Australia’s Treasury Department gives small businesses early Christmas present

Small businesses in Australia is guaranteed to be paid for their services within five days if they use e-invoicing, after the Australian Government’s Treasury Department became the first agency to go live with a fully integrated, all Australian tech-led e-invoicing solution.

The Prime Minister announced in October that every Australian Government agency must implement e-invoicing as part of a suite of measures aimed at boosting the economy post COVID-19.

Ahead of the PM’s commitment, Australian software company TechnologyOne has been on the ground for more than a year working with Treasury and the Australian Tax Office (ATO) to develop a highly secure solution, which also fully integrates into TechnologyOne’s government financial systems.

CEO of TechnologyOne Ed Chung said e-invoicing is a key step in the digital transformation of accounts payable and done right – will revolutionise small business and government agencies.

“Growing up in and around small family businesses most of my early life, I know first-hand how important cashflow is to survive, and to be able to pay the bills and staff.

“Now, as the CEO of a large and successful ASX listed enterprise software company who’s worked with the Federal Government for decades,  I am very pleased to be able to work alongside Treasury and other agencies to help them realise the full benefits to their own business and to get money flowing to small businesses faster.

“We understand e-invoicing is a high-priority issue for the Government, and we’re committed to ensuring this important economic recovery and digital transformation initiative happens smoothly for the benefit of all Australians,” Mr Chung said.

According to Peter Strong, CEO of the Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia, a policy group which advocates for over one million small businesses,  e-invoicing is a key step in the digital transformation of accounts payable , and if done right,  will make the lives of business owners easier, and encourage them to modernize and automate their IT systems in a secure and simple way.

“It should be noted that it is small business associations and the software industry who have led the way in getting e-invoicing onto the business and government’s agenda. Now, more than ever, Australian small businesses need e-invoicing. Last year we were saying e-invoicing was the future. It’s now the present, and it’s great to see Treasury is truly leading by example.

“It’s also very pleasing to see the Federal Government putting their ‘buy local’ message into action by choosing an Australian company like TechnologyOne, to lead the charge. E-invoicing is about less stress for small business folk and more time to run the business or spend time with family,” Mr Strong said.

With Treasury’s e-invoicing initiative now up and running and successfully paying their suppliers within a five day turn around, TechnologyOne’s designed-for-government integrated solution is now ready to be rolled out across other agencies.

Earlier this year, TechnologyOne became the only enterprise software solution to earn the coveted “IRAP PROTECTED” security assessment across the full suite of products, materially raising the cyber security posture of Federal Government agencies at no additional cost.

/Public Release. View in full here.