Australia eInvoicing is digital exchange of invoicing information directly between 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 Digital Business Plan, government has mandated eInvoice for all 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. List of accredited software providers publishes on website of Australian Peppol Institution.
Functions of eInvoice
Adoption of eInvoice helps support small businesses.
eInvoicing improves internal processing.
eInvoice 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.
e-Invoice Accreditation Process
Organizations accredited for one or two types of services of Peppol eInvoicing network:
Service metadata publisher (SMP) services: Where a provider publishes the business’ capabilities in a prescribed manner to determine address to which 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.