eInvoicing provides greater benefits for business

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has been established as the Australian Peppol Authority. The move is a significant step towards improving the payment experience for Australian businesses, according to Deputy Commissioner John Dardo.

The Peppol framework provides a standardised e-invoice that supports domestic and international trade, and is being used in 34 countries globally. The objective of the framework is to increase efficiencies for business and reduce costs associated with the manual processing of invoices.

"Australian businesses will be able to incorporate this approach into their day-to-day business activities for domestic and international invoicing," says Dardo.

"Using Peppol as the basis for Australian and New Zealand eInvoicing supports more efficient processing of invoices," he says.

"The aim is to encourage widespread adoption by businesses, so they can take advantage of the benefits and thrive in the economic market by focusing on their core business rather than on labour intensive manual processes," explains Dardo.

"The ATO is moving into the enabling and adoption phase of this project, and will continue working with digital service providers to drive this initiative. Digital service providers can now apply to become accredited and move closer to delivering eInvoicing products to businesses," he says.

Australian government agencies are also taking steps to implement the Peppol framework and support faster payments through e-invoices. On November 7, the Minister for Finance announced that from 1 January 2020, Commonwealth Government agencies capable of receiving e-invoices will start paying e-invoices up to $1 million in value within five days or pay interest on any late payments.

"The ATO is working in partnership with agencies to support them in developing adoption timelines and pathways so that they can become enabled for eInvoicing in the coming year," Dardo says.