Electronic invoicing (or eInvoicing) is the digital exchange of billing information directly between the buyer’s and supplier’s accounting systems.
There are options for mandatory adoption of eInvoicing by all public institutions and businesses. In this context, as part of the Digital Business Plan, the government has mandated eInvoice for all government institutions by 1 July 2022.
PEPPOL Standard
The common eInvoicing standard in Australia is Peppol, an internationally established standard. The Peppol standard allows the exchange of invoices between different accounting systems.
You can partner with one or more Peppol-certified access points to be included in the eInvoice or become accredited in Australia by obtaining Peppol certification.
When you connect to a Peppol access point, you connect to all access points on both the local and international networks. By partnering your software solution with the relevant access point, you connect users of your software to the entire Peppol network. It allows your software to enable eInvoicing. It is possible to reach the list of accredited software providers published on the website of the Australian Peppol Institution.
Functions of eInvoice
Adoption of eInvoice helps support small businesses. eInvoicing improves internal processing. It provides better payment terms for businesses that provide goods and services. It can also reduce administrative delays and payment problems. eInvoice reduces the need for manual entry. It reduces errors and results in ‘cleaner’ data. The centralized system of eInvoicing also increases the accuracy and timeliness of financial and budget reporting, providing a better overview of economic conditions. On the other hand, in Australia, more than 1.2 billion invoices are issued each year. Transition to eInvoice will save $28 billion within ten years in Australia.
eInvoice Accreditation Process
Organizations accredited for one or two types of services that work together as part of the Peppol e-invoicing network:
- Service metadata publisher (SMP) services — where a provider publishes the business’ capabilities in a prescribed manner to determine the address to which business documents should send.
- Access point services (AP) — where a provider provides document or message transport and translation services.
In this context, AP services,
- A business’s internal information technology (IT)
- A seller of accounts payable or accounts receivable of a business
- Can provide an outsourced AP provider.
Any business needs an AP to be able to send or receive eInvoices.
