The Australian government recently released its budget for 2020 and it’s clear that digital transformation is high on their agenda – it included $800 million to improve access to digital services. Some of the initiatives announced were:

• accelerating the creation of a single national business registry
• expanding the government’s Digital Identity Program
• accelerating the take-up of 5G technology
• promoting Australian finance technology overseas and
• helping businesses adopt digital technologies.

eInvoicing is also high on their agenda. eInvoicing enables organisations to send and receive invoices electronically, directly to and from their software. It removes the need for unnecessary data entry and inaccurate OCR scanning. Some of the benefits of eInvoicing include:

• cost savings
• easier invoice processing
• faster invoice payments
• fewer errors
• exchange of invoices directly to and from software
• improved security.

So what eInvoicing initiatives did the Government announce?

The Government set aside $120 million to help businesses adopt digital technologies, which includes $22.2 million specifically for small businesses. Small businesses in Australia have a long way to go, with some figures showing 90% of small and medium businesses still use paper-based invoices. The Government allocated an additional $3.6 million to help Federal Government agencies implement eInvoicing, which was announced in conjunction with a government eInvoicing mandate. Larger government agencies need to adopt eInvoicing by the 1st of July 2021, followed by all other agencies by the 1st of July 2022. The Federal Government also announced they’ll be looking at ways to mandate eInvoicing for State Government departments in the near future. This is just one of the steps to a more digital economy, with reports indicating government agencies, both federal and state, are responsible for around 10% of all business-to-business invoices. Another focus announced in this year’s Budget is to improve digital skills for workers and SMEs. $2.5 million will be allocated to help businesses with digital skills training. This funding will be used to develop a Digital Skills Finder platform to help workers and SMEs find training courses to further their digital skills.

What can we expect from the measures?

The Government have made it clear from this year’s Budget that they want to boost small business capability and increase the uptake of digital technologies. Overall, there are more than a dozen initiatives already planned to support businesses to adopt digital technologies. Expect to see Federal Government agencies implement eInvoicing early to comply with the mandate dates. And if you’re a supplier to government, expect to start receiving communications about issuing eInvoices. Now’s a good time to start preparing at your end and looking for eInvoicing providers. Just get in touch to find out more.

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Many organisations around the world are implementing eInvoicing, in particular government agencies. So why is government leading the charge? Here are a few reasons:

It benefits the economy

One of the key reasons government agencies are adopting eInvoicing is to stimulate the economy. It helps increase businesses’ cash flow because payment times are generally reduced. The Australian government even promises to pay eInvoices within 5 days for contracts less $1 million. In fact, studies estimate eInvoicing could provide the Australian economy with over $30 billion in benefits over ten years.

Benefits to government agencies

eInvoicing brings many benefits to government agencies themselves. These include:

• Streamlined processes eInvoicing saves time processing invoices and payments by automating what would be manual processes. You don’t need to enter invoice information into your software, it just appears.
• Fewer errors Less manual inputting also means less errors and more accurate data for reporting.
• Reduced costs Because of the automation, workload and labour costs are reduced. And because there’ll be less errors, agencies avoid the added costs of fixing mistakes. Another critical cost that can be reduced is printing and filing. Overall, studies have found that it costs $30.87 to process a paper invoice, $27.67 a PDF invoice, and only $9.18 to process an eInvoice.
• Faster payments eInvoicing can significantly speed payment processing due to automation. The average eInvoice is processed in 5 days, compared with 23 days for a regular invoice. This can help government agencies improve their supplier relationships and meet their promised payment terms.

Leading from the front

The government here in Australia is looking for ways to facilitate the adoption of eInvoicing. They’re leading from the front by implementing it with their own agencies first – they’ve mandated the use of eInvoicing for all Commonwealth government agencies by July 1, 2022. They’ve even promised $3.6million to help government agencies transition to eInvoicing and allocated $2.5 million to upskill workers and SMEs. There are a few agencies that are already accepting eInvoices. Some of them include:

• The Australian Taxation Office (Australian government department)
• The Department of Finance (Australian government department)
• Services Australia (Australian government department)
• The Treasury (Australian government department)
• New South Wales Department of Customer Service (Australian state government department) – check out our case study
• New South Wales Department of Premier and Cabinet (Australian state government department)
• New South Wales Treasury (Australian state government department)
• New South Wales Health (Australian state government department)
• New Zealand Government Procurement (New Zealand government department)
• New Zealand Inland Revenue (New Zealand government department) – check out our case study

If you’re looking at implementing eInvoicing, fill in the form below and we’ll get in touch with more information.

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