More and more small businesses are calling for a greater adoption of e-invoicing for business-to-business transactions. According to the latest data from business management platform MYOB, 53 per cent of the 1000 SMEs surveyed believe that e-invoicing should be mandatory and that figure rises to 61 per cent among sole traders. The survey also found that 38 per cent of respondents believed that e-invoicing will save them about a working week’s time each year.
It was announced in the 2020 Federal Budget that e-invoices would be mandatory for business-to-government (B2G) transactions from 1 July 2022. However, MYOB’s CEO Greg Ellis said that government should expedite mandatory e-invoicing for business-to-business (B2B) transactions as well.
“This data illustrates there is no need for Australia to take a softly-softly approach with the e-invoicing mandate; other countries have successfully brought the mandate in and SMEs are ready to go,” Ellis said.
“They understand how it works and the benefits of faster payment times and reduced admin that it brings. It is, therefore, in the interest of the Australian economy to bring in the B2B mandate as soon after the government deadline as possible,” Ellis added. “E-invoicing is the best enabler we have for the digital economy. Let’s get this done and help our SMEs lead Australia’s recovery and growth.”
The findings were released in line with MYOB’s announcement of a partnership with e-invoicing providers Link4, LUCA Plus, and MessageXchange to provide a flexible e-invoicing solution for small businesses.
