New Zealand Starts B2G eInvoicing Program

New Zealand is making strides toward mandatory eInvoicing services, according to an Open Gov report Wednesday (March 2).

By March 31, 2022, central government agencies in the country must be able to receive electronic invoices, one of the first major steps towards business-to-government (B2G) eInvoices becoming compulsory.

The goal is to help make it simpler for companies to both handle big volumes of invoices and cut costs. By digitizing invoices, it could also cut down on administrative processing time and reduce tax fraud.

The report noted that with this change, the New Zealand government said there could be savings of NZ $4.4 billion (roughly $3 billion) in the next 10 years.

Digital invoicing comes with many benefits including that large amounts of businesses want to curb the threat of cyber hacking. Businesses within the region also like that it could speed up payments and boost cash flow abilities, according to research from the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE).

As eInvoicing is beginning to roll out in New Zealand anyway, Mark Wierzbicki, general manager of eInvoicing at MBIE, said it could be a good thing and an improvement.

“eInvoicing is the digital exchange of invoice information directly between buyers’ and suppliers’ financial systems, with no need for a PDF to be generated and no manual handling or data entry required when you receive an eInvoice,” he said.

PYMNTS wrote last year that Tradeshift, a California eInvoicing and accounts payable automated service, has expanded its cross-border eInvoicing platform to let companies with a base in China send and receive electronic invoices with cross-border partners.

Related: China’s First Cross-Border eInvoicing System Integrates Local Business Into Global Supply Chain

This expansion came with the Tradeshift Pay platform. Before that, Chinese businesses had to require global partners to operate a separate China-only system or use paper invoices.

Through branching out to include China, Tradeshift will be digging into the $530 billion in global trade that passes through China every month.