INTHEBLACK February 2023 - Magazine - Page 46
F E AT U R E
Australian Government, ATO – atoTV
The ATO’s role as Australian Peppol Authority
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main payment methods used by
business to help businesses get
paid faster.
Work is ongoing to:
• involve educational activities to
raise business awareness
• use supply chain pilots with large
businesses to gain insights
• drive adoption across supply
chains
The Australian Government
is also working with states and
territories to expand the adoption of
e-invoicing across the public sector.
At the start of the 2022-2023
financial year, all Australian
Government departments and
agencies – about 100 in total –
were required to have e-invoicing
capabilities enabled.
A key reason for setting
this deadline was to drive the
broad adoption of e-invoicing
46 INTHEBLACK February 2023
by all businesses that supply to
government departments and others
in their supply chains.
In addition to potentially saving
on materials costs – particularly
paper, printing and delivery – and
administration costs, e-invoicing
typically leads to faster processing
and payments, which can improve
cash flow.
Bruce Rossel, former relationship
manager, e-invoicing project at the
ATO, says digitising invoicing helps
to modernise the supply chain and
reduce the inefficiencies associated
with manual accounts payable systems.
“E-invoicing supports businesses
to be more efficient, to attain faster
payments, and it boosts the economy
overall,” he says, adding that it will
help greatly to offset “accounts
payable inefficiencies, late payments
and market imbalances”.
GROWING AWARENESS
Business management platform
provider MYOB recently conducted
a survey of Australian small-tomedium enterprises (SMEs) and
found 62 per cent of respondents
believe they could save up to 10 hours
every week by adopting e-invoicing.
The research confirms that
invoicing is a significant component
of SMEs’ administrative tasks, with
83 per cent spending up to 20 hours a
month issuing invoices. Seventy-five
per cent of respondents issue invoices
at least weekly, and 10 per cent say
invoicing takes between 20 hours and
49 hours of their time every month.
“Saving just five of the hours spent
invoicing every week is equivalent
to 260 hours – or 10 full days – each
year,” says Helen Lea, chief employee
experience officer and government
policy lead at MYOB.