In February 2023, CA ANZ hosted a Sharing Knowledge session ‘e-Invoicing – New Zealand Update and Xero/MYOB Demo’. This session provided an overview and demonstration of e-Invoicing by Xero and MYOB. At the end of this session 70 percent of attendees polled indicated they will be registering themselves or their clients to receive e-Invoices and 95 percent of attendees will consider recommending it to their clients.

There is a list of service providers on the Government’s e-Invoicing website, many of these facilitate e-Invoicing for free.

Our Q&A from this sharing knowledge session is also available for download.

eInvoicing has come a long way since February 2019, when the prime ministers of Australia and New Zealand announced the two countries' intention to jointly adopt the Pan-European Public Procurement Online (PEPPOL) interoperability framework for trans-Tasman eInvoicing.

eInvoices becoming the preference for government agencies

Many government agencies, including local government are updating their contract and procurement documents to include eInvoicing as a preference instead of PDF invoices. Central Government agencies have a target to be eInvoicing ‘receive’ capable by 31 March 2022 and by July 2026, 90% of business to Central Government invoices to be eInvoices.

eInvoicing meets IRD's tax invoice and record keeping rules

Inland Revenue has published changes to the rules for invoices and record keeping.

Some key points:

• You'll no longer need to keep a single physical document holding the supply information, such as a tax invoice, credit note, or debit note. Your transaction records, accounting systems and contractual documents may, in combination, contain all the information you need to support the figures in your GST returns.
• New terms will come into effect, for example the term ‘Tax invoice’ will be replaced with ‘Taxable supply information.’
• Special wording not required: you may continue to provide taxable supply information in a single document marked as a 'tax invoice', however you are not required to include this wording when providing taxable supply information.
• Sellers can provide taxable supply information to a customer using an automated direct exchange between the buyer's and seller's software, for example PEPPOL eInvoicing.

'Getting set up' step-by-step guide and update your NZBN data

MBIE have a new step-by-step guide for getting set up for eInvoicing (PDF).

Businesses wanting to register for e-Invoicing must have the following data fields set to ‘Public’ in the NZBN directory in order for their e-Invoicing registration to be verified.

• Business entity name
• Entity type
• Registered or postal address, including postcode.

Trading partners won’t be able to find the details they need on the directory if this data is set to Private.

Other eInvoicing developments

Each month, MBIE publishes an updated list of eInvoicing registered businesses (XLS), along with instructions on how to match to your list of trading partners.

MBIE has also developed an 'eInvoicing capable’ logo, which you can download from the eInvoicing website. You can add this to your email signature to remind your trading partners you can receive (or send) eInvoices.