Electronic Invoicing in New Zealand
Is e-invoicing mandatory in New Zealand ?
Electronic invoicing is legal in New Zealand, but it is not mandatory.
In 2018, the Governments of Australia and New Zealand decided to implement their electronic invoicing project in tandem through the Australia and New Zealand Government Electronic Invoicing Arrangement, one year later the adoption of Peppol framework for e invoicing in the Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Government (B2G) sectors was announced.
Now, to send and receive e-invoices companies must use an accredited Access Point (AP) by the Peppol Authority to exchange standarized documents based on a 4-corner model. The AP will then process messages according to the Peppol network specifications.
Additionally, both private companies and public entities need access to invoicing software that can transform electronic invoices generated in their management systems into the standard Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 format.
As a prerequisite for e-invoicing in New Zealand, companies must obtain a unique identifier called the New Zealand Business Number (NZBN).
The New Zealand Government is committed to delivering e-invoicing with the central government required to ensure they are capable of receiving e-invoices by the end of March 2022.
To encourage more government agencies to pay their obligations to the suppliers promptly, the New Zealand Government announced new rules to encourage the agencies to implement the e-invoicing.
For that purpose, the Rule 51 of the Government Procurement Rules was rewrited and claim that:
- From 1 January 2026, agencies that send or receive more than 2,000 domestic invoices a year must have e-invoicing systems in place. These agencies will be required to pay all domestic e-invoices within five business days."
- To facilitate faster payments in the meantime, I am setting an explicit requirement for around 135 government agencies to pay 90 per cent of all domestic invoices within 10 business days, from 1 January 2025. This will increase to 95 per cent from 1 January 2026.
More information can be found on the official NZ Government website:
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/new-rules-mean-faster-payment-times-small-businesses
Want to learn more about e-Invoicing compliance?
Download our Global e-invoicing and Tax Compliance fact sheet here for more information.
Archiving
Invoice archiving is allowed in New Zealand. The mandatory archiving duration is 7 years from the end of accounting period. It is required to store records in New Zealand unless approved for offshore storage.
Want to know more about Basware’s archiving services?
Download our Basware Vault fact sheet here to learn more about our flexible and scalable solution.
Basware Services
All Basware services are available in New Zealand.
Want to find out how we can help in your specific case?
Speak to a member of our team to learn more.
Interoperability
Basware currently has no connections to any interoperability partners in New Zealand however, the Basware Network allows us to connect to other open networks in New Zealand.
Our advice
New Zealand currently allows various invoicing methods: paper, PDF, electronic, and portal key-in invoices.
The pre-dominant method of invoicing is emailed PDFs with true electronic invoicing (XML or EDI-based) still limited to a handful of large organisations.
We strongly advise our receiving customers to implement smart capture methods for PDF invoices and avoid having to process them using OCR-techniques. This has no impact on suppliers and improves the efficiency and accuracy of the capture process.
Want to understand how we can help in your case?
Get in touch with our experts.
