New research highlights $800 million in annual productivity gains

The research shows, with over 300 million business to business invoices exchanged in New Zealand each year, productivity gains to our economy through eInvoicing are conservatively estimated to be $800 million per year.

The findings highlight a practical opportunity to reduce admin, save time, and improve cashflow for businesses by exchanging eInvoices with their trading partners.

“It is one of the simplest, proven productivity gains available to New Zealand businesses today and those with cloud accounting have eInvoicing available to them now, says Alan Carnaby, Director Smart Data Economy at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

“Hundreds of millions of invoices are exchanged each year. Moving more of these to eInvoices will improve productivity across the economy, he says.

Quantifying the productivity gains

The estimated productivity gains of $800 million per year are based on the time savings from reduced manual handling, applied across the number of business invoices that could realistically transition to eInvoicing.

The research estimates a minimum time saving of 16 minutes per invoice, with an estimated value of at least $11 per invoice. Time savings are based on international studies adjusted to New Zealand conditions, using a benefits transfer approach.

eInvoicing removes much of the manual handling by sending invoice information directly between accounting systems in a standard digital format through the Peppol network.

It represents a foundational piece of digital infrastructure with broad economy‑wide returns.

“As well as efficiency gains, eInvoicing improves accuracy, provides better visibility and tracking of invoices, reduces the risk of invoice fraud and improves cashflow, says Alan.