What is e-invoicing?
Mike started off the conversation to explain that is a digital exchange of invoice information between suppliers and buyers. It is done electronically, and it is not the same as sending attachments or PDF-based invoices. It is in a structured format. The purpose of e-invoicing is to provide a level playing field for everybody that plays in the supply chain, within the invoicing process. This includes small and large organisations.

Swapnil added that it’s not restricted to any particular type of organisation, it’s across the entire business landscape. It’s just a direct exchange of invoice related information between a supplier system and buyer system. And because of that, it helps enable quite a lot of automation and eventually, faster payments.

Swapnil suggested that the benefits of invoice automation include faster payments and improved cash flow, as well as increased efficiency and reduced administrative costs. It is not restricted to any particular type of organisation, and can be used across the entire business landscape.

Where to Start with e-invoicing?
Mike added that e-invoicing is an by talking to your and registering on the e-invoicing platform. You will then be able to send and receive invoices electronically.

Swapnil added that after you’ve confirmed that your accounting system is e-invoicing enabled, the next step is to register with a platform and start sending and receiving invoices electronically. This process is simple and straightforward, and most platforms offer helpful tutorials and guides.

What is e-invoicing week?
Swapnil explained the main purpose of which is on this week in Australia, is to create awareness of e-invoicing within the Australian business community, with the intent of encouraging Australian businesses to adopt e-invoicing. This will be facilitated by a number of events and communications being released through various channels, with the Australian Tax Office (ATO) playing a leading role.

E-invoicing has been shown to have a number of benefits for businesses, including reducing administrative costs, improving cash flow and increasing efficiency. As such, there is a growing demand for e-invoicing in Australia and businesses that adopt it early stand to reap the greatest rewards.

Comparing e-invoicing to the traditional invoicing methods
Swapnil explained that paper-based invoices involve the supplier issuing an invoice and printing it out to put in an envelope and send through snail mail. On the receiver’s side, they will have to receive it and address it to a particular contact. E-invoicing is a more efficient way of exchanging invoice data between suppliers, accounting financial management systems and buyers’ accounting financial management systems. It is faster, more secure and can be processed and paid faster.

Mike added that from a macro perspective, it is estimated that over a 10-year period, $2.8 billion is lost in productivity due to the manual processing of invoices. This is a significant amount of money that could be put back into the economy if this process were automated. Research and surveys show that small businesses can save $40,000 a year by making the switch to electronic invoicing. Other benefits include increased sustainability and faster payment times.

Costs of moving to e-invoicing
Mike added that the biggest cost for small businesses when implementing or e-invoicing is change management – getting customers and suppliers on board with the new system. The technology needed to support this framework is already built into many software packages, so the cost is mainly in terms of time and resources needed to implement the change.

Swapnil mentioned that from a cost perspective, it depends on the business needs. Some businesses may need to use a premium e-invoicing service, while others may be able to use a built-in e-invoicing service within their accounting software. The price of an e-invoicing service can vary depending on the provider and the features offered.

Changing the Way Business is Done in the Future
On the topic of how e-invoicing will impact businesses, Swapnil explained that e-invoicing will become much simpler with the advent of routed networks. Suppliers will no longer have to find out where they have to send an invoice, but instead the invoice will be automatically sent through to the intended recipient. This will save time and hassle for both suppliers and businesses.

The supplier experience would be greatly improved with the invoicing and invoice response functionality built into it. They would not only be able to send the invoice directly from their accounting software, but they can also see the status of the invoice within that system itself. This would provide a one-stop shop for the supplier, making it easier and more efficient for them to send invoices and check on the status.

Closing Thoughts
Swapnil explained that e-invoicing is a no brainer for businesses, as it is more efficient and can lead to faster payments. The New South Wales government acknowledges that some small businesses may not have accounting software, but encourages them to try out e-invoicing to experience its benefits.

The Supplier Hub Invoice portal is a service that allows suppliers to New South Wales government agencies to enter invoices. In the backend, these invoices are received as e-invoices. The will offer productivity benefits of $28 billion over the next 10 years.

To listen to the full conversation you can access the podcast recording via, or .

The post The Difference e-invoicing Can Make to Your Business appeared first on 麻豆原创 Australia & New Zealand News Center.

Small and medium businesses (SMBs) have a few factors in common with the big players, but the most crucial commonality is cash flow. Plain and simple, it鈥檚 the heartbeat of any business, irrespective of size. Even a one-person business such as an individual tradesman can have the expertise, the customer base and great references 鈥� but if invoicing is slow, then cash flow suffers considerably.

I recently experienced this firsthand. We had to call out a plumber to fix a couple of leaks and he came out quickly and did a fantastic job. But I had a long and unforeseen wait for his invoice because he was so busy looking after his customers that invoicing had taken a back seat. I texted him and called him on multiple occasions because obviously I wanted to pay him, but I had to wait six months for the invoice to arrive. This might be a simple example, but it just shows the importance of getting the paperwork to a customer so that the payment can arrive in a timely manner.

The advent of mandated will be a game changer in many ways. Two years ago, the Australian Government announced that Commonwealth Government agencies would be required to process all invoices electronically by July 1st, 2022. While there is no mandate for SMBs to adopt e-invoicing as of today, if they provide services to government, they will need to be e-invoice-ready. Earmarked as an important component of SMB digitalisation, this is a core focus of Australia鈥檚 Digital Economy Strategy1, designed to help secure the country鈥檚 economic future.

Equal access to technology
The pandemic has prioritised the need for more effective business processes, accelerating digitalisation and technology adoption across both the public and private sectors. In this context, e-invoices will be the way for companies of any size to communicate, providing a faster and more secure method of processing, sending and paying invoices. In short, this is truly a democratisation of financial processes, where everyone has access to the same technology, thereby removing many of the common bottlenecks involved in receiving payment.

Irrespective of size or turnover, companies will have the ability to directly exchange digital invoice information with another company鈥檚 software, even if they are using a different system, network, or portal. By minimising error rates associated with manually processing paper, PDF and email invoices, e-Invoices also save time and help to reduce processing costs. Currently, it is independently estimated that each paper invoice costs around $30 to process, and each PDF invoice around $27. In comparison, e-Invoices cost less than $10 to process, so in theory both the sender and receiver can share up to $20 in cost savings.

The Australian Government has adopted a standardised invoicing format for e-Invoices called PEPPOL. Used for more than a decade in at least 38 countries as an international standard, PEPPOL provides a more secure channel for invoices than email, transmitting e-Invoices between the senders鈥� and receivers鈥� systems via access points.

As the legislated Australian PEPPOL Authority, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has been appointed to facilitate the adoption of e-Invoicing, including the accreditation of trusted service providers as access points for the PEPPOL e-Invoicing network. 麻豆原创 is one of the few service providers accredited by the ATO to complement PEPPOL as an end-to-end ERP provider.

This means that invoices can be sent, received, corrected and monitored using one centralised solution: 麻豆原创 Document Compliance. Enabled by 麻豆原创, e-Invoicing provides an efficient, cost-effective, and reliable way for companies to connect in a rapidly changing world.

Three key decisions
For our purposes, a small business is one that has between 1-19 employees, whereas a medium business is one that has between 20-100 employees. They have three essential decisions to make: the time and cost involved in adopting e-invoicing; understanding what software to use before integrating the process; and getting the right advisors while planning how to manage the change.

Broadly speaking, the switch to digitalisation has six steps:

Do your research: Take the time to map out all areas of your business where there is the potential to implement digital processes, identifying priorities and what will have the biggest short-term or long- term impact.

Different perspectives: Tap into external inspiration and learn from others to uncover new ways of achieving your goals.

Involve employees and suppliers: Change in the workforce can cause resistance, especially if it means new ways of working, so get employees involved in the decision-making process.

Find the right partner: Choose a technology partner that fully understands your business and your goals to ensure a smooth transition.

Total connectivity: Generate real-time understanding of your business and valuable market insights by connecting internal solutions and external networks.

Prioritise the change: Digitalisation requires commitment to the process, so start small but think big, learn along the way and keep moving.

While that might sound challenging, 88% of SMBs say that making the switch was easy. 麻豆原创 has tried to highlight the benefits of e-invoicing to SMBs by examining the issue from their point of view, to understand their barriers to adoption. We recognize the fact that a lot of small businesses, especially the mum-and-dad businesses, don’t use 麻豆原创, but they will interact with or have relationships with bigger businesses or they may be selling things to large organisations.

Taking the next step
This is not just about selling software, per se. We want to be able to take a reasonably pragmatic approach to why we’re doing this, and what benefits we can provide to SMBs. We鈥檙e helping them take an outside-in approach so that they can see the upside of how their businesses will prosper. In a sense, we’re targeting this at install base or at net new. We have many lines of business, but the ones that I’m focusing on here are for those customers that already have 麻豆原创 installed or are about to instal 麻豆原创 as their digital core. What we recommend to them would depend on their profile, whether it鈥檚 Ariba or Concur, or what is the best recommendation if they’ve really got no underlying ERP or if they need our compliance and reporting solution.

It鈥檚 important to clarify that a mum-and-dad SMB currently using MYOB or XERO would continue to do so. Larger businesses would be the main users of 麻豆原创, but if they happen to buy from a mum-and-dad business, the latter in turn would need to be e-invoice compliant in order to get paid quicker.

麻豆原创 is committed to helping SMBs keep pace, drive change and move forward in the face of shifting customer expectations, disrupted supply chains, and ongoing market uncertainty. It鈥檚 interesting to note that 80 per cent of our customers are small and medium-sized companies, so no matter how many employees a company has, we have solutions designed and priced for all.

We connect finance, operations, HR and sales to create exceptional employee and customer experiences. Proven procurement, inventory, and industry specific processes will help you move faster, adapt quickly, and face any competitor. Our local partners will get you up and running in a matter of weeks, so you can keep business moving forward today and be confident 麻豆原创 will be with you wherever you go next.

Click to find out how 麻豆原创 can help you with eInvoicing

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