E-invoicing is to be made mandatory for all Government Agencies from next year when they send or receive invoices from small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Minister for Digital, Victor Dominello said the change would help reduce payment times, paperwork and manual errors, and save buyers as well as suppliers a significant amount of money.
Mr Dominello said the mandate would apply from 1 January to the delivery of goods and services up to the value of $1 million.
“There is an estimated shared saving of around $20 each time e-invoicing replaces a paper invoice and around $17 each time it replaces a pdf invoice,” Mr Dominello said.
“Based on the 4.2 million invoices across NSW Government in 2019, a shared saving between the suppliers and NSW Government is estimated to be $71 million,” he said.
“This means the Government can spend more time helping customers and businesses can focus on their operations.”
Mr Dominello said research indicated that e-invoicing rates in Australia ranged from 15 per cent for small businesses to 23 per cent for large businesses, compared to 28 per cent across Europe and 40 per cent in Denmark and Finland.
Minister for Small Business, Damien Tudehope said the mandate would improve the way SMEs interacted with the Government Agencies.
“This mandate will enhance the Government’s existing Faster Payment Terms Policy, by ensuring that the accounts payable teams in Government Agencies receive invoices within minutes, enabling payment to eligible small businesses within five business days,” Mr Tudehope said.
He said suppliers would have the option to use e-invoicing or continue to invoice Government Agencies through existing means.
