Regulatory updates - Australia

Peppol unveiled A-NZ Invoice and Self-Billing specifications v. 1.0.12, including validation artefacts, and PINT A-NZ v1.1.0.

BIS Billing 3.0 and eProcurement BIS

The Peppol BIS Billing v3.0.18 was released on November 18, 2024.

The Peppol eProcurement BIS can be used in Australia and New Zealand without localization.  

All changes relating to v3.0.18 release and the updates to the specifications and validation documents will become mandatory from February 17, 2025.

A-NZ Invoice and self-billing specifications v1.0.12

The adopted changes align with Peppol BIS Billing v3.0.18, and some code list and validation artefacts have been updated.

All changes relating to the A-NZ Invoice and Self-Billing specifications v1.0.12 will become effective from March 10, 2025.

PINT A-NZ Billing and self-billing v1.1.0

All changes relating to the PINT A-NZ v1.1.0 release will become effective from March 10, 2025. 

Further amendments

New compliance rules on how to use sender/receiver identifiers when enveloping a message in Peppol Business Message Envelope (SBDH) are added for all the post-award suite documents, including the A-NZ Invoice and Self-Billing extensions & PINT A-NZ specifications.

Regarding the changes to PINT A-NZ specifications, the support for Busdox Document Type Identifier Scheme is removed, meaning that ‘exact match’ receiving capabilities will transition to the Wildcard Document Type Identifier Scheme. This amendment will become effective when the Peppol Policy for use of Identifiers v4.3.0 comes into force. 

The guidance documents aiming to support implementation of the A-NZ specifications have been updated to align with PINT A-NZ.

On 14 May 2024, the government released the Australian Federal Budget for 2024-25.

Among the key initiatives is an AUD 23.3 million (ca. EUR 14.3 million) investment over four years to support the Australian Taxation Office in maintaining a secure e-invoicing network. This is in recognition that e-invoicing provides business benefits and is a key in fighting scams aimed at Australian businesses.

Pagero is closely monitoring the e-invoicing developments in Australia. Stay tuned!

Revised Peppol Authority Specific Requirements (PASRs) for Australia and New Zealand were recently released on 23 January 2024, accessible via OpenPeppol. This entails, among other things, an updated timeline for the PINT A-NZ migration roll-out plans.

The recently confirmed migration schedule

• As of 15 November 2024:
  • PINT A-NZ invoice (mandatory)
  • PINT A-NZ credit note (mandatory)
  • PINT A-NZ self-billing (optional)
  • PINT A-NZ self-billing credit note (optional)
• As of 15 May 2025:
  • The old A-NZ specifications will be completely phased out and no longer available for use

Important steps to take

To comply, Software and Service Providers, as outlined in the PINT A-NZ SP Engagement Paper, must enhance their capabilities to support the PINT A-NZ specification by 15 November 2024. Key actions involve enabling capability lookups, sending PINT A-NZ messages for Invoice Senders, and ensuring PINT A-NZ capabilities in SMP as well as the ability to receive and process messages for Invoice Receivers.

As OpenPeppol launched Peppol PINT early this year, PINT became an optional specification in all Peppol geography and only mandatory in individual jurisdictions by decision of the local Peppol Authority. Japan is the first country to implement JP PINT, and Singapore and Malaysia are currently working on the local variants of PINT in their jurisdiction.

The Australians and New Zealand Peppol Authorities (A-NZ PAs) have committed to migrating from the current specifications, ANZ Peppol BIS 3.0, to PINT A-NZ specifications.

Implementation plans

According to the two webinars conducted by the A-NZ PAs in October and November, the proposed timelines are as follows:

Get Ready phase (December 2023)

Publish A-NZ specification. All stakeholders review changes and prepare for implementation activities.

• ANZ Peppol BIS 3.0: Mandatory
• PINT A-NZ: Optional

Phase In/Implementation phase (March/April 2024)

Senders build PINT A-NZ lookup and send capability. By the end of this phase, all existing receivers will need to register with the PINT A-NZ receive capability.  

The A-NZ PASRs (Peppol Authority Specific Requirements) are expected to reflect the specification changes on 15 November 2024.

• ANZ Peppol BIS 3.0: Mandatory
• PINT A-NZ: Optional

Phase out (30 April 2025)

All users must finalize and deploy the capability of exchanging PINT A-NZ as PINT A-NZ will become the only supported specifications for sending and receiving invoices and credit notes.

• ANZ Peppol BIS 3.0: Deprecated
• PINT A-NZ: Mandatory

Main changes between ANZ Peppol BIS 3.0 and PINT A-NZ

• New business process and specification identifier values;
• Support for a new document type identifier scheme, the wildcard scheme, introduced through the Peppol Policy for using Identifiers;
• Business Rules – new rule identifiers, some rationalization and removal of redundant rules, and removal of rules with a ‘warning’ severity;

More detailed information can be found in the PINT A-NZ specifications.

On 19 July 2023, Minister for Small Business and Member for Newcastle in a joint media release announced the establishment of a new e-Invoicing Hub for businesses in the Hunter region of New South Wales in Australia.

The Hub, launched in Newcastle, aims to provide businesses with an opportunity to learn about the technology and help them realise the benefits of e-Invoicing. Engagement activities will continue across the region.

The government urges local companies and business consultants to take advantage of the program and learn more about how e-Invoicing might benefit them.