen that the most successful implementations where the processes are adapted to wrap around eInvoicing rather than the other way around. These might be business processes, or they might come about due to workflow changes in your system when eInvoicing, the eInvoicing channels added but I must say, it's a great opportunity to look at ways to find efficiencies and flush out processes that may have become troublesome or obsolete for your business. For example, emailing PDFs to the buyer contacts. eInvoicing has one endpoint and doesn't fall over if people go on holiday or leave. So, the invoices are going straight to your customer system and it's a really key difference and it's a really good one.

So, on this, we've seen considerable value in suppliers and customers getting together to talk about the specifics of all their billing scenarios in the form of workshops and that sort of thing. These discussions tend to unearth a few tricky little processes that seem to just go on behind the scenes and a lot of people don't know about. And if left unchecked, then they have the potential to derail the efficiencies that you're going to get from eInvoicing. There's of course the classic one that I alluded to above, buyers requesting that they receive the emailed invoice directly. I've even heard of cases where the supplier is asked to send the invoice to multiple recipients and the poor finance teams are the last to know about the invoice. This can add days or even weeks to processing times. And the other one that we've commonly seen is staff ordering goods or services and then they get the invoice directly to them. And then they go, oops, I was supposed to give a purchase order for that. So, then the contact with the supplier, supplier has to then regenerate the invoice, either credit it or amend it and resend it with the purchase order number on it. In a blue-sky scenario, the purchase order would be provided at the time of ordering so that it could be included on the invoice the first time and then potentially with the purchase order and options around automation and systems, you know, it could enable the receipt three-way matching automation kind of process, which is really worthwhile and it could cut down a lot of time.

So, in the end, these discussions will just provide you with richer information for which to go ahead with when mapping your processes and to see how they'll look under eInvoicing. So, change management, some of us will say this is the hardest part because this is the people part really. So, everyone responds to change differently, and we strongly recommend stressing to your users that eInvoicing is just another channel. There may be a few changes to everyday tasks, but over time, everyone will see the benefits. Less chasing payments for invoices, that kind of thing. This is something that takes time to address, but it can be managed with the appropriate training and preparation of user guides. It really does get easier with time, just like anything.

All right, so it's really important to keep focused and keep motivated on transitioning your customers to eInvoicing. You'll see the benefits much faster if you do. And just try to focus in the beginning with those that have simple reference requirements. What I'd say is there is benefit in sending eInvoices to government agencies. Partly I say this because they're already eInvoice receive enabled, so they know what to expect when the eInvoices come in, which makes it hopefully easier to onboard them. There's also the added bonus of eInvoices to government agencies having to be paid within five days. So, you should see your reward pretty quickly.

And then so to help you along with that, we've developed a list of invoice requirements, invoice reference requirements. So, we've gone out to government agencies over the last while. So probably a few years ago, we first developed this, what we affectionately called the cheat sheet. So, this is a list of approximately 30 agencies that are eInvoicing enabled already and the references they want to receive, along with the NZBN numbers and contact emails. And we've recently gone through a task of upsizing the data. So, we will now be including about 110 agencies. We will be, we're just tidying it up at the moment and we are soon to publish it on our website. Alison will put the link in the chat for that particular list.

All right. And so, something else that we've seen work really well for onboarding, one of our larger customers uses an onboarding questionnaire. So, whenever they need to onboard a customer to eInvoicing, they first ask them to complete the questionnaire. So

this captures deeper detail around what they expect to be included on the eInvoices. And because the information is being submitted, being submitted is specific to that particular buyer/supplier relationship, it just helps identify any intricacies that may have been missed and can perhaps be flagged and be encoded in the sending solution.

Right, and then we do have a bunch of resources on our website, but just to call out a couple there. We've got the eInvoicing Change Management Guide, and we have the Communication Toolkit for eInvoice Senders. Now, could we go to the next slide, please?

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “PINT ANZ Peppol billing specification” is displayed.

The slide includes the following text:

• “Contains a structured set of ~200 elements/fields, some of which are mandatory, including:
  • Supplier Details: Legal name, physical address, and GST registration number.
  • Customer Details: Legal name, address, and GST registration number (if applicable).
  • Invoice Specifics: Unique invoice number and date of issue.
  • Payment Terms: Due date.
  • Item Details: A clear description of the goods or services provided, quantities, and unit prices.
  • Tax and Totals: Total amount payable, GST amount (or breakdown).
  • Currency: NZD or AUD.
  • References: Either one or both of a buyer’s reference or purchase order number is required.
  • NZBN: The use of the New Zealand Business Number (NZBN) for identification of both parties.”
• “Fields in the specification map to your usual accounts receivable (and payable) fields”
• “Mandatory for all Peppol access point providers for sending and receiving eInvoices in New Zealand and Australia”
• “Allows trade between countries”

Audio

Lise Archbold: So here I'd just like to talk a little bit about the technical components that underpin PEPPOL eInvoicing. I don't want to spend too much time on this because I just want to give you a bit of an idea of how it all works so that you're aware. Essentially, when you receive or send an eInvoice on the PEPPOL network, you have to use the PINT ANZ specification. So, PINT meaning PEPPOL International invoice, ANZ, Australia, New Zealand specification. So, as I mentioned earlier, Australia and New Zealand share the same specification. And what it does is it ensures consistency in the way that the invoice data is structured, validated, and exchanged. And it's mandatory for all of the access point providers I spoke about earlier operating in New Zealand and Australia. Okay, so what does it contain? It's typically the information you'd expect to capture on any invoice when you're creating it. So, supplier details, customer details, invoice number, dates, GST numbers, line items, totals, that kind of thing, and so those elements are, transferred through as data through PEPPOL in the same way every time, so that receiving systems can correctly interpret it. And there are about 200 structured data elements and specification, but of that about 25 to 30 are mandatory, and you'll see the list that I've put in the slide there, but essentially all of the ones that I mentioned just now, and just of course, calling out the NZBN as well. So, the supplier NZBN along with the buyer NZBN.

All right, so why does it matter? It's just basically it ensures that sending and receiving systems interpret the data in the same way. And it allows the invoices to move seamlessly between the different software platforms across the PEPPOL network. And so, Australia, New Zealand, we're early adopters of this. We went live with this last year.

One of the key things about the update to the specification that we went live with was that it supports international trade seamlessly. And so more jurisdictions worldwide, such as those in Europe and Asia, are catching up as well.

Okay, next slide, please.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Industry Practice Statement for Invoice Content” is displayed.

The slide includes the following text:

• “Developed by New Zealand & Australian Peppol Authorities and Digital Service Providers of Australia and New Zealand”
• “Not mandatory but strongly recommended. NZ Panel Providers must comply.”
• “A useful resource that provides a user-friendly view of considerations for organisations implementing eInvoice capability”
• “Recognises that sending only the mandatory data elements required in the PINT A-NZ Billing specification doesn’t give medium to large business and government buyers enough information to be able to process and pay eInvoices and aims to provide guidance to access point and software providers to ensure government buyers can process eInvoices smoothly and efficiently.”
• “Ratings: Determined by how commonly the elements are required and how important elements are for interoperability”
• “Required for interoperability: frequently required by buyers and are vital to enable automatic invoice processing”
• “Recommended: These elements help buyers achieve quicker, more straightforward processing such as 3-way matching”
• “Conditional: may be included to support buyer processing by including rich business information where possible.”
• “Link to document: A-NZ Industry Practice Statement for Invoice Content”

Link in this slide:

A-NZ Industry Practice Statement for Invoice Content(external link) - GitHub

Audio

Lise Archbold: So, the other semi-technical document that goes hand in hand with the specification is the Industry Practise Statement for Invoice Content. So, this was developed by the New Zealand and Australian PEPPOL authorities, as well as the digital service providers of Australia and New Zealand.

So, whilst this isn't mandatory to align to this for organisations, the New Zealand panel providers, so those seven access point providers I mentioned earlier, they are required to comply as part of their agreement to be on the panel. It's designed to be a practical, user-friendly resource to support organisations implementing eInvoicing capability.

So, if you think about how, it fits in with the specification, the specification provides the minimum requirements for interoperability, whereas the idea is that really if you just send the mandatory elements, it doesn't necessarily give medium to large businesses or agencies enough information to efficiently process those eInvoices.

So, this industry practise statement offers guidance to software vendors and access point providers to ensure, particularly government buyers, receive the information they need for smooth, automated invoice processing.

And so, within this document, based on feedback that we have grouped these fields based on how commonly buyers have said that they need them and also how important they're considered to be for interoperability in automated processing.

And so, we have three the ratings required for interoperability, which is rated as the most important. So most frequently, excuse me, frequently required by buyers, critical for enabling automatic invoice processing and necessary for reliable interoperability across the network. And then we've got the recommended, which assist with quicker, more efficient processing by buyers and tends to assist with things like three-way matching and POs and receipts and that sort of thing. And once again helps with the, the straightforward processing between systems. And then there's the conditional. So, the conditional, we kind of have at the bottom of the three ratings, just because whilst they do provide much more rich context, there might be fields that some systems will support but others won't. For example, a purchase order line reference. If someone is a company is buying goods or a government agency is buying goods and their system might require a purchase order line number, but then maybe their maybe their supplier uses zero and so zero can't support that. So, it's really important to remember that those, whilst those fields are significant, they also have their limitations, given that different software supports different things. And so, it's also prudent to, you know, not for buyers not to expect all of those fields to be provided on their request. All right. So, if we could go to the next slide, please.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Pro tips and learnings” is displayed.

The slide includes the following text:

“The goal when sending eInvoices is faster processing and payment of invoices”

• “Start collecting NZBNs now and update your customer master data”
• “Get the right people on the project team”
• “Purchase order and buyer references and getting the data mapping right”
• “Support of fields can vary with software. Treatment of multiple fields in Xero: Send an eInvoice | Xero Central”
• “Credit note handling – some software doesn’t support this document type but can use invoice only (negative invoice)”
• “Document processes and map these to Peppol to identify changes”
• “When you get to the stage of testing, ensure your test partners cover a good cross-section of scenarios to avoid surprises”
• “Perhaps your org currently uses an EDI to send invoices. This may be a good candidate for transitioning to eInvoicing.”
• “Get familiar with the Industry Practice Statement for Invoice Content”

Link in this slide:

Send an eInvoice(external link) - Xero Central

Audio

Lise Archbold: Pro tips and learnings. So, we all know, I guess by now, the overall goal of the eInvoicing is faster processing and payment of invoices. And we know that Bunnings Australia have seen seven-fold decrease in transmission failures since implementing eInvoicing and sending eInvoices to their customers.

PEPPOL is a stable channel with very few error rates, invoices not received by customers, unlike the old emailing of PDFs where they can very often get lost, unfortunately. And so, the next point I'd like to mention is while the technicalities of the implementation are underway, we strongly recommend you start collecting NZBNs right now and make it a priority. It's a job that you can just carry on with in the background and just keep working on. And next point would be get the right people on the project team. So, make sure you've got a project sponsor, we need someone who's going to own your project, and you should have a good mix of users, the people that are at the coal face and the technical experts, we find that works the best. So, purchase orders and buyer references can be a significant challenge. These provide the essential context that tells your customers what each invoice relates to.

It's important to take the time to identify the correct references required for your customer, as I've mentioned earlier, and ensure that your data and processes are mapped so that this information is consistently captured. I also want to reiterate the importance of conducting both data mapping and process mapping.

This is one of the most common areas where organisations experience early eInvoicing issues. So, investing the time up front saves effort later. And as mentioned earlier, we strongly recommend a data mapping exercise, and that's particularly important around references.

And this helps confirm that all your necessary data that you're used to sending to your customers and are used to receiving, especially references and notes, will be included and transmitted correctly when the invoices are sent.

And just because, as I mentioned, the different software managers handles the data fields differently with respect to how they're seen in the receiving and sending system. Yeah, don't forget that some customers may not be able to receive certain fields you send, or on the other side, your software might not be able to send data your customer expects to receive.

It's definitely a place for flexibility there. And each product manages fields in its own way, and it can create mismatches. If I use an example of Xero, so on the face of it, if you were creating an invoice in Xero, it looks like you only have one reference option, so one reference field to enter something in. But actually, Xero, when you can put in particular syntax to be able to map to more than one reference, so you can send to your buyer reference as well as your purchase order reference. And Xero has good resources on this on their website and there's a link on the slide and Alison will add a link to the chat. Essentially, if you want to say your general reference, you might have put somebody's name or a cost centre number or something like that. Put a comma and then for your purchase order number, you'd put PO colon and then put your purchase order number after that. When the invoice is received by the receiver, then that invoice will have the cost centre come through into their buyer reference and the purchase order number will land in their order reference. So, it's actually quite a good resource and encourage you if you're using Xero or if you even have customers that use Xero, it's a really good thing to know about. So, credit note handling is a bit of a trick. There are some systems that don't actually support credit notes, ecredit notes. There is a separate technical specification and so some receivers aren't registered on the network to receive credit notes. So, we we suggest that when you are building your sending solution, that you just incorporate the credit notes inside your eInvoice specification. It's already there, all ready to go. You don't necessarily need to go off and use a separate credit note specification. It's essentially, it's created as an invoice, but it's a negative value invoice. It looks almost exactly the same you've just got negative quantities as opposed to positive, and it works exactly the same way. And the benefit of that also is that when you're sending eInvoices, your system doesn't need to go off and check whether that customer can receive ecredit notes. If you're just sending one type of specification which manages both scenarios then that is much more simple.

So testing, make sure that you select your test partner so that you have a good cross-section of scenarios to avoid surprises after going live. It's really important. And perhaps we have some organisations here that use EDI to send eInvoices, send invoices, sorry.

This could be a good candidate either now or in the medium term to switch over to eInvoicing. And then once again, just try to get familiar with the industry practise statement for invoice content. So, it's not just from a technical point of view, it's actually, it's thinking, it's giving you a view of what the experience looks like when your eInvoice is sent and how it's received.

All right, I promise I'm going to stop talking shortly.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Other considerations” is displayed.

The slide includes the following text:

Work in progress:

• “Consolidated invoices”
• “Utilities (telecommunications and electricity/gas)”

Access point providers services:

• “The experts in implementation”
• “Invoice response options”
• “Added value services – data transformation and validation”

eInvoicing Community of Practice (eCoP)

• “Knowledge sharing and networking”
• “Held quarterly – next date is 19 March”
• “Email roshan.pandey@mbie.govt.nz to register”

Audio

Lise Archbold: So other considerations that shall just briefly touch on. Consolidated Invoices and Utilities Invoices. So, with consolidated invoices, we know that a lot of agencies have specific processes to ingest consolidated invoices, and also for organisations sending those consolidated invoices. And at this point, they don't necessarily translate easily into the eInvoicing model. And along with this, if you're in the utility sector, so telecommunications, electricity, that kind of thing, then it's quite likely you'll send information that's additional to your run-of-the-mill invoice. It might be the sheer size of an invoice. I've seen really big, large phoney invoices that might be phone, sorry, phone service invoices that are up to 3000 pages just for a month. And actually, when you look at what's being received, what's being entered by the receiver, they might just be putting a couple of lines in because they've got all the detail in another form such as PDF or Excel, or they can access it via a portal. And then there's also with those utility type invoices, usually you'll see an opening balance, changes to opening balance and less payments, and then like a new opening balance and then you've got all your other information. So, it's kind of a little bit like an invoice statement. And so eInvoicing doesn't cater to this. It's kind of. eInvoicing is really more about billing for a good or service as you go, like maybe one instance per invoice. And there's so much to think about. And now with the larger suppliers being required to supply to sorry, just eInvoices to government agencies, by January next year, this subject is really becoming front of mind for us. So, we are getting together with other government agencies and going to survey their requirements and set up some working groups to work through just how we're going to attack this. And the result basically will be building and documenting suitable models of what these implementations could look like.

Yes, so that's on our work agenda for this year. And then also, yeah, access point providers, they're the experts in implementing. And one of the things that they do is invoice response options. So, we talked about invoices being emailed by PDF and getting lost in someone's inbox or someone's on leave, that kind of thing. Invoicing response for sending is available from your access point providers. So, you can send an eInvoice and then get a message back to say that it was successful or not. And also at the other end, the buyer's end, they can, the access point provider can send messages back should an invoice be rejected for some reason.

And then they also do some quite cool added value services, things like data transformation, validation, so maybe checking for a purchase order number on the way through or checking for references that might be potentially mapping to the wrong place and remapping them to where that organisation needs them.

And last thing from me, I just wanted to quickly talk about the eInvoicing Community of Practise or what we call the ECOP. So, this is the quarterly knowledge sharing and networking meeting for private organisations. We mostly discuss eInvoicing and payment time journeys and because payment time has been sitting with us for a while.

And the ECOP is a useful platform to network, meet people, share notes, and collectively solve problems. It's just, we found it so invaluable for our stakeholders to share and help each other. The next one is on the 19th of March. And if you would like to join us, if you're not already on the invite, then please email us at the eInvoicing@mbie.govt.nz address to register, please.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Questions” is displayed.

The slide includes the following bullet points:

• “Use the Q&A function”
• “For specific implementation questions, email einvoicing@mbie.govt.nz”

Audio

Lise Archbold: Okay, now I am finished. So, now's the time to answer your questions. But before we do that, we're going to put a couple of online polls on the screen for you to participate in, please.

Visuals

The screen transitions from the presentation slides to a live polling interface.

The first poll question is displayed:

“Where are you in your eInvoicing journey?”

A chart is shown with multiple response options, Investigating, Implementing and Live.

Audio

Lise Archbold: All right, so what stage are you at your eInvoicing journey? Alison is putting a link in the chat for you to attached to this.

Visuals

The response counts increase as participants submit answers and the chart updates dynamically in real time. The chart stabilises showing final results for the question: Investigating reaches 25 responses, Implementing reaches 7 responses, and Live reaches 6 responses.

Audio

Lise Archbold: Right, lots of people at the investigating stage. About 50-50 with working through it.

Visuals

On screen, the poll transitions to the next question. A free-text response question is displayed:

“Would you be interested in attending another send webinar later this year?” with multiple response options; Yes, No and Unsure.

Audio

Lise Archbold: So, the next question, would you be interested in attending another send webinar later this year, maybe focusing on particular areas?

Visuals

Participants submit written responses which appear on screen as the poll updates. The chart stabilises showing final results for the question: Yes reaches 35 responses, No reaches 1 response, and Unsure reaches 3 responses.

Visuals

The screen transitions to the next question which is a free-text response question.

The question reads, “Are there any specific areas of interest you would like covered in a future webinar?” and asks participants to provide suggestions for topics they would like covered in future webinars.

Audio

Lise Archbold: Right, and so this is a question where you can put your own text in here to mention what particular area you'd like to know more about.

Visuals

Responses submitted by participants appear on screen which is only two responses: Na and N/A.

Visuals

The free-text poll closes and the screen transitions to a fourth poll question.

The question reads: “Did you find this webinar useful?” with multiple response options: Yes, No and Unsure.

Audio

Lise Archbold: And the last question, did you find this webinar useful?

Visuals

A results chart is displayed. Response totals increase as participants submit answers and the chart updates in real time. The chart stabilises showing final results for the question: Yes reaches 25 responses, No reaches 1 response, and Unsure reaches 3 responses. The poll interface closes and the screen transitions to webinar speaker view.

Audio

Lise Archbold: Right, and it's good to see. Okay, so now I'm going to open this up to you all and to my wider team to go through questions and answers.

Question: Does the process for credit notes apply to debit notes and other non-invoice related documents?

Andrew Cooke (eInvoicing Team): Righto, Lise. Hello, Andrew Cooke here, Government Innovation Manager for the team. So, I'm going to pass the first question to you, Lise. It's from Barry Derwin, and Barry's asking, for the credit note handling, does this include debit notes or other non-invoice related documents?

Lise Archbold: So, debit notes probably would fall into the invoice specification and non-invoice related documents. What, such as adjustments and that kind of thing? At this point, there are only...we can only use the invoice specification for something owing to an account, so...Yeah, it would have to be..I hand my debit notes. Yeah, yeah, that's right. I mean, they would all you could get it all managed inside the invoice specification, but feel free, Barry, to contact me separately to talk about specific examples.

Andrew Cooke: Right, have you got the Q&A on screen, Lise?

Lise Archbold: Yes, I have. So, Katie is the next one.

Andrew Cooke: Yeah, go for it.

Question: Can an invoice with a discount be send as an eInvoice and can Xero do this?

Lise Archbold: Yes, definitely you can manage discounts on an eInvoice. There's this, there are fields in there to cater to all of that. But it does depend on, I guess, the software that you're using. And so, I'm not, I couldn't answer that question right off the top of my head about whether Xero manages discounts or not, but I can take that away and get in touch with you, Katie.

Question: What happens to a eInvoice when the portal (PEPPOL network) is down?

Lise Archbold: Alright, next question: What happens if the portal is down?

Well, it's not a portal as such. It depends on what you mean by a portal, but it's actually a network that just carries the eInvoices through. So, I've never seen the PEPPOL network go down.

Linda More: Yeah, I was just going to ask that. I was going to say, is it possible that the eInvoicing network goes down for some reason and therefore can't pass eInvoices through? Is that perhaps that's the question? Perhaps that's what he was asking.

Lise Archbold: We've never seen the eInvoicing network go down. I guess it's possible that specific access point providers might go down, but then that's highly unlikely also. But if there was a problem, the access, it's probably more a question for your access point provider to be fair than me, but every eInvoice is sent as a message in an XML file, so I guess they would hold on to that message until their network was up again. But there is the PEPPOL SML can go down sometimes, the PEPPOL search function, sorry, can go down sometimes, but there are multiple ways of and that to identify an NZBN for a receiver. So yeah, it's not something that's a big issue at all. But if you want to talk about this more, please let us know and or talk to your access point provider about it because they will know the answer straight off, I'm sure.

Question: Where are the eInvoicing data stored?

The invoice data isn't stored. It's sent as messages in XML. So, they just pass through the network. Once again, it sounds like an access point provider question.

Question: Can additional attachments be managed with in the eInvoicing template or does it need to be sent separately?

Lise Archbold: Alright. We are asked to provide attachments with invoice receipts or specific agency templates. Are these managed in the template, or will they need to be seen separately?

So, there is functionality to attach additional documents, whether it's a simple PDF of an invoice or whether it's a time sheet or something like that. There is definitely space in there to include attachments and additional data. The specifics, I guess, you'd need to sort out when you're building your solution or talk to your software and service provider.

Question: Is eInvoicing an enabler for payments time reporting?

Lise Archbold: Next one, is eInvoicing meant to be an enabler for payment times reporting, i.e. data is consistent? Do you want to answer that, Andrew?

Andrew Cooke: Yeah, I'll give it a go. Well, yes and no. I mean, as Lise mentioned earlier on in the presentation, eInvoicing, it's just another channel. It's, yes, there are a number of countries that have adopted eInvoicing as a tax reporting solution, but that's not the path New Zealand is going down. So essentially, no, but it does mean that you have richer data that gets into your system faster and of course, faster payment as well.

Linda More: sorry Andrew, I'll just, so I guess the question was around is eInvoicing meant to be an enabler for payment times reporting? So, I guess the answer is, yes?

Andrew Cooke: Well, is it an enabler? I mean, not necessarily, because payment time reporting is the data at the end of the system. So, no, as I say, it's just another channel.

Lise Archbold: And we have generally the payment time reporting is already available on your software, regardless of whether it's an eInvoice or not.

Question: Are there statistics on which eInvoicing-enabled software products are used by government agencies to help with data mapping and field compatibility?

Lise Archbold: Are there any stats about the different eInvoicing enabled software that government agencies are using would help with data mapping and knowing whether the info pass through would actually be surfaced or not surfaced?

We definitely have on our records the different systems that government agencies use. We can talk to you about that separately if you wish.

Question: What certification accreditation is done for the access point providers?

Lise Archbold: All right, what certification accreditation is done for the access point providers?

So, we go through an accreditation process, which essentially starts with at the time that the access point provider will apply to be accredited. There are checks such as criminal checks, that they have insurance, indemnity insurance, basically that they are who they say they are. And then as well as that, they need to submit a security questionnaire, which is basically a document that lists out all of their security infrastructure.

But as well as that, they generally will have ISO 27001 certification already and that's usually a big part of it. But basically, the security questionnaire is when it was received, it's passed on to security team, cyber security team to work through. And they check down to the Nth degree everything that's provided in there and then go and satisfy directly with the access point providers the questions that they might have. They don't, no one gets accredited until our cybersecurity team are fully satisfied.

Question: is there 24/7 support available (from access point providers)?

Lise Archbold: Okay, is 24-7 support available .. for what?

Linda More: Yes, that would be from their access point provider or...if that's kind of support you're looking for; that will be your first call.

Lise Archbold: Yeah, if you're talking about, yeah, yeah, if you're talking about the access point providers, then I know with respect to the panel providers, for example, the seven panel providers are within their agency agreements. They have their support hours and time frames all set out in that document. So that could be made available to you if you're particularly concerned about a provider. But they might be all different, but generally they all have processes in place for anything that might happen.

Audio

Lise Archbold: Is that the end of the questions?

Andrew Cooke: That looks like the last one, Lise.

Lise Archbold: Yeah. Is there anybody else? We've got 5 minutes left. Does anybody else have anything that I would like to know? Feel free to speak up should you wish.

All right, well, it looks like people are dropping off now. So, I just want to thank you all for attending this webinar. I hope you found it useful. And we'll be sending out the presentation and all other supporting information after this.

Thank you so much, everyone.

Visuals

On screen, a title slide displays the text “Webinar: Implementing eInvoicing receive capability”. Below this, the date “February 2026” is shown.

eInvoicing branding elements are displayed on the slide.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) logo and the New Zealand Government logo are displayed.

Audio

Lise Archbold (eInvoicing Team) begins speaking:

Good morning, everyone and welcome to receive an Invoicing Capability webinar today. We'll just wait for a couple of minutes for people to join.

Numbers are coming up now, but we'll still just wait a couple more minutes.

Lise Archbold: Okay, everyone, well, we're at 5 past 11 now, so oh, and just say that some more people are joining. Let's get started.

Lise Archbold: Thank you so much for joining us today and welcome to this webinar for which we'll talk about implementing of eInvoice receive capability. Now for a bit of housekeeping before we get going, we will send out a copy of this presentation after the webinar. It'll contain links of relevance which Alison Smith, our adoption advisor, will be posting into the chat throughout the webinar. And the webinar is being recorded. It will be saved on our website, and we'll share a link with you in about two weeks. The core presentation is around 25 minutes. The remainder of the time will be to work through your questions.

If your questions do remain unanswered at the end of the webinar, please redirect them to us at Invoicing at mbie.govt.nz. You'll see those e-mail addresses coming through anyway in the chat and on the slides themselves. So, of particular note, when you do get to asking questions, please would you use the Q&A function rather than the chat function. This just helps us triage your questions more effectively and hopefully get all of the questions answered while we're here. There'll be an online poll early in the webinar. Alison will drop a link in the chat for you closer to the time.

And lastly, the majority of you who joined us today are from local government organisations. This webinar will be more targeted towards you, but the content is still very relevant for those of you from wider government. I also see some of you have joined us today from the private sector and we're really pleased to have you here and we hope you find value in this webinar also in particular, ideas to improve your receive capability.

So, let's get started with the karakia. If I could pass over to Linda for this, please.

Visuals

A slide titled “MBIE Karakia” is presented.

The slide displays the following text:

"Tāwhia tō mana kia mau, kia māia
Ka huri taku aro ki te pae kahurangi,
kei reira te oranga mōku
Mā mahi tahi, ka ora, ka puāwai
Ā mātau mahi katoa, ka pono, ka tika

TIHEI MAURI ORA"

Below this text, a section titled “TRANSLATION:” appears.

The translation text reads:

"Retain and hold fast to your mana, be bold, be brave
We turn our attention to the future, that’s where the opportunities lie
By working together we will flourish and achieve greatness
Taking responsibility to commit to doing things right

TIHEI MAURI ORA"

Audio

Linda More (eInvoicing Team) reads the karakia as shown on screen.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Agenda” is displayed.

The slide includes the following bullet points:

• "Purpose of webinar"
• "Resources available & pro tips"
• "Questions"

Audio

Lise Archbold: Fantastic. Thanks so much, Linda.

Right, so let's talk about our agenda today. In November, we ran a webinar that covered eInvoicing receive capability at a higher level. Today's session is a follow-on from this, and it will involve us diving a bit deeper into the technical side of implementation. Along with this, we'll cover the resources we have available and some pro tips that we've picked up along the way. I should say that the content we're covering assumes the audience is already some of the way through their eInvoicing journey, so it won't be completely foreign. To give some background on our role in PEPPOL in New Zealand, the New Zealand PEPPOL Authority sits within MBIE. Our team is small, but we cover many aspects such as PEPPOL standards, stakeholder engagement, and the technical and non-technical side of how to implement.

We work closely with the Australian PEPPOL Authority too, which is the Australian Tax Office, and we share the Australian New Zealand PEPPOL standard with them amongst many other functions, such as the mutual accreditation scheme we have going for access point providers that you will learn a bit more about soon.

So, if we could go to the next slide, please.

Linda More: Sorry to interrupt, Lise. Are we going to do the poll now?

Lise Archbold: Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, sorry. Alison is just going to share a poll on the screen. We just want to clarify whereabouts you are at in your journey.

Alison Smith (eInvoicing Team): Yeah, I've put a link to the poll in the chat and I'm just about to share the poll itself on screen, which will have a QR code for you to link to as well.

Lise Archbold: Perfect, thank you.

Visuals

The screen transitions to a slide displaying a QR code with instructions to participate in an online poll by scanning the code or accessing a link shared in the webinar chat.

The screen then transitions to a live polling interface.

A question is displayed:

“Does your organisation use any of these types of automation already?”

A chart is shown with response options, EDI, OCR, Other & None/Unsure. The response counts increase and the chart updates dynamically as participants submit answers.

Audio

Lise Archbold: So yeah, does your organisation use any of these types of automation already?

Lise Archbold: Interesting, very interesting.

Alison Smith: Ah, that's flattening out. Would you like me to move to the next slide, Lise?

Lise Archbold: Yeah, sure. Thank you. Yes, please.

Visuals

The chart onscreen stabilises showing final results for the question: EDI reaches 4 responses, OCR reaches 20 responses, Other reaches 2 responses & None/Unsure reaches 35 responses. The screen then transitions to the next poll question.

Visuals

The next poll question appears on the screen. The question reads:

“So what stage are you at at your eInvoicing journey so far?”

A chart is displayed with response options, Investigating, Implementing & Live. The response counts increase and the chart updates dynamically as participants submit answers.

Audio

Lise Archbold: So, what stage are you at your eInvoicing journey so far?

Visuals

The chart continues updating as responses are submitted. The poll stabilises showing final results for the question: Investigating reaches 46 responses, Implementing reaches 9 responses & Live reaches 8 responses.

Audio

Lise Archbold: This is great. This means I've got a whole lot of information for you all.

Alison Smith: Okay, I'm going to stop sharing now. We will actually include screen grabs of the results of those in the e-mail when it goes out later today.

Lise Archbold: Great. Could we please go to the slide previous?

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “eInvoicing Business Guide” is displayed.

Below the title, the following text is shown: “Use this guide to plan your implementation: A NZ Peppol eInvoicing Guide July 2025.docx”

An image of the A NZ Peppol eInvoicing Business Guide document is shown.

On the right side, a contents page from the guide is displayed, showing sections and page numbers.

Link in this slide: A-NZ Peppol eInvoicing Guide July 2025.docx [DOCX, 2.3 MB]

Audio

Lise Archbold: Thank you. All right, I got away with myself there a little bit, but I'm going to start with mentioning this resource first, which is our ANZ PEPPOL eInvoicing Business Guide. I'm aware that I'm going to cover a lot of information today and I'd like to reassure you that we have it documented also ready for you to refer back to when you need.

So, as I said, it's the eInvoicing Business Guide, and it's available on the website and via the link in the chat that Alison is going to add, and as well as the link on the actual presentation itself. We created this to document advice and lessons that we've learned from good 60 government Invoicing implementations. We also had import from the agency eInvoicing Champions that have already enabled, as well as a number of industry specialists. Most things you need to know are covered clearly in this document, and it's written to cover a wide range of readers. You can lean on other resources available from MBIE, your provider, and other agencies.

There will be links to ours as we move through the webinar, and Alison, as I said, will add these links as we go through.

So, next slide, please.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “What is Peppol?” is displayed.

A diagram illustrating the four-corner model of eInvoicing is shown.

The diagram includes four sections:

• “C1 Sender’s system” with text “Seller sends eInvoice to their Access Point”
• “C2 Access Point” with text “Seller’s Access Point receives the sender’s eInvoice and sends it to the Buyer’s Access Point”
• “C3 Access Point” with text “Buyer’s Access Point accepts the eInvoice from the Seller’s Access Point and passes it to the Buyer”
• “C4 Receiver’s system” with text “Buyer’s Finance system receives the eInvoice from their Access Point”

Above the diagram, the following text is shown: “Access Point calls the PEPPOL registry using the Buyer’s NZBN to find the address of the Buyer’s Access Point”

Below the diagram, the following text is displayed: “eInvoicing is the digital exchange of invoice information directly between buyers’ and suppliers’ financial systems. The transfer of invoice information is made possible by using enabled software and an access point provider who uses the common international standard (Peppol).”

Audio

Lise Archbold: So, what is PEPPOL eInvoicing? PEPPOL eInvoicing is the digital exchange of invoice information directly between buyers and suppliers financial systems, but this transfer is made possible by the sender and receiver, each having eInvoice enabled software and an access point provider or two in the middle to transmit using the common PEPPOL standard. So, I'm going to touch on the NZBN now because it's a super important piece of the puzzle. The essential part from a supplier and a customer point of view is that each party's NZBN needs to be captured on both sides.

To clarify, the supplier's customer master record should hold the customer's NZBN. And on the other side, the customer's supplier master record should also hold the supplier's NZBN so that they can basically talk to each other. The NZBN effectively access the way the different systems identify each other as a customer or a supplier.

So, it's kind of like, I know you might think about maybe an account number or an e-mail address or something like that that you, between trading you know of the other party’s reference, but yeah, for eInvoicing it must be the NZBN. In Australia and in other countries, mostly it's the ABN or the tax number, but New Zealand is slightly different in that we use the NZBN. That doesn't matter from a trading with other countries perspective, it's all built into the specification.

So, the data flows in a four-corner model like this. So, the C1, so the C corner 1 is what I'm trying to say there, is the suppliers billing system or FMIS, so Financial Management Information Software. It includes the NZBN and the invoice data being sent, but they also need to include the NZBN of the customer they're sending to. In the world of emailing a PDF, the way of delivering that invoice to the customer was with an e-mail address. With eInvoicing, there's no e-mail at all. It's all about the NZBN, so it's essential to include it. When this invoice is sent from the supplier's billing system, it passes to the corner 2, which is the supplier's access point provider.

So, the access point provider picks it up and checks that the invoice contains all of the mandatory information per the PEPPOL specification, two of these being the customer and supplier NZBNs. It then looks up the customer's NZBN on the PEPPOL network. So it goes away and checks out to make sure that the this is a valid NZBN, and then also looks to see one whether they can receive eInvoices, and because to receive eInvoices you must register on the PEPPOL Network, and then to find out who the access point provider is, so the corner 3 that looks after the customer that is ultimately going to receive that invoice. Then assuming all of these conditions are met, the sender's access point provider passes it on to the customer's access point provider.

So then, the customer's access point provider receives the eInvoice data, carries out any further checks required, such as rechecking that the eInvoice aligns with the PEPPOL standard. It's just something that all of the access point providers do as part of their service. And want to make sure that it aligns with the standard and then along with any other services that they've agreed to do for their customer, so such as data transformation, maybe checking for particular fields that they might want to remap on the way through, that kind of thing. And then the invoice data is sent off to the customer’s FMIS. So then when the customer's FMIS receives that eInvoice, generally it'll pass into a processing queue in the FMIS and the first match that's actually done is on that NZBN, so that's when it becomes really important. If the customer holds the NZBN in their supplier records, which I hope they do, then the eInvoice automatically is assigned to that supplier account.

So, as I said before, you know, it's really key in identifying the suppliers involved and the customers involved. Other checks are done after this in an FMIS, and it varies greatly across systems, but generally a system will validate the references supplied If there's enough information on the eInvoice data that's been sent, maybe it has a purchase order attached to that invoice that where it's already been receipted, so it's seen to be approved, so then the invoice can just, depending on the software, can be three-way matched and then pulled through as an invoice ready to be paid. Like I said, though, it does vary across systems. And just to add a little more to this, the access point providers are generally able to send and receive success and failure messages on the way through that four-corner cycle. We'll cover a little bit more about this a wee bit later.

Okay, could we have the next slide, please?

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Implementation overview” is displayed.

The slide is divided into three sections:

• “1 Software” with the following text: “eInvoicing can be implemented using different software/systems. Identify the business software you use (or plan to use) to send and receive eInvoices. This may include:
  • ERP software
  • AR automation software/mailhouse service
  • AP automation software/OCR provider
  • EDI/VAN network”
• “2 eInvoicing Connection” with the following text: “Determine whether your chosen software is already eInvoicing capable, or whether you need an access point provider to connect you to the eInvoicing network.”
• “3 Business Process/Trading Partner Onboarding” with the following text: “Consider if any wider business process change may be required to maximise the benefits of eInvoicing, for example:
  • Any change/update to business processes
  • Staff communication and training (change management)
  • Supplier/customer communications and onboarding”

Audio

Lise Archbold: So, there are three distinct steps to a successful implementation. The software that you're receiving the eInvoice through, the connection to the PEPPOL network, and then there's the business processes and supplier onboarding piece. We'll cover each of these in more detail on the next slides.

Next slide, please.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “eInvoicing can be implemented using different software/systems” is displayed.

Below this, the following text is shown: “Identify the business software you plan to use to send and receive eInvoices. eInvoicing works best using your natural business software. Think of eInvoicing as an additional channel that best sits alongside existing channels (e.g. PDF/email, post, EDI) within the system/s you currently use to send/receive invoices.”

The slide includes the following examples:

• “Example 1: ERP (Sending/Receiving eInvoices)” “If you send/receive and process invoices via your ERP eInvoicing may require upgrading to a cloud version and additional invoice sending/processing modules – talk to your provider”
• “Example 2: AR Automation/Billing Software/Mailhouse (Sending eInvoices)” “If you use additional software (outside of your ERP) to send B2B invoices eInvoicing becomes a customer channel preference”
• “Example 3: AP Automation/OCR Provider (Receiving eInvoices)” “If you use additional software (outside of your ERP) to receive and process invoices eInvoicing becomes an additional channel to receive supplier invoices”
• “Example 4: EDI/VAN Network (Sending/Receiving eInvoices)” “Many EDI/VAN networks offer Peppol as a channel”

Audio

Lise Archbold: So, there are two parts of the software piece. The software that will actually receive your eInvoices, so that might be your AP automation system, or it might be your FMIS, your Xero, your TechOne, any of those, and plenty of others.

And so, there'll be that software and then there's also the part of seeing whether your software has an inbuilt access point. So, I'm just going to pause here on the software bit and just say that it's worth noting the NZ government procurement rules that require government agencies to send and receive based on their invoice volumes annually have recently been upsized to include councils and wider government. And we know that we have a number of representatives from councils here today.

The business guide contains detailed information about how you might implement eInvoicing, but the key is the NZGP or the New Zealand Government Procurement rules refer to your primary system. So whichever that system is that you receive the majority of your supplier invoices through right now.

And when we think about software received capability, eInvoicing works best in your natural business software. And by natural software, we mean your finance systems, your ERPs, your OCRs, AP automation, that kind of thing. eInvoicing is really just another channel that sits along all those other existing channels.

OK, if we could move to the next slide, please.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Establish a connection to the secure Peppol eInvoicing network” is displayed.

The slide includes the following text:

“Is your chosen software already eInvoicing enabled?

Determine whether your chosen software can already connect to the eInvoicing network:

• Check MBIE’s list of eInvoicing enabled software products
• Talk to your software provider about how to get started”

“Most eInvoicing enabled software providers have an in-built access point connection to the eInvoicing network. However, some ERPs require you to also set up your own Peppol access point connection – see below.”

“Access point connection

You need an access point provider to connect you to the Peppol eInvoicing network if:

• A) Your software (or its current version) is not yet eInvoicing enabled, or
• B) Your software is eInvoicing enabled but requires you to set up a separate access point connection”

“Check MBIE’s list of eInvoicing access point providers.

Some organisations may choose to connect to an access point directly for strategic reasons, e.g. system complexity, wider project scope/value-added services e.g. additional accounts payable processing functionality offered by some access points.”

“To view access point providers on the syndicated panel: PEPPOL capabilities and associated services (including eInvoicing) | New Zealand Government Procurement”

A callout note is also shown: “If your software provider is not yet enabled, ask them if they plan to add eInvoicing in the near future.”

Links in this slide:

• eInvoicing software products - eInvoicing
• eInvoicing Access Point providers - eInvoicing
• PEPPOL capabilities and associated services (including eInvoicing)(external link) - New Zealand Government Procurement

Audio

Lise Archbold: The next piece of the puzzle is how your system connects to the PEPPOL eInvoicing Network. When we look at how we connect to the PEPPOL Network, there are two parts: the software that receives those einvoices, as well as whether that software has an input access point, as I mentioned earlier. It's ideal if your software is already eInvoice capable and many are the main einvoice capable ERPs we know of being used by governments right now and being received receiving einvoices successfully are Tech One, Oracle Fusion, Microsoft Business Central and SAP. There are certainly others. Some small agencies are actually using Xero too.

If you're in doubt about whether your software is capable, we have published a list. You can ask your provider, but also, we've published a list of our eInvoicing capable software products on our website via the link on the screen and Alison will add that to the chat.

If your software isn't capable, then there are still options available to you. So, your OCR provider may have a plug and play option for you, that's quite common, or an access point provider may also be able to help you.

So, then the next part is how your software will actually connect to the PEPPOL network. This is usually done via an access point provider, as explained a bit earlier. The ERP such as SAP have an access point built in, but in most cases the organisation will need to engage an access point provider separately.

If you need the services of an access point provider and you're a government agency, there's a government syndicated panel in place with seven providers to choose from. MBIE has done the procurement on your behalf for this, so there is no need to run a full procurement process. And all of our panel providers have done many, many successful implementations. If you haven't already, go to the New Zealand Government Procurement website for detail about the open agreement and the process for requesting the buyer's guide. Part of this will be starting off by after you've initially requested, you need to sign an NDA. Alison will post the link on the screen in the chat.

We also have a page on our eInvoicing website that lists all our access point providers that have current accreditation with the New Zealand and Australian PEPPOL Authority, so that's also a really good place to start and narrow down your search.

Alright, can we go to the next slide, please?

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Consider supplier/customer onboarding and any wider business process change” is displayed.

The slide includes the following sections and text:

“Business processes

Consider if any wider business process change/updates may be required to maximise the benefits of eInvoicing, for example:

• Improvements to internal practices for purchase orders, goods receipting, centralising invoice receive point, approvals”

“Staff communication and training (change management)

• eInvoicing is another channel to send/receive invoices and get invoice information into your finance system. Invoice approval processes remain unchanged
• The transition from PDF to eInvoices will take time. The speed of change is up to you and your plan to encourage trading partners to shift channels
• When receiving invoices, staff may be used to receiving PDF invoice via email. With eInvoicing they’ll no longer get this, but should be able to view the invoice information in your finance system”

“Supplier/customer communication and onboarding

• It is important to focus on transitioning your suppliers/customers to eInvoicing to maximise benefits to your organisation
• The eInvoicing website contains a range of support materials and communication guides”

Link in this slide:

Download the list of active eInvoice senders to government [XLSX, 64 KB]

eInvoicing change management guide - July 2025 [DOCX, 1 MB]

Get your customers ready for eInvoicing with this communications toolkit [DOCX, 1.1 MB]

Audio

Lise Archbold: So, the third aspect is about reviewing your current processes and considering those that we need to change to accommodate eInvoicing and this can be quite time intensive. We've seen that the most successful implementations are that are where the processes are adapted to wrap around eInvoicing rather than the other way around. So, there will be some tweaks or changes to your processes. For example, if you use purchase orders and there's opportunity to automate how the eInvoices come in and match to the POs and associated receipts, then you'll need to look at how your existing business processes may need to adjust and maybe to your workflows in your system for eInvoicing. And then there's the change management part. So, some of us might say this is the hardest part. We strongly recommend stressing to your users that eInvoicing is just another channel. You know, change is hard and there may be a few changes to everyday tasks, but over time everyone will see the benefits.

And the transition from PDF to eInvoices will take some time. It's not going to happen overnight. It does take time. Everybody says that but has done it already. The speed of this is up to you and will depend on the rate at which you're able to transition your suppliers to this eInvoicing channel. One thing we see a lot is the challenge of staff being becoming used to receiving eInvoices instead of PDFs. So, this can be at the finance user level where they now see eInvoice data by default, or it can be for approvers that are used to having the invoices or copies of them sent to them directly from the supplier before they pass them on to the finance team every accounts payable, person's nightmare. Things get lost, people go away on holiday, can't approve their invoices, that kind of thing. This is something that takes time to address and it can be managed with the appropriate training and preparation of some good user guides and honestly does get easier.

So, and then we come to the supplier customer communication and onboarding area. So, it's important to keep focus on transitioning your suppliers to einvoicing. You'll see the benefits if you do. That said, as I've probably already indicated, it can be a long game. We suggest starting with your low-hanging fruit first, and those that will receive benefits to the organisation first. Perhaps you'll have some suppliers, you know, already sending invoices to other agencies. Focus on those ones and the ones that have simple requirements.

If you need any help with identifying suppliers that are already sending einvoices to government, we maintain a list of suppliers to government that is updated every quarter. This may be a good place to start, and you can download that list from our website and Alison was putting the link in the chat.

We also have a wider range of resources available on our website to assist, including a couple of amazing guides created by Linda here, the eInvoicing Change Management Guide and the Supplier Communications Toolkit, really worth downloading and reading. And also, if you're looking for more tips in this area, then we just happen to be running a webinar next week dedicated to Supplier onboarding on Wednesday. And we encourage you to register if you haven't already.

Okay, next slide please.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “PINT A NZ Peppol billing specification” is displayed.

The slide includes the following text:

• Contains a structured set of ~200 elements/fields, some of which are mandatory, including:
  • Customer Details: Legal name, address, and GST registration number (if applicable)
  • Supplier Details: Legal name, physical address, and GST registration number
  • Invoice Specifics: Unique invoice number and date of issue
  • Payment Terms: Due date
  • Item Details: A clear description of the goods or services provided, quantities, and unit prices
  • Tax and Totals: Total amount payable, GST amount (or breakdown)
  • Currency: NZD or AUD
  • References: Either one or both of a buyer's reference or purchase order number is required
  • NZBN: The use of the New Zealand Business Number (NZBN) for identification of both parties”
• Fields in the specification map to your usual accounts payable fields
• Mandatory for all Peppol access point providers for sending and receiving eInvoices in New Zealand and Australia
• Allows trade between countries

Audio

Lise Archbold: So now I'm going to get a little bit more technical and talk about a couple of technical pieces that underpin PEPPOL eInvoicing. The first one is the PINT ANZ PEPPOL billing specification. So, in summary, really, if you're sending or receiving an eInvoice across the PEPPOL network, you must use this specification, this particular one. And with respect to what's actually in that specification from a user perspective, if you think about the fields that you would populate if you were creating an invoice from scratch, you know, as in a data entry view, the supplier and customer details, the invoice number, date, due date, GST number, all that sort of stuff, as well as the line items and prices being charged. All of these fields are also transmitted by PEPPOL in the same way every time, and they mapped the sending and receiving parties in FMIS software.

And the specification itself does contain about around 200 elements or fields, but there's a lot you can make use of if you wanted to, but actually about 25 to 30 of them are mandatory, including those that I've listed out, kind of the general areas that I've listed out there. So, supplier details, their legal name, their address, GST number, customer details, same again, name, GST number, address, invoice numbers and dates, due dates, item details, tax, tax information, currencies and then the references, which I'm sure when you start working on your implementations for eInvoicing, you'll learn all about references, because they're super important. And of course, I don't know why I put that last there, but the NZBN should be at the top. That's obviously really key.

And then, so the specification, it's mandatory for all PEPPOL accredited access point providers when they're sending and receiving eInvoices in New Zealand and Australia.

And as I suggested earlier, New Zealand and Australian PEPPOL authorities work together very closely, so we share that spec.

And one of the other things about this particular specification, the ANZ PINT specification, is that it allows trade between countries. And so that's at the moment, more so New Zealand and Australia. We were the first to adopt it, but the rest of the world's catching up with us quite quickly.

Okay, next slide, please.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Industry Practice Statement for Invoice Content” is displayed.

The slide includes the following text:

• Developed by New Zealand & Australian Peppol Authorities and Digital Service Providers of Australia and New Zealand
• Not mandatory but strongly recommended. NZ Panel Providers must comply.
• A useful resource that provides a user-friendly view of considerations for organisations implementing eInvoice capability
• Recognises that sending only the mandatory data elements required in the PINT A NZ Billing specification doesn’t give medium to large business and government buyers enough information to be able to process and pay invoices and aims to provide guidance to access point and software providers to ensure government buyers can process eInvoices smoothly and efficiently.
• Ratings: Determined by how commonly the elements are required and how important elements are for interoperability
  • Required for interoperability: frequently required by buyers and are vital to enable automatic invoice processing
  • Recommended: These elements help buyers achieve quicker, more straightforward processing such as 3-way matching
  • Conditional: may be included to support buyer processing by including rich business information where possible.”
• Link to Document:
  “A NZ Industry Practice Statement for Invoice Content”

Link in this slide:

A-NZ Industry Practice Statement(external link) - Invoice Content

Audio

Lise Archbold: Be sick of hearing my voice by now, I'm sure. So, this slide covers off the other technical piece that I wanted to talk about, which is the industry practise statement for invoice content. So, this was developed by the New Zealand Australian PEPPOL Authority, so MBIE and Australian Tax Office, along with the digital service providers of Australia and New Zealand. So, they are also PEPPOL specialists and industry specialists. So, it's not mandatory for everyone to use it, but that's strongly recommended. The New Zealand syndicated panel providers, so the seven access point providers we have on our government panel do have to comply with it. It's a condition of their agreement.

So, it's actually, whilst it's a bit less technical, it's a nice user-friendly way of looking at technical information. And it's really good for adding sort of real-life considerations for your organisation when you're looking to implement eInvoice capability. It recognises basically that if organisations just work with the specification on its own and send only the mandatory data elements in there, from the specification, then it doesn't always give the medium to large businesses and government buyers enough information to be able to get those invoices through efficiently. And it's aiming to give guidance to access point and software providers also so that everyone is thinking about actually how does this eInvoicing thing work in practice, where the people are involved.

And so, essentially, there are a number of fields that have been discussed and we've had feedback on over the years about that we that we believe should be strongly considered to include when you are in your einvoice data when you're transferring it through, and as well as that, we've rated them under three different ratings. So, we've got the required for interoperability, so they're the really frequently required elements, fields, and are vital to automate. Just the recommended, just slightly down the chain, these help buyers achieve quicker, more straightforward processing, such as three-way matching, so you purchase orders, that kind of thing and the conditional ones which might be included in the interest of supporting buyer processing and enriching the business information. So that might be the kinds of fields where they, like a purchase order line reference, which adds more information or more richness to the data and allows particular receivers to do more with that invoice data when it comes in, but then at the same time they're not necessarily the common fields that every type of software can support. And so that's really important to remember.

Okay, can we go to the next slide, please?

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Pro tips and learnings” is displayed.

The slide includes the following text:

“The overall goal of eInvoicing is faster processing and payment of invoices.”

The following bullet points are shown:

• Start collecting NZBNs now and update your supplier master data
• Get the right people on the project team
• Purchase order and buyer references and getting the data mapping right
• Support of fields can vary with software. Treatment of multiple fields in Xero: Send an eInvoice – Xero Central
• Credit note handling – some software doesn’t support this document type but can use invoice only (negative invoice)
• Document processes and map these to Peppol to identify changes (e.g. exception management, frequency of payment runs).
• Try to avoid putting onerous requirements on your suppliers and don’t reject based on business rules!
• When you get to the stage of testing, ensure your test partners cover a good cross-section of scenarios to avoid surprises
• Perhaps your org currently uses an EDI to receive invoices. This may be a good candidate for transitioning to eInvoicing.
• Get familiar with the Industry Practice Statement for Invoice Content!

Link in this slide:

Send an eInvoice(external link) - Xero Central

Audio

Lise Archbold: Promise, I'm almost done.

So, let's talk about the learnings that we've had so far while we've been doing this.

So, the overall goal of eInvoicing is the faster processing and payment of Invoices, regardless of what side you're on, whether you're the customer or the supplier. And so, I'm just going to go through a few tips here. While the technical side of the implementation is going on, we strongly recommend that the first thing you do is start collecting NZBNs from your suppliers. It's something that can just be worked on in the background, and it's, as I've labelled several times already, the NZBN is the key field. So, it's super important to collect this information and get it updated on your supplier master data. Get the right people on the project team and ensure you've got a project sponsor. It's always really good to have someone that owns it.

And we believe there should be a good mix of users and technical experts to build the best solution. So yeah, buyer references and purchase order references, they're super important as well and they can be a real issue. They're the references that are provided to give context on what the invoices are for. If you take time to identify these with your supplier per supplier, sorry, and map them, map your data processes so that you know that you're going to capture these once you're testing your eInvoice solution. And for example, if you're transitioning, say, from OCR at the moment, so you scan all of your invoices through, it might be that one of those references is sits in the body of the invoice somewhere rather than in the header. And so it might be that if you trans that might be could easily be missed, you know, so and it could be a key reference that it doesn't come through with einvoicing and you need it. So, it's super important to give a lot of time and attention to things like our references.

And really, just to the wider subject of data mapping overall, it's really common for data mapping to cause you problems early on. It's painful, but it's really worthwhile going through a data mapping exercise. It's just a really good way to make sure your receiving of the eInvoice journey is going to be as seamless as possible.

And as I touched on a wee bit earlier, due to the software used across different organisations, it's really good to know that some suppliers may not be able to support the fields you'd ideally like to receive. So, whilst if they send you a PDF and they've got some additional information, notes and things on there, It might be that the eInvoicing solution that they have doesn't necessarily support those that extra bit of information in the same way, and and so if I, or you know, sometimes they sometimes systems just support one of the reference fields rather than two, that kind of thing, so.

And there are also different ways that different software manages those references. So, on the face of it, for example, Xero, if you are creating an invoice to a customer, then on the face of it, you only see just one reference field on the screen. But actually, they've got a special way of formatting that reference. So, you can actually send multiple references from that one box, which is really, really good. Xero have some really good guidance on this on their website. And whilst I know our audience here is here because of receiving eInvoices it's so useful when you're receiving eInvoices and you have suppliers that are using Xero and maybe they're new to sending invoices too. So, it's really helpful to have that bit of that tip in your back pocket.

And we've included a link to that, that particular page about sending eInvoices. It's quite a good resource in the chat. So, credit note handling. So, this is a bit of a trick. So, we have an invoice specification that I was talking about earlier. And then in PEPPOL, there's an invoice document type, and then there's a credit note document type. And they have actually written two separate specifications to handle those two types. However, some software just doesn't support the credit note document type. You, but it's like...If you, and if a Xero sender, for example, was to send, create an invoice, send it to the customer, customer received it and said, oh no, that's not right. Xero, the Xero sender couldn't, you know, say, reference that invoice, say, right-click, for example, and go generate credit, and then be able to send that through as an e-credit note, but if you were to, if the user was to create a credit note from scratch. So, a new transaction, but put in the negative values, then that would work. And you could send that through as an eInvoice.

And so, it's just really, it's good to know that some software doesn't look after the credit notes, but the invoice specification anyway manages the scenario there. So, I would say it's probably much cleaner for most just to focus on the invoice option, whether that's a positive value or a negative value. Your access point provider will know, a lot more about that as well, so feel free to go to them or come to us.

So, I've talked about processing, sorry, documenting processes. So, that's really, it's really handy to do a basically a current state, future state sort of exercise and how to see how you where your gaps are and how your processes will need to adapt to eInvoicing.

One of a couple of the things that are that pop up quite a bit are the exception side of things, so if you...At the moment, say if you're receiving an eInvoice, sorry, if you're receiving an invoice as a PDF, maybe by e-mail, and the invoice doesn't contain all the information that you need to process it. So, you might e-mail back to the supplier, or you might call them and say, hey, this invoice isn't complete, and I need to know what, I need to know this extra information to be able to process it.

When you're moving to eInvoicing, then, you kind of want to keep that a similar supplier experience. You know, you don't want to just, if there's the opportunity to automate getting those eInvoices through, you don't want to be in a position really where eInvoices are taking longer to process because there's less information that kind of thing, you don't want to reject them because there's not enough information. You really want to keep talking to people and re-educate them and get them, get the right information through in the long term.

And kind of attached to that is putting onerous requirements on your suppliers. So, we've seen that a bit with some government agencies where agencies require additional fields or information that they're not day-to-day fields that you normally would use, such as that purchase order line reference. There is a place for that, but actually, a lot of businesses can't support that. It's actually, it just leads to an unfavourable experience all around and it inhibits suppliers getting on board. We kind of notice that if a supplier will have a few goes often at sending an eInvoice and then if it's not working, people kind of tend to go, okay, I'm not going to bother then, I'm just going to go back to the old way.

So, it's really good to keep communicating, be consistent with your messaging. Actually, eInvoicing is supposed to be easy and I promise that you will get there. If you put the work in now, you'll see the benefit.

And so, then when you get to the stage of testing, ensure you select your test partners so that you have a good cross-section of the scenarios and the suppliers that you do work with just to avoid any surprises after you go live.

What else can we learn about? And yeah, that's another option that you might look at in your maybe in your second phase is to is to if you're using EDI at all to receive some of your invoices, this could be a really good candidate to transition to eInvoicing as well.

And I'm just going to reinforce also, please get familiar with the industry practise statement for invoice content. It's a super good resource. That means something to everyone who is involved in this journey.

Okay, next slide, please.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Other considerations” is displayed.

The slide includes the following sections and bullet points:

“Work in progress:

• Consolidated invoices
• Utilities (telecommunications and electricity/gas)”

“Access point providers services:

• The experts in implementation
• Invoice response options
• Added value services – data transformation and validation”

“Procure to Pay Community of Practice (P2P CoP)

• Knowledge sharing and networking
• Held quarterly – next date is 31 March
• Email einvoicing@mbie.govt.nz to register”

Audio

Lise Archbold: So, we've got some other scenarios that I just wanted to call out basically, and they are around consolidated invoices and utilities invoices. So consolidated invoices, as they stand, don't necessarily fit well into the eInvoicing processes. So, we are working on that. We are very aware, and we are in the throes of establishing a working group to get through that topic and work out how we do that. And as well as the technical side of getting a consolidated invoice, the invoice into a system. It's also, you've also got to think about.

Some of these consolidated invoices will arrive in your system on one day, and because of your processes, you might pay them the next. But if you did that with an eInvoice, it might take a week or two, because the invoices would have to be, the one invoice might have to be split out to 10 or 12, and then it just takes longer.

So, trust me, we are working on it. And the other area is the utilities, which is, you know, telecommunications and electricity. So, your One New Zealand, Sparks, your Meridians, Mercury Energy, that kind of thing. They historically include data that's additional to what you'd normally have on your run-of-the-mill invoice could be that could be that's a massive invoice it might have way too many pages to even look at. I've certainly seen phone related invoices that are 3000 pages of PDF long. You don't want all that coming in in the eInvoicing channel probably. And we actually see in the end; most receivers don't see the value in ingesting all of that. There's sort of probably the minimum amount of data that they'll enter into their finance system, but they'll have the detail accessed in another way, whether that's by a PDF attachment against the account or an Excel or even a portal that they access to look at their bills. And there's also that kind of older format on those types of invoices where they have opening balance, there's adjustments to opening balance, new opening balance plus current blah, blah. And so those don't really translate that well into the eInvoicing model right now. So, there's quite a lot to think about and we have it all on our work programme to address this year.

It's going to involve a lot of surveying of government agency requirements and as I said, working groups are probably the best way to go here.

And so, this will help us build and document what these models will look like going forward with suppliers to government, large suppliers to government, sorry, having to provide Invoices to government agencies in January next year. It's just becoming more of a more front of mind and it hasn't really in the past been so much of an area that that has had to be looked at. And so, my last thing, I promise, is I just want to quickly talk about the procure to pay community of practice, or the P2P CoP is how we refer to it. And I'm mentioning this because we might have some new people on this webinar that aren't aware. So, this is a quarterly knowledge sharing networking meeting for government agencies. And so, we mostly talk about eInvoicing the successes and the not so successes, payment time information, that kind of stuff. It's a really good way to network with people, share notes, collectively solve problems. And we also see different agencies that may use the same software, they might be in different stages of their journey. You might have the ones that have already done it all live and working. And someone else who's also using that system, but they're not really sure where to start or not sure how to nut out a certain problem.

Excuse me. We see people getting together and helping each other, and it's a really good initiative. So, our next one is on the 31st of March. And please just e-mail us at eInvoicing@mbie.govt.nz if you'd like to join us. And then from then on, you'll be added to the invite list and be invited every quarter.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Questions” is displayed.

The slide includes the following bullet points:

• Use the Q&A function
• After this webinar, email einvoicing@mbie.govt.nz

Audio

Lise Archbold: Okay, last slide. Questions. So, now's the time to answer your questions. Please use the chat function and ask away. We've run out of time, and I've talked for far too long. You can e-mail our team with your questions. We'll have a note of them anyway if you put them in the Q&A. Thank you.

Visuals

Presentation ends and screen returns to speaker tiles.

Audio

Andrew Cooke (eInvoicing Team): Hello, Andrew Cooke here, one of Lisa's colleagues. And firstly, well done, Lise. It was a long and very detailed presentation. We know, it's hard work. Hey, I've been answering some of the questions in the background. And there's a question which I think both myself and Linda Moore are best placed to answer now from Beth Hole. I'll pass some questions to you shortly, Lise, but I think you deserve a break.

Question: What is the uptake on suppliers using eInvoicing? and how to adhere to the requirement of receiving eInvoice from large suppliers?

Andrew Cooke: So, Beth is asking, to date, what is the uptake of suppliers invoicing by eInvoicing? I've heard that there has been quite low uptake. I also note that we will be required to have our large suppliers invoice us by eInvoicing. How are we expected to adhere to this requirement?

Andrew Cooke: So, there's two parts to this question.

How are we currently tracking? So last month, there were just under 10,000 New Zealand businesses that sent or received an eInvoice. That represents about 2% of all businesses or about 5% of our addressable market, of the quarter million businesses in New Zealand have cloud accounting software.

It is growing and there are a lot more suppliers due to become enabled in the coming months. This is the early adoption phase. Now, a prominent software company is due to roll out another bulk registration and we're expecting that that will result in up to, all up will be expecting about 100,000 New Zealand businesses to be enabled for eInvoicing. Currently, it's about 50,000. So that's about 40% of the addressable market. So, a lot of our activities are moving towards just getting organisations to use eInvoicing. Now, the second part of the question, I also know that it will be required to have our large suppliers invoice us by eInvoicing.

How are we expected to adhere to this requirement?

So, this is the sort of thing as a government agency that you will be looking for your procurement and contracts people to incorporate this in procurement processes. So that's the sort of thing that should be considered. Suppliers who are eInvoicing enabled, generally speaking, will get extra points in procurement processes against those suppliers that do not.

Obviously, this is something which will be enacted as contracts expire, and new contract processes are commenced. So, in other words, existing contracts are not expected to be reviewed. Meanwhile, the New Zealand Government Procurement team are working to update their various contract or AOG templates.

Linda, is there anything else you want to add to that?

Linda More: No, that was pretty comprehensive, Andrew.

Andrew Cooke: Thank you. So, I've been working through some of the questions and Lise, this is where I'm thinking of putting you on the spot with some of the questions. I'm just trying to work out the best one first, so...

Lise Archbold: I can see Davina's one here, which is a bit earlier. Yeah.

Andrew Cooke: Yes, yes, and I did respond to that, and I suggested that you might have a little bit to add. So how about I read out the question and then you can take it from there.

Question: What NZBN to use when government invoices are sent to intermediaries?

Andrew Cooke: So, Davina Wong says, we act as a third-party financial intermediary on behalf of multiple government departments. Invoices are addressed to the government department, but we pay them on behalf of the government department. What NZBN do we use if we want to ensure that invoices come to us but still address the government departments? I've responded that this is that you need to use your organization's NZBN for eInvoices to land into your finance system, but you need to ensure that your supplier provides sufficient reference information to identify who the government customer the invoice is for. Lise, anything further to add to that?

Lise Archbold: Yeah, so I'm happy to talk with you, Davina, about this offline. It's kind of a niche little situation, but we do have other government agencies doing something similar at the moment. Treasury, for example, look after a number of different ones. Anyway, there's not just one sender NZBN and one receiver NZBN, there are actually two of each when you get down into the technical nuts and bolts. And so that's how we would manage it. Like I said, we can talk about it separately, but essentially the receivers NZBN one would be probably yours and the other one would be the NZBN for the agency that you're looking after.

Question: Question about supplier onboarding and how to get the eIncoicing numbers up?

Andrew Cooke: Thanks, Lise. Our next question is from Alyssa Lamb from the Electricity Authority. She's essentially asking about supplier onboarding. So, they're already live for eInvoicing and want to get their numbers up.

Alyssa, we could give you a very long answer to this. I highly recommend you attend Linda's Supplier onboarding webinar, next week. We're going to be going through everything there. Loads of tips and tricks, so we'll park that one if you don't mind.

Question: Are eInvoices available for testing?

Andrew Cooke: Lise, can you answer the next question from Mary Bedwell? Do you have test eInvoices available?

Lise Archbold: So, what do you mean by that, Mary? Do you mean do you want to see samples of what they look like and what the data looks like? We do have sample messages and certainly if you want to talk to me directly, I can contact you and we can have a chat about it and I can clarify a bit more about what you want to see. But there are, we definitely do have a number of resources for you to look at.

Just going to say that actually on the same page on our website where our business guide is located, there's a link underneath that that's technical self-service. And so that's just a little interactive, basic, I must say, spreadsheet. So, essentially, one side of the screen is what your classic invoice might look like, very, very, very basic, but then if you click on all of those key fields on the invoice on the right-hand side, it is the actual invoice message or the XML that was created from that invoice. And when you click on the key field on the left-hand side on the invoice, it will take you to the actual field that's being updated on the right-hand side. So that might be quite useful for you to have a look at as well, so you can get some comfort as to what actually is going on there. But totally happy to discuss one-on-one.

Question: Can eInvoicies read existing rules built in the OCR for normal eInvoices?

Andrew Cooke: I just need to acknowledge it's 5 to 12. I think we'll keep going for another 5 minutes or so, if that's alright, Lise. We've got about four questions left. So, I don't know if you've got it on screen, but there's a question from Lana Lang. I'll read it out. So hi, are you aware if the incoming eInvoices can come into the ERP through the access point but then go through or link to the OCR as well? So not necessarily having to manage incoming eInvoices using one of the other channels. So, the existing rules behind, so the existing rules already built in the OCR for recognising POs and vendor accounts can read eInvoices too. Bit to take in there.

Lise Archbold: I think, I mean, you'd be best to talk to your access point provider, but as to how they technically get that to work. But I think maybe we're talking here about an OCR provider's service of a plug and play kind of thing that the invoice comes in by OCR to a point and then an eInvoice document is created in your FMIS to match that. I think that's what we're talking about here.

Question: Would eInvoices work with Contracts Module and TechnologyOne for progress payments?

Andrew Cooke: Thanks, Lise. I'm going to answer the next question from David Bullenhoven. Hi, we use the contracts module and technology one for progress payments. How does this work with eInvoicing?

I can't answer that specifically, but I know that a number of government agencies who use the tech one contracts module have configured it. David, if you want to configure it, get in touch with us and we will connect you with the people who have done it, and they can give you the answer. So just send us an e-mail at eInvoicing@mbie.govt.nz and we'll connect you with some details for you.

Question: If a supplier needs to update an eInvoice after it has been sent, can the invoice be amended, or must a new eInvoice be issued?

Andrew Cooke: Okay, next question, George Smith. If a supplier sends through an eInvoice that requires updating, does the supplier need to send through a new updated invoice or are they able to amend it while it's draft in your system? Over to you, Lise.

Lise Archbold: Okay, so my first answer would be it does depend on their software. So, if you're a Xero send supplier, then you can only send an invoice as an eInvoice once. So, Xero knows once you've first sent it as an eInvoice and then that option is greyed out to be able to resend it. So, whilst the sender might be able to go in and edit the invoice, they won't be able to resend as an einvoice will have to be sent as a PDF by e-mail, I suppose.

Linda More: I'll just jump on here, Lise. Yeah, I guess it's maybe the simplest way is that if it needs to, if you need an updated invoice, you would ask them to send a completely new einvoice with a different invoice number so that it's not duplicated which would probably mean that you would have to send through a credit as well, just to offset the original invoice that didn't have all the information is an option.

Lise Archbold: Yeah, that's right. That's one of those tricky little side processes that are really important to nut out in your planning stage. They’re the sorts of things that trip you up. Yeah. But absolutely happy to talk more about that with some real and some real one data, I suppose, for a real example.

Question: How do you set up an access point connection for eInvoicing, and can an existing access point provider be used or does one need to be arranged?

Andrew Cooke: Okie dokie, we've got two more questions. I'm just going to do Stephen's first because it's a quick one. Stephen joined late and he's asking how to go about setting up an access point receiver or provider. Is there one already set up we can use, or do we need to arrange this?

So, some information was shared previously in the chat. So, I'm not too sure if you're a government department, Stephen, but there is a government panel of access point providers, but our website has details of all 40 accredited access point providers. And if you need any further information, again, you can contact us directly.

Question: Could purchase order numbers be made a mandatory field for eInvoices to reduce the need for invoices to be reissued when required reference information is missing?

Andrew Cooke: And then I think the last question before we wrap up is from Christina Martin. Now, that's a bit of a handful, but, Lise, I don't know if you've read it yet, but essentially, she's asking if we could make purchase order numbers a mandatory field for eInvoices. She's asking that because it would significantly reduce the time spent by the team going back and forth to get invoices reissued between other government departments. Have you had a read of that yet, Lise?

Lise Archbold: Yeah, and yeah, these references and particularly purchase order references can be pretty tricky. Probably my short response to that would be, we do have a other agencies that are live with receiving eInvoices that are PO shops, so no PO, no pay and they do, I think, reject the gateway based on a couple of checks. So essentially, if there's no purchase order number coming through in that field, their access point provider might reject it, but then they also will send a message back to the the supplier to say, hey, your invoice has been rejected for this reason. And so, these are, we don't love the option of rejecting at the gateway. I think really the only time that we view rejecting at the gateway as an acceptable way to go is when it's already supported by your communications with your suppliers or your terms of trade as it is like, you know, when you engage that supplier, they know straight off from the beginning that, it's a no PO, no pay situation.

The other option we see agencies doing is not rejecting and letting everything through, but then someone goes through the queue that's got all the eInvoices that don't have POs attached to them, and it's a case of re-educating the supplier 1 by 1 to actually to please only send us an invoice if it's got a purchase order number on it.

Linda More: Can I also add in here, Lise? Christina was suggesting making purchase orders as a mandatory field. It's probably important to point out there are a number of businesses and government agencies that don't require a purchase order. They might want a cost centre number and so they don't actually use purchase orders, or they might have a mixture of some items of purchase orders, and some items are not. So yeah, so it wouldn't work in that situation.

Lise Archbold: Yeah, and so just to touch a little bit more on the references, as per the PEPPOL specification, one or both of the; it's mandatory to either send a buyer reference or a purchase order reference. So, you don't have to send both. You can send both, but you can't send none. So, from that perspective, one of those references has to come through anyway. But from a perspective of making, it mandatory, that's probably an agency-by-agency situation because it's just, yeah, there are a lot of invoices that go through that don't have purchase orders on them for or other agencies, so we can't just make one blanket rule for everybody. That said, Andrew and I particularly have been doing a lot of work around standardisation and what that might look like. It’s a very big topic. And we've recently the team have upsized that invoice reference requirements spreadsheet to I think about 100 and 110 is it 120 something like that. And that lists every single government agency s reference requirements, whether it's a buyer reference or a PO reference or both. And if you look at that sheet, everybody does things a little bit differently. And so, trying to find a clear path in the middle of all that is, it's quite something.

Audio

Linda More: We have come to the end of the questions now.

Lise Archbold: Oh, I totally must have talked too much. Maybe everyone's gone to sleep after having to listen to me for a while.

Andrew Cooke: Well, there's still 81 people online, so you can't be doing half bad, but I'm getting hungry, so I think we should call it.

Lise Archbold: Yeah, and like I said earlier, if there's any questions that you have, please just e-mail us and we'll come back to you as soon as possible.

Well, thank you everyone for joining us. We will look forward to seeing you at the next webinar being held. Have a great day. Bye.

Visuals

On screen, a title slide displays the text “Prompt payment requirements and how to accelerate your payment times”. Below this, the date “17 February 2026” is shown.

eInvoicing branding elements are displayed on the slide.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) logo is displayed.

Audio

Andrew Cooke (eInvoicing Team) begins speaking:

Welcome to those of you who have just joined us. We’re going to give it a couple of minutes just while we wait for more people to join the webinar.

And just acknowledge that there's going to be a bit of a beeping sound as people join us. It should end in a minute or two.

So, while we're waiting, just so you know, so we've had a look at who's registered for the webinar and it's a mix of local government, wider government and also quite happy to see quite a few of you have signed up from the private sector as well. So, I hope you get some value out of this.

I'll just give another 30 seconds to a minute before we kick off.

Okie dokie, I think I'll make a start.

So first we'll just kick off with the MBIE Karakia.

Visuals

A slide titled “MBIE Karakia” is presented.

The slide displays the following text:

"Tāwhia tō mana kia mau, kia māia
Ka huri taku aro ki te pae kahurangi,
kei reira te oranga mōku
Mā mahi tahi, ka ora, ka puāwai
Ā mātau mahi katoa, ka pono, ka tika

TIHEI MAURI ORA"

Below this text, a section titled “TRANSLATION:” appears.

The translation text reads:

"Retain and hold fast to your mana, be bold, be brave
We turn our attention to the future, that’s where the opportunities lie
By working together we will flourish and achieve greatness
Taking responsibility to commit to doing things right

TIHEI MAURI ORA"

Audio

Andrew Cooke reads the Karakia as shown on screen.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Introduction: agenda” is displayed.

Profile photographs of Andrew Cooke, Linda More, and Alison Smith are shown on the left side of the slide.

Beside each photograph, the following names and roles are displayed:

• "Andrew Cooke – Government Innovation Manager"
• "Linda More – Communications and Partnerships Manager"
• "Alison Smith – Adoption Advisor"

Audio

Andrew Cooke: Welcome everybody. I am the government subject matter expert in prompt payments and I'm also the government lead for Invoicing support in the public sector. I've been to the Invoicing team since its inception about 5 and a half years ago and my background spans accounting, finance and in particular procure to pay processes and systems.

I love my job. Now some of my colleagues from the invoice have joined us today. So, hello everyone. In particular, I'd like to introduce my colleagues Linda and Alison, who will be participating during this webinar. Now just for a little bit of housekeeping, we will send out a copy of this presentation after the webinar.

It will contain links of relevance, which Alison Smith, our adoption advisor, will be pasting into the chat throughout the webinar. This webinar is being recorded. It will be saved on our website, and we will share a link with you in about two or three weeks. The core presentation should take about 20 minutes or so. And the remainder of the time will be to work through your questions. If your questions remain unanswered at the end of the webinar, please redirect them to us at einvoicing@mbie.govt.nz. Now of particular note, when asking questions, please use the Q&A function and do not use the chat function.

This will help us triage your questions more effectively and do ask questions throughout the webinar. My colleagues will try and answer as many questions as possible in the chat, but anything left over will be triaged to me at the end of the presentation.

Now, there will also be an online poll towards the end of the webinar. Alison will drop a link in the chat for you closer to the time. And as I touched on earlier, many of you have joined us today from local government. Some of the webinar content will be more targeted towards you. However, the content is still very, very relevant for those of you who work in wider government.

And again, for those from the private sector, I'm pleased you're joining us, and I hope you find value in this webinar and particular ideas to improve your payment times.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Why is the government encouraging prompt payments?” is displayed.

A copy of a government letter is shown on the left side of the slide.

A section of text within the letter is highlighted and enlarged on the right side of the slide. The highlighted text reads:

“These rules are designed to improve cash flow for suppliers — especially small businesses — and to set a high standard for financial efficiency and transparency across the public sector. The publication of agency performance data also reinforces accountability and provides a clear signal to suppliers about expected payment behaviour.”

Audio

Andrew Cooke: Now the reason most of you are here is because there's a government requirement or an expectation for your organisation to pay Invoices promptly. For wider government, this is the New Zealand government procurement rules. Now I'm going to talk more about them shortly, but for those of you who are local government.

Ministers Watts and Penk sent a letter to your chief executive last October. I have an extract of this on screen right now, and I've got the main driver behind the letter highlighted. So, the government wants to move cash around the economy faster and promote economic growth.

This is one of the key benefits of prompt payments and eInvoicing. However, there are many benefits when you move cash around the economy faster. It boosts aggregate demand, which leads to higher GDP growth. It also improves liquidity, and this means businesses gain quicker access to funds, which reduces reliance on credit and lowers financing costs. It also strengthens working capital and resilience during downturns. So, these requirements were expanded from central government to encompass wider government early last year. Now the government is encouraging councils to adopt the same approach to further demonstrate leadership to the private sector.

I'd like you to think of us as an opportunity. However, we'd like to say here in the invoice and team that compliance is actually an opportunity in disguise. I understand many councils and other organisations not covered under the NZGP rules have already adopted prompt payment practices. So go you.

I'm now going to give a brief overview of the two NZGP rules which over what about 100 government organisations are required to follow and Ministers Watts and Penk obviously expecting councils to follow. Alison is about to paste a link to this rule in the chat.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Rule 36: Prompt payment times” is displayed.

The slide includes the following text:

"1. Agencies must pay 95% of: a. domestic trade eInvoices within 5 business days b. other domestic trade invoices within 10 business days.

1. Agencies must require their suppliers to pay their subcontractors on government contracts on no less favourable payment terms than the ones they receive from agencies.”

A heading “Application” is shown below.

The following text is displayed beneath the heading:

“3. Agencies must report on domestic eInvoice and domestic trade invoice payment times to MBIE quarterly, so these can be made publicly available.”

Audio

Andrew Cooke: So, for the extractors of the prompt payment rules as they appear on the NZGP website, I acknowledge that these rules are a bit of a mouthful, but in short, agencies are required to pay 95% of domestic Invoices within 10 working days and aim to pay eInvoices within 5 working days.

Councils are expected to participate as specified in the letter from Watts and Penk. The results will be published. If your council does not respond to the survey, we will still publish your council's name on the website that has not responded.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Background” is displayed.

The slide includes the following bullet points:

• "Requirement for central agencies since 2020 to support businesses with the COVID-19 recovery"
• "The 95% / 10-day target has been collectively achieved by Wider Government"
• "95.7% last quarter – 2026 target already being met"
• "Faster payment, and moving money around the economy, has been a priority for successive governments and ministers"
• "The payment time requirements are administered by the MBIE eInvoicing team as faster payment is enabled by eInvoices"

Audio

Andrew Cooke: Now I'm going to give a bit of background on the prompt payment requirements.

So, I've been leading the charge with this since I started the role 5 and a half years ago. It's been a successful initiative, and it has been collectively met on average by central agencies since its inception, and it's also been collectively met by wider governments since mid-last year.

As already touched on, cash flow can be a real problem for businesses. Supplies to government, support this initiative and report noticeable improvement in payment times. I remember soon after the central government met the 95% target, I contacted a number of recruitment agencies and all of them reported an increase, in faster payment times, which really helps their business.

So, this initiative promotes transparency to businesses and sends a positive message to the business community with government setting them as an example. We've also found that it generates friendly competition among agencies in the CFO community and also accounts payable teams have been empowered by the target. It gives them purpose.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Rule 36: Prompt payment times – scope and reporting” is displayed.

The slide is divided into two sections.

• On the left side, a section titled “More information” is shown.

  The following text is displayed:

  “When the payment requirement applies”

  “The payment requirements apply from the day an invoice is entered into an accounts payable system. This may differ from the date specified on the invoice.”

  “How to treat incorrect or disputed invoices”

  “The invoice payment time requirements set out in Rule 36 will not apply if:

  • the goods, services or works are unsatisfactory or incomplete
  • the invoiced amount is in dispute
  • an invoice is incomplete or incorrectly rendered.”
• On the right side, the following sections are shown:

  “Types of invoices that Rule 36 applies to”

  “The requirement only applies to invoices related to domestic trade credit that are received or sent by an agency in the ordinary course of its business.”

  “Types of payment that are out of scope”

  “Requests for payment that are out of scope include:

  • reimbursement of employee expenses
  • rents and leases
  • credit card statements, finance payments, and insurance premiums
  • payments made regularly as part of an ongoing contract, which don’t require an invoice, such as progress payments on a roading contract.

  Requests for payment in these contexts are not considered invoices for the purposes of the Procurement Rule. Including them would skew payment time reporting and add unnecessary complexity.”

Audio

Andrew Cooke: This extract of the payment time rules covers the high-level reporting requirements. The key point here is the clock starts when an invoice has been entered into your finance system, not the invoice date. The criteria and the rules do not cover every scenario.

Over and above the payment types specified in the slide, there are a few invoice types that can be excluded. These include consolidated invoices, reoccurring invoices, direct debits, disputed invoices (that's if they are difficult to identify), as well as grants and levies. All of these are outlined in the payment time stack sheet, which I'm going to talk more about shortly.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Payment time reporting” is displayed.

• On the left side, the following headings and bullet points are shown:

  “Quarterly survey”

  • "Survey for January to March 2026 will be sent in late April to CFO’s and other contacts we have on record"
  • "Three weeks to respond"
  • "Signed out by your CFO"

  “MBIE responsible for reporting”

  • "Reported to responsible Ministers"
  • "Published on MBIE website"
  • "Detailed results shared directly with agencies"
• On the right side, a screenshot of the MBIE website is displayed. The screen shows government agencies’ invoice payment times information, including summary results and a table of agency payment performance results for the April to June quarter.

The following link is pasted in the chat: Government agencies’ invoice payment times (external link)- Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment

Audio

Andrew Cooke: Now I want to cover some of the mechanics of the survey. The survey is issued late in the month after each quarter, so that means the next survey will be issued in late April. Also, your CFO is required to sign out your submission. We then concurrently publish the results and share them with ministers and respondents.

Catching the data is relatively straightforward. Most agencies have already developed automated reports. Meanwhile, a lot of ERPs have developed reports as well. So, Oracle have a report in production. TechnologyOne is putting the finishing touches on a report which I believe will be included in their 2026A release.

SAP have guidance available on how to configure a report and Datascape have expressed an interest and said they will consider developing a report if customers request it. So, if you're on Datascape, get in touch with your Datascape account manager and knock on their door, it might save you a bit of time.

So, this quality survey is also a mechanism for MBIE to track and report the eInvoicing progress to ministers. I'm now going to move on to some reporting tips and considerations.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Reporting tips and considerations” is displayed.

The slide includes the following bullet points:

• "Develop automated reports"
• "Avoid manual calculations"
• "Exclude or estimate low volume invoice types that are difficult to capture – but declare it in your commentary"
• "Ensure consistency – especially with date parameters"

Audio

Andrew Cooke: So, the key point here is to avoid unnecessary effort trying to nail down payment dates for messy invoices, provided they don't materially impact your numbers. We really want to avoid reporting on your payment times being burdensome.

And rather, we want you to invest your energy into speeding up your payment times. With this in mind, this is a high trust model, no auditing is planned. We want you to try and ensure consistency in reporting across periods. This is particularly important to the different system definitions of invoice receipt and payment dates.

Please consider materiality. If you have a low volume of Invoices that are difficult to capture, then don't waste your time identifying them. But please, please, please declare it in your survey commentary. Be transparent.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Summary of payment time challenges and improvement plans” is displayed.

The slide includes the following bullet points:

• "Increase Payment Run Frequency – Many are shifting to more frequent payment cycles."
• "Update system payment terms – change all terms to pay now"
• "Invoice Approval Process – Delays and workflow improvements are a major focus."
• "Process and System Improvements – Upgrades to finance systems and automation are common."
• "eInvoicing – Adoption is growing to streamline processing."

Audio

Andrew Cooke: I'm now going to share some of what we've been told has been working for many agencies and this is all in order of what's working the best. So, consider increasing the frequency of your payment runs. This is one of the first things to consider. Here at MBIE we process about 60,000 Invoices a year and we made the call a couple of years ago to have daily payment runs. It's about finding the Goldilocks zone for your organization. If you have high invoice volumes, more frequent pay runs should be more viable. Another key consideration is to update the payment terms in your accounts payable system. Most Systems default payment setting is triggered by the invoice date. A quick fix is to change this to pay now terms. Another thing to consider is your invoice approval processes. Review if your checks and measures are fit for purpose. Sometimes they're overcooked, I've found.

Now quite broadly, system and process improvements, fancy new tools and reengineering processes save time. I think one simple thing I was reflecting on yesterday is to encourage your vendors to use your centralized accounts payable mailbox rather than sending invoices to the business contacts. We know it happens and there's some organizations that it happens a lot. When invoices go directly to your centralized mailbox you get visibility earlier and you can process them earlier. And now the obvious one, eInvoicing. In this context, it's just another channel, but it should shave at least a few days off processing times. MBIE is running at about 15% of inbound invoices being processed as eInvoices.

So, some agencies are also reporting higher numbers and counting. Suppliers sending invoices to government report overall faster payment time. So, it is working. But this isn't an eInvoice webinar, so I'm going to stop talking about that now.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Summary of payment time challenges and improvement plans” is displayed.

The slide includes the following bullet points:

• "Monitoring and Reporting – Regular tracking and senior leadership team engagement are used to drive accountability."
• "Staffing Constraints – Absences, vacancies, and onboarding delays impact performance."
• "Contractual Terms – Some delays are due to milestone-based or legacy contract terms."
• "Training and Education – Staff awareness and training are being emphasized."

Audio

Andrew Cooke: Here are a few more considerations. I recommend you proactively report on payment times internally. I've seen this generate friendly competition among business units. One of the key tools we have found to be effective in driving messaging from your senior leadership; hold your managers to account and celebrate success.

Staffing constraints, well, it's a bit obvious, but this is an ongoing challenge on the current environment. If your leadership team is serious about paying your suppliers promptly, then they'll need to ensure your accounts payable team are adequately resourced. Contract terms; review your key contracts and consider payment terms and procurement or contract processes. Lucky last, training and education. Internal change management is key. Raise awareness and drive accountability.

Visuals

On screen, a slide titled “Next steps/homework” is displayed.

• On the left side, the following text is shown:

  “Familiarise yourself with the Payment times factsheet (‘Improving payment times’ webpage). It provides guidance on:

  • Reporting criteria
  • Data collection and publishing
  • How to improve payment times
    • Update payment terms to “pay now”
    • Implement purchase orders (3-way matching)
    • Change management – people/supplier focus
    • System configuration and enhancements that should have no direct costs to implement”

  Below this, the following text and link are shown: “Consider attending the Procure to Pay Community of Practice (P2P CoP)”

• On the right side, a screenshot of the “Payment times factsheet” document is displayed. The document includes sections covering reporting guidance, data collection and publishing, and guidance to improve payment times.

Following links are displayed in this slide:

• Payment times factsheet [PDF, 579 KB]
• Procure to Pay Community of Practice (P2P CoP)(external link)

Audio

Andrew Cooke: Alison is about to paste a link to the Payment times factsheet in the chat. This is a comprehensive guide. It's a resource which I encourage you to familiarise yourself with if you haven't already. The Payment times factsheet is a downloadable PDF that includes reporting guidance, FAQs, how to submit your data and a comprehensive list of suggestions to improve your payment times. It also includes a link to a sample survey so you can get a feel for the reporting requirements.

Now the core questions on the survey include total invoices entered in the quarter, invoices paid within 10 working days, and how long on average to enter invoices into your system. The survey also has questions on eInvoicing.

Because of different workflow solutions and delays in invoices being entered into your system, a consistent measuring stick is quite hard to determine across agencies. For this reason, published reporting is broken down into three categories, which I'm going to show you on screen shortly on our website. It's broken down into efficient, moderate and slow invoice data entry. There are varying workflow solutions in place across government, and some organizations simply take longer to enter invoices. This is often due to high volumes.

Visuals

On screen, the presentation transitions from the slide deck to the MBIE website displaying government agencies’ invoice payment times reporting.

The webpage shows summary information about invoice payment performance for government agencies, including references to prompt payment targets and quarterly reporting results.

Three sections of payment reporting tables are shown on screen:

• "Efficient invoice data entry – invoices entered within 1 business day"
• "Moderate invoice data entry"
• "Slow invoice data entry"

Each table displays agency names alongside payment performance percentages and invoice volume information.

The presenter scrolls through the webpage to show the different reporting categories and payment performance tables.

Audio

Andrew Cooke: Right, so on screen now is the MBIE website for showing the results for wider government payment time reporting. So, we'll be producing, I suppose, a sister page for local government. It was a little bit, unwieldy. We've got high level results at the top, but what I wanted to walk you through is the three separate tables.

So, the first table is efficient invoice data entry. This is where invoices have been entered within one business day. So, these are these are the agencies which are on fire, and you can see most of them green and meeting the target. Then we move down to the second table, moderate invoice data entry and this is where invoices have been entered in between two and four days. And then lastly, if they were entered in five days or more.

Visuals

On screen, the view transitions from the MBIE website back to the presentation slides.

A slide titled “Next steps/homework” is displayed.

Audio

Andrew Cooke: Now a few final words before we start working through your questions.

For those of you in local government, I encourage you all to configure or explore reports in preparation for the first survey, which, as mentioned earlier, is due to be issued in late April. Identify your baseline. If you're tracking below 95%, put a plan in place to improve your payment times. There are loads and loads of suggestions outlined in the Payment times factsheet. These suggestions have been come from all the various initiatives agencies have done over the years.

Lastly, I also want to take this opportunity to talk about the Procuretopay Community of Practice. I think there's a few people here who do attend it. We also call it the P2P COP. This is a quarterly knowledge sharing networking meeting for government organisations. We share challenges and successes in procuretopay processes and systems, and it has a strong focus on the invoicing and prompt payments. The P2P COP is a useful platform to network, share notes and collectively solve problems. It will be of interest to councils who already have started their prompt payment and eInvoicing journeys. The next P2P COP is on 31st of March. I mean to send out the invites, but please e-mail us if you would like to attend.

Visuals

The screen transitions from the slide deck to the webinar speaker view, showing presenter tiles and the webinar interface as the session moves into the Q&A section.

Audio

Andrew Cooke: Now before I get to the Q&A, we will do our poll now. Alison is about to put a link in the chat, but what I might do actually, I'm just going to map back.

Actually, hold up. I've jumped the gun. We meant we're doing Q&A now, aren't we? Sorry, the poll's last. Right. So, I'm going to stop sharing the screen and hand it over to Linda and see if I have got any questions in there, Linda.

Visuals

The slides end and the view returns to the webinar interface showing presenter speaker tiles and the PowerPoint screen no longer shared.

Question: Are CCOs, i.e. RTOs and EDAs included within this requirement and do you know if Xero has this functionality?

Linda More (eInvoicing Team): Yes, Andrew. So, George Smith has asked, are CCOs, i.e. RTOs and EDAs included within this requirement and do you know if Xero has this functionality? Excuse my ignorance, I don't know what those acronyms mean.

Andrew Cooke: I don't know what they are either. I'm about to Google them. I'm so sorry.

Linda More: I guess it's a type of government agencies. Yeah. George, if you want to clarify what those are, we will, try and answer your question.

Andrew Cooke: Yeah, if you could, put something in the comments towards, that'd be great.

Linda More: Yeah, in the Q&A part of it, that’d be great.

Question: Where can we find reporting requirements and templates?

Linda More: Now Julie Perkins has asked a question, but I'm pretty sure you answered this during your presentation, but it might be worthwhile just reiterating this for all those who are attending to here today.

So where do we go to find out specifically what will be required to report so we can organize template reports so we can comply with this reporting standard?

Andrew Cooke: Well, I'll tell you what. If you give me a moment, why don't I open up the Payment times factsheet? Just to get a quick tour. Just bear with me a moment.

Andrew Cooke: And here's the link to a sample survey. But also, when we issue the survey, we send out an Excel version of the survey.

Linda More: Yeah, because I understand when you do send out the survey, Andrew, that you include, the template so that they can see that.

Visuals

The screen transitions from the speaker tiles to “Payment’s time factsheet” document.

Audio

Andrew Cooke: Yes, I do. Yeah. So, this this is the payment times fact sheet. Earlier in the presentation I mentioned that there is, a link to a sample survey. So, it's towards the bottom, I think.

And here's the link to a sample survey. But also, when we issue the survey, we send out an Excel version of the survey. This is because some agencies require their CFO to physically sign it out and so they complete the copy of the survey and a spreadsheet before actually entering it into the SurveyMonkey tool. So, the first part of the Payment times factsheet does give quite a lot of comprehensive guidance. It takes an extract of what was actually included in the cabinet paper, and then it works for a bunch of FAQs and these FAQs have been generated essentially based off all the queries I got early on in payment time reporting just to try and capture every scenario. I did cover some of these earlier, so yes, Julia, I hope that answers your question, but you've got our details. If there's any other points of clarification, do get in touch. But I just want to reinforce that one of the important things here with payment time reporting is consistency. Usually there's often some confusion as to whether some invoices are in period A or period B. It doesn't really matter as long as you consistently report them across periods the same way, because then that measuring stick is consistent as well.

Question: How does eInvoicing improve invoice processing delays?

Linda More: Michelle has asked. We already have weekly payments set up for our suppliers and the biggest delays are the staff processing their invoices to the purchase orders rather than scanning and uploading of invoices. So how is eInvoicing going to improve this? Another few questions. Is it only around the accountability and calling staff out who don't match their invoices regularly? Why can't we raise awareness and accountability but still use our own current systems?

It's a bit there to unpack.

Andrew Cooke: Linda, would you like to answer the first part of that question around how is the invoicing going to improve this? And I'll look at answering the second part of it.

Linda More: So, I guess these the biggest part is that it gets into your system pretty much immediately. So, it's a lot faster to get into the system. And the second part is the accuracy of the data that's been put in there. So, the data goes in there completely and it makes it easier for staff to code them and therefore they get that part of the process can be speed up. But the part about getting your staff to approve, that's a perennial problem that everyone has, and that's your senior leadership and, empowering your accounts payable people to hustle those people along.

Andrew Cooke: Thank you, Linda. Just an addition to that. Yeah, there's loads of little things you can do to try and let's say police people who aren't coding or approving invoices or purchase orders on time. With us at Ministry of Justice this is like a lead a project in this space and one thing that we did is we use the management accounting and finance business partner community to basically be the policeman, to be the henchman. And so, we would have live reports and go right, here’s your troublemakers and actually go over to their desk and go, excuse me, Mister, you've been sitting on that invoice for one or two weeks now and sitting on that that PO etc. The other thing that I touched on earlier and Linda also mentioned this is really driving the messaging from your SLT, from your senior leadership, It really does make a difference and in a similar respect when things go well the senior leadership team should be acknowledging it as well, so driving from the top and holding managers to account.

Question: Are invoices without PO numbers considered disputed?

Linda More: All right, a question from Helen. She's got two questions. Invoices stuck in the system as incorrect PO or no PO on invoice, are these regarded as disputed as we have no control on length of time it will be solved? And then there's a second question, but should we answer the first one?

Andrew Cooke: Yeah, invoices stuck in the system as incorrect PO or no PO on invoice. So that sounds like an error on the supplier's behalf. If that's the case, then that wouldn't be fair for you to be to be penalized, so to speak.

So, I would say that in that scenario that they are disputed because you need to follow up with the supplier to get the details because whoever's in the AP team won't necessarily, Yeah, it depends on the searchability of whether or not you can actually look up a PO or not. In some cases, well, in a lot of cases, usually you'll be going back to the supplier anyway because most PO shops are no PO, no pay, and so you're trying to drive that behaviour. So, I would call them disputed.

Question: Do agencies need to borrow money to meet prompt payment targets?

Linda More: Second part to the question, if we are having to borrow money, what official stance is there on us meeting the five days impact on ratepayers?

Andrew Cooke: Right. There's absolutely no expectation to borrow money to pay your invoices promptly. This is something we've come across in in wider government as well. If sometimes there's links on the chain which fall over and so an organization has cash flow problems. And one organisation has actually used this reporting to highlight. So, in other words, they're not meeting the target, they're way off it and they're not receiving prompt payment interestingly from other government organisations, which therefore means they don't have the liquidity to pay their suppliers on terms of 10 days or less. However, that particular organisation is still paying their suppliers within the contracted terms. Service suppliers are happy. So, I mean it is a target, but it is also a mechanism.

Now what is the official stance on the five days for E Invoicing?

I think I might go off topic a wee bit here, but the five-day eInvoicing payment time target was put in place to incentivise suppliers to become eInvoicing enabled and to send your e-invoices. The reality is that it's not a practical target because when an eInvoice enters your system, it's essentially following exactly the same process as a normal invoice. An eInvoice, they could shave two to three days off the data entry depending on OCR solutions the backlogs for accounts payable, etc. Linda, have you got anything to add on that one?

Linda More: Yeah, I guess there is probably a presumption that an eInvoice is going to be more accurate and have less errors and maybe therefore less exceptions because of all that data coming in completely and there's no errors from manual intervention or impulse. So, I'll just add that, yeah.

Question: How does councils avoid borrowing money to meet the prompt payment targets?

Linda More: All right, should we move on? So, Christina, she says, I preface this with I'm all on board for change, but I've been thinking about eInvoicing and have a few questions which we've sort of covered off a little bit here. Councils are being directed to pay our invoices quicker. Has any thought been given to how can councils collect on our invoices quicker to help balance cash flows, so we don't have a false economy where we are borrowing to pay out invoices early? I think you might have answered that one.

Andrew Cooke: Yeah, I do have a comment there though, Christina, I mean.

If every organisation in the invoicing workflow or food chain pays their invoices promptly, then everyone's better off. But it just takes one link in the chain, and often that link in the chain slows things down due to due to process or system issues, or more often than not, bad behaviour, bad actors.

And we know that there's a lot of cases like that in the private sector. The government is really keen to try and drive prompt payment across the economy. There was a piece of legislation and there's a Business Payment Practices Act, which was recently repealed, which did require large businesses to pay promptly. Because that's been repealed, the government's a little bit short on options, but we are giving advice to government on other policy leaders and yeah, it’s going to be, you know, a long-term game. I should move to the second part of the question, Linda.

Question: How does eInvoicing affect payment approval processes & quality?

Linda More: I can answer that. So, eInvoicing is just another channel to get the invoice data into your system. It does not replace or include any automation of approvals and payments. So, your normal approval and payment checks still need to apply. So, there's no automatic payment happening in that space.

Question: Does eInvoicing create a single point of risk?

Linda More: Not using PDF stopping fraud is great but does invoicing channel all our invoice through one portal system, which then points us at all one point of risk. What is being put in place for the system to not be hacked? Oh, I'm not sure.

It's a tricky one.

Andrew Cooke: Well, it is a tricky one. I mean eInvoicing is a secure network. Every access point provider goes through an annual accreditation process. And as of this year, I believe every access point also needs to be ISO 9001 certified, which is the security certification. The thing with standard invoices, most invoices are transmitted via e-mail as a PDF. e-mail is an inherently insecure channel. In fact, only about 70% of emails are successfully delivered. I haven't fully answered that, but I think it covers some of the bases.

Question: How does eInvoicing work with purchase orders?

Linda More: Yeah, Chelsea has asked. Hi, our purchase order approvals and matching are generally where our batch processes are held up. How does eInvoicing fit in with purchase orders?

Linda More: Well, I'll have a crack at answering that one. So, purchase order numbers are a data point within the invoice that is sent and put into your system, straight into your system. So, you can apply some business rules that does that three-way matching. And so, if they've got the correct purchase order number on there, the business have goods receipted it for the amount of the invoice, then all of those things match, then you can do that automatically and that should actually help speed up processing of an invoice. If any one of those things are not right, so particularly if the business haven't goods receipted it, then I guess it will hold things up. Hopefully that's answered your question there.

Question: Does councils have to borrow money to meet the prompt payment timeframes?

Andrew Cooke: Well, I'm going to cherry pick the next one, Linda. I've kind of already answered that. It's from Adele Bird. Councils only receive income via quarterly rates payments. To achieve these timeframes, we might need to borrow, which comes at the cost of our rates payments. Obviously expected to follow these timeframes if it comes to the cost, just to reinforce it.

Andrew Cooke: Absolutely not. Potentially this is an opportunity to highlight some of your challenges in the commentary.

Question: Does MagicQ have any reporting underway regarding eInvoices?

Andrew Cooke: Chelsea Jackson: Hi our finance system is MagicQ. OK, I see you mentioned take one of our systems that councils use. Does MagicQ have any reporting underway regarding eInvoices?

Well, Magic Q is enabled for E Invoicing. But, we haven't engaged them to discuss prompt payment reporting. That's because it's not that widely used. But maybe we'll take an action to just reassess how many councils are on MagicQ and look at engaging them.

We've got finance system information for about 60% of councils and we've been using that to help drive some of our discussions and based on the data we've got, we didn't realise that many were on it. So that's something we can look into.

Question: Is fortnightly payment not sufficient if everyone is paid within due dates?

Linda More: Council with one AP staff member working 30 hours per week. We pay fortnightly and make sure that invoices due within these timeframes are included in each pay run. We have no complaints that we aren't paying on time by local suppliers as we will usually pay them in the earlier pay run anyway.

Is fortnightly not sufficient when no one is requesting earlier payments, and all invoices are paid before or by due dates?

Andrew Cooke: Well, I suspect if you asked any of your suppliers if they'd like to be paid a week earlier, they'd say yes. We need to remember that this is also about promoting good behaviour to the private sector as well and leading by example. I think, Chloe, it's also really just understanding how many invoices you process per year. Usually, it's organizations on sort of 10,000 and less I've found with fortnightly pay runs, but most organizations have at least a weekly pay run, I find if there's sort of above 10,000 invoices per year. But I know that these things, yeah, there's a lot of manual processes, there's a lot of effort required in a pay run. So, you really need to weigh that up and to see if it's viable, but I do encourage you to look into it.

Question: Is it possible to prevent suppliers from submitting an eInvoice without a purchase order number?

Linda More: Is it possible to prevent the issuing company from submitting an eInvoice without a purchase order number?

Linda More: I guess the question is do you receive a PDF invoice without a purchase order number and what's your process for dealing with that? So, I just challenge you there, do you go straight back to the supplier and ask them to provide it?

Do you try and do some internal searches based on that supplier and see if a purchase order number exists or not? So, I guess one of the short answers is that you could choose to let it through and it'll go through an exception process.

Or you could have some business rules that it means the invoice is rejected as long as you have some messaging that goes back to your supplier and that may have to come from you via an e-mail or a phone call. So, I guess it's talking about using similar exception processes that you do now for an invoice that comes through as PDF.

Anything further to add on that, Andrew?

Andrew Cooke: Yes. So, einvoicing is a transmission and receipt structured data and so when it's structured you can put some smarts in place and one thing we discourage is rejecting eInvoices because they don't have what's meant to be in it.

As Linda touched on, you have already had processes in place, basically a paper or PDF invoices. Generally, those processes should be followed where a human engages another human to correct something. However, there are other opportunities of the invoicing and sometimes reference information is put in the wrong place. So, access point providers provide document translation services like rules that go well if somebody's put a PO number over here in this reference field, can you maybe pop it down into this reference field over here? So, at MBIE we've got a number of smarts in place so when a supplier makes what let's call a reoccurring mistake, we can pick up on that and tidy it up.

Question: Does prompt payment apply to international invoices?

Linda More: We've answered in the Q&A section for Naomi, but for the benefit of others on the call here, does the prompt payment terms are for New Zealand suppliers only or does it include payments to overseas buyers as well?

Linda More: It is only for domestic trade invoices. So not international.

Question: Are Council-Controlled Organisations or Regional Tourism Officers and Economic Development Agents included within payment time requirement?

Andrew Cooke: Two questions there. First question. I don't know. The way prompt payments and eInvoicing have been working in terms of Scope is if an organization has a subsidiary which uses the same primary invoicing systems, then it's included. If there's a subsidiary who is on a different platform, then it's generally excluded. One of the rules around the invoice enablement is that it's around enabling your primary systems, not secondary. So, the ones that send will receive the most invoices. One thing with councils and the invoicing is the low hanging fruit is your receivables. It's not it's not send any invoices. It's something we're exploring, and we've been keen to fund the pilot council to look at it, but you know that it could be complicated.

I'm going off track now, I've just realized.

Question: Do you know if Xero has payment time tracking functionality?

Andrew Cooke: Well, second part of the question, do you know if Xero has payment time tracking functionality?

Andrew Cooke: No, I do not. Sorry. I would expect them to, but I do not. It's something that we can look into with our Xero contacts, so feel free to get in touch if it's something you want us to pursue.

Help to get MagicQ to prioritize eInvoicing implementation?

Linda More: Christina: we are on MagicQ and we are right at the beginning with trying to get them to prioritize implementation of being able to process eInvoicing. We don't have anywhere for an NZBN to be put against the data. Any help to push this along would be great.

Linda More: It might be one that we'll take away and see if we can investigate for that.

Andrew Cooke: Yeah, yes, there's an action there, Alison, if you could take note for Christina Martin. Yeah, we'll look into that. It sounds like we might need to get in touch with our colleagues at MagicQ.

Andrew Cooke: Now it looks like we've answered all the questions. Do feel free to ask some more, but I'm thinking we might head over to the poll now. So, I was a bit trigger happy earlier on and I'm a bit too excited.

Visuals

The screen transitions to a slide displaying a QR code with instructions to participate in an online poll by scanning the code or accessing a link shared in the webinar chat.

Audio

Andrew Cooke: So, on the screen is a QR code. Meanwhile, Alison should have put a link in the chat if you could click on one of those and it's a very simple, very short poll and I'm going to flick across to it now.

Visuals

The screen then transitions to a live polling interface.

A question is displayed:

“Are you already empowered to improve your payment times?”

A chart is shown with response options. The number of responses increases and the chart updates dynamically as participants submit answers.

Audio

Andrew Cooke: So, I thought I'd ask this question because essentially it says, you know, are you already empowered? And it's good to see that quite a few of you already are. It is just good practice.

We've got a new question that just came on in. We'll answer that after the poll.

Andrew Cooke: OK, so a handful of you do and it's good to see that some of you plan to do it soon.

Visuals

The chart on screen stabilises showing final results for the question:

“Yes” reaches 14 responses, “No” reaches 26 responses, and “I plan to soon” reaches 5 responses.

The screen then transitions to the next poll question.

The question reads:

“Did you find this webinar useful?”

A chart is displayed with response options. The number of responses increases as participants submit answers and the chart updates in real time.

Audio

Andrew Cooke: Right. We're going to move on to the last question, a nice simple one. Did you find this webinar useful?

Andrew Cooke: And I just acknowledge that we will answer any remaining questions after the poll.

Andrew Cooke: And I’m impressed. We’re almost exactly on time.

Visuals

The chart on screen stabilises showing final results for the question:

“Yes” reaches 30 responses, “No” reaches 4 responses, and “Unsure” reaches 5 responses.

The poll interface closes, and the screen returns to the speaker tiles.

Audio

Andrew Cooke: OK, and if you haven't found it useful, please send us an e-mail. Always appreciate feedback. We always want to learn and do better.

Fantastic.

I'll end up now.

Andrew Cooke: Right. I see Linda, you've already answered the question. So, speak now or forever hold your peace. If you've got any questions. Otherwise, we might be wrapping up 5 minutes early.

So, on that note, goodbye and thank you very much. Enjoy the rest of your day.