Post Pandemic Resurgence Of EInvoicing

Post Pandemic Resurgence of eInvoicing

Although the eInvoicing initiative actually kicked-off in January 2020 here in Australia, it fell by the wayside as business continuity was put to the test – so much that many business leaders didn’t even hear about eInvoicing back then. If a digitalisation initiative wasn’t enabling remote work or sales, it had to be ignored.

As we are entering what could be classified as a less-intense phase of the pandemic though, digitalisation has taken a new meaning for these business leaders.

Firstly, the wave of customers, employees and trade partners that tasted the boons of digitalisation loved it and are hungry/hopeful for more – and business leaders must accommodate to compete. According to a McKinsey survey:

• 93% of organisations increased remote working, of which at least 54% will persist with it
• 63% of organisations saw an increase in customer needs digitalising, of which 62% sense this is continuing still

Secondly, a correlation has been firmly established – one that may well be causation – digitalisation is key to surviving massive culling events like COVID-19. Of the businesses that “responded very well to the pandemic”:

• 72% were first-movers on digitalisation in their industries and they did it before the pandemic
• 67% invested more heavily in digitalisation than their peers, also before the pandemic

Post-Pandemic, businesses are taking digitalisation more seriously and why they’re doing that is evolving too. In 2017, 48% of business leaders viewed digitalisation as a means to generate savings, but now only 10% of them still hold that view. 

Instead, the majority of  leaders view digitalisation as a means to modernise core capabilities (30%), establish a competitive advantage (38%) and completely refocus their businesses around digital (19%). (McKinsey)

This same shift is also the wind that is propelling eInvoicing in Australia. Business leaders are realising that besides the obvious cost-savings ($25-30 per invoice to $2-$5 per invoice with ProSpend), eInvoicing is the more accurate, more secure, supplier preferred, easy to implement and future-proof way to operate.

The resurgence of eInvoicing is real and here are some of the more notable recent wins for the initiative:

• A Xero survey showed that just under 50% of the businesses surveyed would register for eInvoicing if their larger suppliers sent eInvoices
• Bunnings, Woolworths and BOC Gas are some of the massive businesses that are eInvoicing ready
• Businesses on Xero, Reckon and MYOB can send eInvoices directly from their accounting systems
• Federal and NSW State government agencies are mandated to receive eInvoices and pay them within 5 days, or face strict late payment fees
• The ATO conducted a successful eInvoicing Week 2022 in August, during which ProSpend hosted them for a webinar (access recording here)

For ProSpend, a leading provider enabling clients to hyper automate business spend management, eInvoicing is a highly effective addition to its set of tools. Not only does the system increase budget visibility, digitise and streamline processes from procure-to-pay and deeply integrate with most ERPs, it will now also connect businesses to the global eInvoicing network and bring invoice data in efficiently and with maximum accuracy.

If you would like to discuss your business spend management digitalisation strategy, including eInvoicing, please get in touch for a free consultation.