Posted by Link4 Team on 24/03/2021
The Australian Government has mandated eInvoicing for all Federal agencies. Around a third needs to have a solution by 30 June 2021, and the remainder need to implement a solution over the following 12 months. It’s expected that State and Local governments will also be mandating eInvoicing next. But was it involved? How long does it take to implement eInvoicing? And who should you use to get eInvoicing setup?
The topic of eInvoicing may confuse or concern some, but it’s really easy to understand and implement. Sure, it’s a different concept, but the benefit it brings to our economy is huge.
How will eInvoicing benefit the economy?
The reason Australia is implementing eInvoicing is to make life easier and better for business owners – especially small business owners (SMEs). It’s been said that Australia would save $3 billion per year if just 15% of businesses were active with eInvoicing. This is due to a number of factors such as reducing invoice fraud, preventing processing errors from occurring, and reducing the cost required to create manual invoices in the first place(such as staff, IT, printing, etc). The Federal Government has also agreed to pay eInvoices within 5 days – which allows a business to manage their cash flow better. So mandating eInvoicing has the capability to support businesses of any size in Australia.
What is eInvoicing and how does it work?
In its simplest form, eInvoicing is the instant delivery of invoice information between Accounting systems – without the need for email and PDFs. Basically, the Accounting systems talk together in real-time. Details of a transaction flow directly from a supplier’s Accounting system and are populated into the correct fields within the customer’s system. This process is made possible by SaaS systems that use ‘Access Points’ to transmit data. These Access Points effectively act as a ‘middleman’.
The Australian Government has agreed to use Pan-European Public Procurement On-Line eInvoicing standards, or Peppol eInvoicing for short. This simply means invoice data is transmitted in a specific universal standard format so it can be easily read and populated by any Accounting system.
To set up eInvoicing, all you need to do is select a Peppol accredited Access Point (such as Link4) that can work with your ERP/Accounting system, and then you’re set.
How long does it take to implement eInvoicing?
It doesn’t take long for a government department to be active with eInvoicing. Link4 can implement eInvoicing in around 2 weeks. This also includes all testing and training for your team.
Does Link4 have any previous experience implementing eInvoicing to Australian Government departments?
Link4 has already worked with several government departments to implement eInvoicing. We’re currently the most popular commercially available Peppol Access Point in use with the Federal Government. We have helped departments such as the Department of Treasury and the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources to set up their eInvoicing capabilities.
I need to set up eInvoicing for my department – where do I start?
Get in touch with us today and we’ll show you how easy it is for your department to be active with eInvoicing. Setting up eInvoicing is much easier than you’d expect!
