A-NZ Service Provider Community Meetings

The group compared adoption strategies between Australia, New Zealand and other jurisdictions to identify opportunities for A-NZ. Participants discussed DSPANZ looking into a Peppol First initiative similar to Belgium's approach. More information will be shared back at the next meeting. 

Simon Foster covered that in December the EU announced, via a set of reports known as VAT in the Digital Age, which contain a recommendation for an eInvoicing mandate that will phase in various items between now and 2028 focused on reducing VAT fraud. Find out more here. 

Discussion about the Decentralised CTC and Exchange Model (DCTCE). It was noted that PINT has officially been published and a review period of 4 weeks is now underway. More information including links through to the documentation and comment template can be accessed here. The target date for final publication of PINT is 1 July. 

Simon Foster provided a rundown of PINT and DDTS. The intended release date for PINT is July. A draft has been published and feedback was provided. A draft DDTS will be published shortly. It is recommended to look over the documents and provide feedback. 

Peppol released version 2.0 of the Business Message Envelope on 13 March. This adds reporting of end user (C1) country codes and will be mandatory from 12 October 2023. This will almost certainly require updates by access point providers, and C1/4 software providers should contact their Peppol Service Provider to determine any changes they need to make. 

The General Assembly notice and Election notice have been circulated. It is highly recommended to read the documents on the Peppol website and to raise any queries. The General Assembly will be online only on 8 June. The budget will be voted on and changes to statutes are proposed. It was reminded that there are still positions open and nominations close 28 April. 

Rick Harvey provided an update on the new conformance test. Feedback has been implemented and the test is approaching the final stage. Simon advised two reporting specifications have been released recently. Currently there is no need to implement now, however, the group was encouraged to read the documents and ensure all relevant information is provided. The OpenPeppol Security working group is in its third draft stage. The group discussed what to expect from this group in the future. Simon provided an update on the MLA working group. The expected draft publishing date for feedback is within the next month. 

The group discussed an opportunity to send issues via an anonymous Google Form, which can be collated and discussed in this or published for others to learn from. DSPANZ will investigate options and present his back to the group in May. 

Simon Foster welcomed everyone to the meeting and acknowledged the Traditional Owners of Country. The group welcomed Matt Lewis as co-chair.

Matt Lewis provided details on voting in the upcoming OpenPeppol elections, with an emphasis on two positions; Post-Award Community CMB Members and Peppol Authority Representative to Managing Committee This was particularly relevant as individuals from Australia and New Zealand are currently contending for these positions. Matt has offered to vote on behalf of any OpenPeppol members who wish to vote by proxy at the General Assembly. Please find a prefilled proxy delegation form attached alongside the outcomes.

Maggie Leese provided an overview of draft access points issues form that was discussed at the previous meeting. The form will be utilised to understand what's not working in the network, during the early maturity stages and possible solutions. It was emphasised to the group that the form ensures complete anonymity and is not limited to addressing access point-related matters. The group discussed the current challenges they are facing and the benefits of utilising an anonymous feedback system.

Simon discussed the release notes for Peppol BIS Billing v3 published on 1 May. The group was advised there is a 3 month notice before this is due to be implemented. Simon also raised the recent changes to Codelists. 

New End Users and Transaction Statistic Reporting Specifications were published and will be ready for mandatory use 12 October. In preparation for that, there have been changes to Business Message Envelope specification. It is strongly recommended to review these updates and commence any necessary preparations.

Simon mentioned the ESPA Incubation, which is a collaboration MOU between Peppol and ESPA, with the aim of integrating the two networks. While it was acknowledged that this primarily pertains to European operations, it was suggested members may benefit from reviewing this information to gain a better understanding of its potential implications.

Simon Foster welcomed everyone to the meeting and acknowledged the Traditional Owners of Country.

The group discussed and agreed to invite ATO and MBIE representatives for alternate meetings to participate in open conversations, listen in, provide updates, and gather feedback from the group.

A draft A-NZ Peppol First strategy was presented to the group. Members raised several perspectives and provided feedback on identifying challenges and exploring potential strategies. The discussion points will be incorporated into the document and the revised strategy will be circulated back to the group for further input and discussion.

EESPA will undergo a name change to Global Exchange Network Association. They follow a different approach and only represent invoicing service providers with no other software providers, potentially leading to missed opportunities for important discussions.

The implementation of VAT in the digital age is scheduled to commence from January 2024, and is expected to have a significant impact on the marketplace primarily around the fraud. Halo effect in uptake of the invoicing from the back of that with potential implications for increased adoption of invoicing services.

Simon attended the OpenPeppol General Assembly. Craig Smith from MBIE was elected to the managing committee, and Simon was reelected to the Post Award Change Management board and the Agreements Board.

Simon attended sessions for Managing Committee Plus Plus, which includes Peppol Authorities and various change management boards. During which a proposal out of Singapore for an Asia Pacific Centre of Excellence on eInvoicing. IMDA have recognised there's a lack of expertise in eInvoicing with Peppol Authorities as they are setting up in Australia and New Zealand.

The group was advised there will be updates from Peppol Management Committee on upcoming changes expected in specifications, reporting business, SDBH, and PINT. Additionally, a new version of internal regulations will be implemented, impacting both service providers and software providers. DSPANZ will compile and circulate the changes to the group.

Matt Lewis welcomed everyone to the meeting and acknowledged the Traditional Owners of Country. Welcomed Peppol Authority representatives Mark Stockwell (ATO), Lisa Archbold (MBIE) and Mark Wierzbicki (MBIE).

Mark Stockwell provided an update on the recent Hunter Hub launch, discussed methods used to assess impacts and a brief overview of upcoming marketing plans and events. Mark Wierzbicki provided insights into MBIE's ongoing workstreams, highlighting the various areas of focus and discussed recent marketing activities and progress of the eInvoicing Adoption Leaders Group.

Members provided several examples of interoperability issues their clients are currently facing. 

Mark Stockwell discussed the steps being taken to rectify these issues and will follow up on the communication relating to raising tickets to the ATO.

Simon discussed the relationship between MLR and “MLX”. It was advised the Message Level Status Group are currently creating a paper that focuses on a new message for communication between C2 and C3 that allows you to advise of a business rule violation. The paper will be circulated to the group once published for their feedback.

Matt Lewis discussed issues raised around the use of Web Application Firewalls. The group shared examples and concerns relating to this example. It was advised to raise issues directly with the access point, if unresolved, escalate the issue to the Peppol Authority. A reminder that participants can utilise the form on the DSPANZ website.

Maggie Leese provided an update on the draft "eInvoicing First strategy". It was recommended for the group to provide their feedback and considerations to hello@dspanz.org.

Simon Foster welcomed everyone to the meeting and acknowledged the Traditional Owners of Country.

The upcoming ASWG meeting was highlighted and agenda items were briefly discussed.

The group provided feedback on the "eInvoicing First strategy"  document and discussed the next steps, with plans to circulate the final draft soon.

The group discussed the Peppol reporting webinar following this meeting and raised concerns with new reporting and the limited involvement from Service Providers.

An email was circulated about reviewing PINT. Feedback is encouraged, and it was flagged that there are discussions on it potentially becoming mandatory

Members were reminded to share topics or issues for discussions with ATO and MBIE representatives, as it is proposed they attend every second meeting. Questions were raised about views on the Peppol Directory.

A recording of the previous ‘end users statistics reporting’ webinar was provided to the group.

Maggie provided an update on what is happening with the focus groups from the Peppol Stakeholders Working Group. The Consistent Data Mapping focus group is kicking off this month and invites will be sent out to those who sent an EOI shortly. An email will be sent to the wider group with an update on the next meeting and other focus groups. 

Simon highlighted the email Martin Mane and Paul Simons sent out to the Peppol eDelivery community about version 8.0 of the code list and Annex 4 changes. It was noted that these changes become live in May. 

Simon gave a high level overview on what Treasury's Supporting business adoption of electronic invoicing consultation covered. DSPANZ will be putting together a submission based on the feedback given at the meeting. 

New attendees were introduced and the format and purpose of these meetings were reiterated. 

There will be an EOI sent out to members who are interested in joining the Committee that will set the direction for these meetings and Peppol related matters. While the Committee will be open to members only, these meetings will continue to be open to both members and non members. 

Maggie provided an update on the Consistent Data Mapping Focus Group and encouraged the group to share any examples of data mapping issues that they've encountered. The group was encouraged to share any examples with DSPANZ to then discuss at the focus group. More information about this group and the A-NZ Peppol All Stakeholders can be found on our website here. 

Discussed DSPANZ's submission to the Supporting business adoption of electronic invoicing which can be accessed here. Others then discussed their view on ways to increase adoption.

The group discussed a proposal put forward by one attendee to create two tiers in the ATO eInvoicing Ready Provider and MBIE Peppol Ready Provider certification programs. The group agreed that software providers shouldn't be disadvantaged if they cannot meet the best practice fields from the ANZ Industry Practice Statement - Invoice Content but are still able to send a compliant Peppol invoice. DSPANZ, along with members of this group, will look to have discussions with the ATO and MBIE to make this position known. 

Simon Foster shared the outcomes of the OpenPeppol General Assembly. The new peppol.org website has been launched and the old website is being phased out. Reminder that you don't need to be an Access Point to join OpenPeppol, you can also be an end user.

Matt Lewis provided updates on the A-NZ Peppol All Stakeholders Working Group and the Consistent Data Mapping Focus Group. There has been fair representation across all user groups in the larger working group. The Focus Group has been meeting on a regular basis to work through items ranging from simple problems to more complex issues. Another meeting is set for the Focus Group to review the first guidance set for publishing. Moving forward we are looking to host that on a quarterly basis. 

OpenPeppol recently sent out the new reporting BIS which includes new rules for centralised reporting. This will be automated reporting (requires an adjustment to the SBDH) and end user reporting. There are two months to provide feedback on the new rules. 

The group was reminded that new agreements need to be signed within the next two months. 

Maggie Leese announced that DSPANZ is signing an MoU with EESPA. 

Matt Lewis covered the May A-NZ Specifications release and that DSPANZ will be looking to distil this information for members and highlight any impacts. A post was shared to the with this information - members can access it here. It was noted that the notice period around changes will be increasing. 

The group discussed the implications involved in the new reporting BIS. A summary of issues raised so far was circulated with attendees. The group was encouraged to read through the documentation and think about whether it will work for your organisation and end users. There was a reminder that if you agree with a comment to make your own comments to OpenPeppol so the issue is amplified. It was also noted that the new Internal Regulations now gives Service Providers a vote. The review period ends on 25 June.

Andrew Stein, the chair of the Access Point Migration and Exit Focus Group, provided an update from the first meeting of the focus group. 

Rick Harvey presented the diagram he created illustrating the Peppol security landscape to help determine the scope for the Peppol Security Working Group. 

Simon Foster reminded the group that the new agreements framework went live as of 1 July. 

The following updates were provided on Peppol-related working groups:

• The PINT POC is currently happening. Information is available on the OpenPeppol Confluence
• Rick Harvey shared an update on the Peppol Security working group. It was noted that the outcomes are unlikely to meet Australian Service Providers who already meet the Operational Framework
• Other Peppol working groups are expected to be quiet for the next month with European summer holidays
• Consultation for the November Peppol BIS release is expected to be released soon. There will be a four week consultation period using SurveyMonkey to collect feedback. There are no changes to the invoice that will impact Australia and New Zealand
• Maggie Leese and Andrew Stein provided updates on the focus groups stemming from the A-NZ Peppol All Stakeholders Working Group. Updates will also be given at the next all stakeholders meeting on 28 July

Maggie reminded the group about eInvoicing Week which is running from 15 to 19 August. If you are looking to host an event or participate during the week, please contact the ATO by COB Friday 29 July to have this added to the ATO's events calendar. DSPANZ members will also have the opportunity to participate in our blog post featuring Service Provider members. 

Sam Hassan provided an update on the Business Payments Coalition (BPC) eInvoicing pilot in the US which is currently in Wave 2 testing. Discussion about the compatibility between the US solution and countries that have implemented Peppol or different solutions. Sam will continue to keep the group updated.

Due to a number of other commitments, this was kept as a short update meeting. Matt Lewis reminded everyone about the OpenPeppol face to face meeting which has been pencilled in for Thursday 3 November and Friday 4 November. 

Matt provided an update on the Attachments Focus Group that was created out of the A-NZ Peppol All Stakeholders Working Group. This focus group is looking at inconsistencies with experiences in handling attachments and clarifying the use of the Peppol standard as it relates to attachments. 

A majority of the Peppol working groups have been quiet with the European summer holidays but it is expected they will pick up again shortly. If you are interested in participating in the PINT Reference Group, Maggie and Matt can put you in touch with Paul Simons.

Matt noted the success of the ATO's eInvoicing Week in raising the profile and generating clear messages about eInvoicing.

Matt Lewis provided an update on the Attachments Focus Group that was created out of the A-NZ Peppol All Stakeholders Working Group. The focus group is looking at how attachments are handled not just in Peppol but also by C1s and C4s with the end goal of creating consistent behaviours and experiences with attachments across the network. It was noted that Europe face similar challenges with attachment size limits. The outcomes from this focus group can be accessed here. 

Simon Foster shared that the Peppol message level acknowledgement working group is expected to have their first meeting in mid-October and will look more holistically at requirements on the network and MLR and invoice response are actually being used. Discussion about Japan moving straight to PINT and whether this will restart work on the testbed 2.0 which is currently on hold. 

Chi-Ho Yeung from the ATO joined the meeting to present on the Peppol Security Working Group. The working group is developing a proposal for a security framework and minimum level of controls that apply across the network. Chi noted that the work is ongoing and once ready it will go through the Peppol change management process which include a consultation period and transition period. For many Australian Service Provider, there is expected to be little or no change. 

The November release changes were emailed out in mid-September and it will be their first release under the new agreements. Simon noted that there shouldn't be changes that impact Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. There is a four week review period for changes and a comment template was provided in this email. More information can be accessed here.

Noted the upcoming OpenPeppol face to face meeting in Brussels from 3-4 November.

Simon covered the happenings of the Peppol Service Provider Meeting on 26.01.2021 which focused on the new agreements. It was noted that working groups A and B were making good progress but the project's overall progress was slow. According to the timeline, this work should be completed ready for consultation by mid-February but it is expected to be later than this. The November deadline for Service Providers to sign the new agreements is also expected to be pushed out to 2022 given the current progress. It was good to see that there is Australian and New Zealand representation in the working groups with Chi-Ho from the ATO and Craig from MBIE working on drafting some of the documents. Find the recording and slides here. 

Simon presented the Service Provider Lifecycle that is being developed out of one of the agreements working groups. The aim of this work is to document all of the elements of a service provider lifecycle and work out which agreements and procedures apply to these elements and whether the elements actually cover them. The group provided feedback and Simon live updated the document. They are hoping that one of the deliverables will be that a document like this is released.

Rick Harvey from Layer Security then gave an update about the new testbed which is expected to be launched in February. The new testbed will include more AS4 conformance tests, a new SMP conformance test suite and it allows for the validation of more documents. 

The group discussed the Treasury consultation and the roundtables and one on one discussion that are now being organised. ABSIA's submission is now available on our website here. 

Matt Lewis covered the inconsistency in the Peppol profile/process definition of the self billing invoice that was shared in the A-NZ Peppol Slack channel. It is the first time that someone has raised this issue and Peppol has been made aware of it.

Rick Harvey took the group through a slide on eDEC-Members Peppol e-Delivery Policy Updates. Essentially, many of these tickets resulted in document tidy ups but issues that were potentially larger have been deferred.

Rick then provided an update on the new testbed. The release was initially slated for March but it is now expected in April. Rick has been involved in the testing stages. There have been discussions about whether the new testbed will need to have PINT tests (to be able to support the release of PINT) before it is released which may delay the release further. 

At the A-NZ Service Provider , the ATO and MBIE provided the criteria for the Peppol Ready Provider list (shared in the Slack channel). This will be a publicly available list of the end user products that support the A-NZ Peppol specification and the A-NZ Industry Practice Statements. At the , there were questions surrounding the need for Peppol Ready Providers to have a commercial relationship with a certified access point provider if they were not one themselves. The ATO/MBIE clarified that if they have an access point provider in their marketplace that this satisfies the requirement. It was noted that there is a gap within the ATO's marketing of e-invoicing solutions, those that provide software are not represented and there is currently no solution to market this group. The OpenPeppol website may be the best place to host this information given the implementation information already available on this page. Everyone is encouraged to provide feedback through the Slack channel and this will be collated and shared with ATO/MBIE. Otherwise, please provide feedback via email to ATO/MBIE. Assessments will begin in April and given the work required from ATO/MBIE to assess providers, it is encouraged to get on the list early on.

The ATO and MBIE are not looking to mandate invoice response anytime soon. There are varying views on this issue but it is expected that the market will drive invoice response uptake in due course. Rick shared that invoice response is technically mandated at the technology level as the testbed tests both sending and receiving capability. The ability for e-invoicing to assist with the Payment Times Reporting scheme was also discussed.

Stu Ross sent his apologies for not being able to attend the meeting. Perry Liolios from the ATO gave an update on adoption across government and business. Perry discussed the government mandate and the 34 agencies (the material non-corporate Commonwealth entities) that are required to receive e-invoices by 1 July 2021. Three new agencies (Department of Social Services, Department of Parliamentary Services and the Attorney-General's Department) are expected to be added to the ATO's website very soon. ATO is looking at barriers to government agencies adopting e-invoicing and taking this back to the Service Provider . ATO is also working with the Department of Industry to get out to small business contacts. Perry mentioned that MBIE has launched a new e-invoicing website. The ATO do not currently have plans to make their own e-invoicing website but are working out whether the business.gov.au website is the best place to send businesses to. 

We will be hosting an ANZ Peppol E-invoicing Showcase on Thursday 27 May from 2pm - 3.30pm AEST / 4pm - 5.30pm NZT. This will involve DSPANZ members presenting case studies about the successes of e-invoicing so far and their plans into the future. There will also be an opportunity for all DSPANZ members to provide information on their current or planned Peppol offers to attendees. More details will be made available shortly and any members interested in participating can contact us.

With the technical complexities coming up in future releases, members have suggested re-establishing a Technical Working Group (TWG) similar to the one that existed under the trans-Tasman arrangement. The idea is to shift some of the technical discussions outside of the Service Provider into the TWG and any issues raised can be escalated into the relevant Peppol groups. We will be putting together a letter of support for establishing a TWG and sharing this with ATO and MBIE. 

Ahti Allikas (OpenPeppol MC Member and Service Provider Community Leader) joined the meeting to provide an update on adoption across the APAC region. Japan recently joined and Singapore have been influential in bringing Malaysia on board although they are waiting for the new agreement structure to join. Ahti noted that Singapore is the example for Peppol Authorities to follow when they join. There has been interest from Canada and Latin America with Mexico interested but noting that it would be difficult to replace their existing models. Ahit shared that a new project for implementation of the PINT has started and they are expecting for it to be ready at the end of the year. 

Christian Walkerden from Ozedi provided a demonstration of the newly launched einvoicing.com. It is an index of software and solutions for software to support supplier adoption. Once the ATO's "Peppol Ready Provider" trust mark is made available, Ozedi will be including this detail on the website. 

We ran out of time before we could get to the last agenda item, a demonstration of the new testbed. If there is enough interest, we will aim to host a separate session for this.

The group discussed the A-NZ Peppol E-invoicing Showcase and provided feedback to DSPANZ. The recording from the showcase can be accessed here. 

We had discussed providing a letter of support for establishing an A-NZ technical working group. Given the positive response from the last meeting, we have drafted this letter. This will be circulated amongst DSPANZ members. 

The group then moved on to talking about the new agreement and issues that everyone could raise in feedback to OpenPeppol. Find all the documents, together with explanatory notes here. Comments were taken until COB Friday 4 June (based on European time). Ahti Allikas also sent around an email outlining the parts of the agreements that are worth looking into and providing feedback on. 

Summary of the issues discussed:

• End user verification and identification (IR 3.3.1)
  • Note how this works, and the requirements on AP and any intermediary
• End user reporting (IR 4.3)
  • This requires reporting of all end user information to OpenPeppol. Consider whether you are prepared to do this in terms of privacy and cybersecurity.
• Statistical reporting (IR 4.4)
  • This requires transaction data to be summarised by DAY. Consider whether you would prefer this MONTHLY in terms of both technical capability and privacy.
• Switching from Annex 5 to "sign once, use many" model (potential compliance and interoperability issues)
• Peppol Authority Specific requirements (IR 7)
• Information Security rules (IR 6)

It was noted that there is currently an information security working group with PAs only that is being led by the ATO and includes staff working on the Operational Framework. 

With the General Assembly on Wednesday 16 June, we briefly discussed the elections and decided to redistribute some of this information. The overall list of upcoming community voting can be found on the Peppol website here. 

Only one DSPANZ member is standing for any positions, which is Simon Foster - for APP (Agreements) Change Mgmt Board, PoAC (Post Award) Change Mgmt Board are elected via email by 9 June; and for the Managing Committee elected at General Assembly which requires registration or a proxy entered by 11 June.

Siraj Iqbal from Singapore's Peppol Authority IMDA joined the meeting to give a presentation on their e-invoicing journey so far and the vision moving forward. Siraj's presentation was then followed by an open Q&A and amongst the group covering the following topics:

• Role of third parties in the Singapore network
• Users changing access points
• Pricing changes since the establishment of the network
• Country level SMP and value ads around the directory
• Building of digital identity (Corppass) into the process for B2B transactions
• Attaching PDFs to e-invoices

Siraj shared his presentation slides which were distributed to the meeting group.

During the above Q&A an in depth discussion began around linking e-invoices with payments. It was agreed that DSPANZ will host a specific session dedicated to this topic. 

Simon then provided an update on the letter DSPANZ sent to the ATO and MBIE requesting the establishment of an eDelivery & Post Award Working Group. The ATO and MBIE are currently working through what's needed to establish this group. When we hear back and have more detail, we will share this with those that signed on to the letter. 

Finally, Simon noted the review of the industry practice statements and that there are updated versions of the documents currently out for review.

Amanda Wyllie and Jacqueline Sivapalan from BPAY co-hosted this session to discuss opportunities to link e-invoicing payments with BPAY and Osko. They covered both BPAY and Osko including the APIs that are available for BPAY. Following the presentation, the conversation opened up to discuss opportunities around payment initiation and other potential use cases. 

Summary of group discussion:

• The group acknowledged that payments is the second step in the process following the invoice but that it's important to be thinking about the payments stage as this will come around quickly
• While there are some issues with ABNs being used as payIDs, such as needing an additional identifier, they shouldn't be discounted too quickly as it is a good solution for the millions of businesses that have them especially for small businesses

Simon Foster and Matt Lewis welcomed everyone to the meeting and acknowledged the Traditional Owners. Japan's Digital Agency becoming the latest Peppol Authority was noted by the group. 

Simon and Matt provided an update on the A-NZ Peppol All Stakeholders Working Group and that we were meeting with ATO and MBIE on 1 October to agree on the Terms of Reference. The proposed topics of discussion were then put on the screen for feedback from the group. It was questioned why the working group is looking to focus on industry specific requirements now when there are other generic issues to resolve. David Field mentioned that he is undertaking research to see what is missing from Peppol invoices that is needed for the construction industry and he is happy to share with the group once completed. It was noted that a conversation with Sweden and their approach may be useful. The group agreed that invoice consolidation is out of scope for Peppol and perhaps should be taken out from the list. Similarly with exist arrangements, it was agreed that it should be covered by the rules for removing providers from the network in the new agreements and does not necessarily need a different process at this stage. The group proposed two new items to the list: SMPs; and accreditation, conformance and interoperability testing. 

Maggie Leese provided an update on the Champions Adoption Network Communication Committee (CANCC) meeting held on 29 September. Unofficial notes from this meeting were circulated with the group. The decision made at the CANCC to not have a separate brand for eInvoicing was discussed and received poorly by the group. There was consensus amongst the group, which included some of the European providers with extensive experience, that there should be separate branding to differentiate between eInvoicing and emailed PDFs. 

Maggie briefed the group on the A-NZ Peppol All Stakeholders Working Group first meeting and how to get involved. The first meeting happened on Wednesday 17 November at 9am AEDT / 11am NZDT. The larger group will meet less frequently and work will be divided into smaller focus groups that will meet more often. When discussing this, the topic of MLR came up. Simon mentioned that himself, Paul Simons and Ahti Allikas are working to put together a mandate (Peppol equivalent of Terms of Reference) to then set up a working group and determine next steps. 

Simon shared that the new Peppol agreements were voted on and passed. They will take effect from 1 July 2022 with Peppol Authorities notifying around 31 December. Change will come into effect where, if you operate in multiple jurisdictions, you will only need to sign agreements with one Peppol Authority (typically where your headquarters are). This is an opportunity to change your primary Peppol Authority to better reflect where you operate.

The November BIS release was published on 1 November and comes into effect on 15 November (noting that A-NZ spec has not yet changed). Essentially the changes are minor and updating documentation where there was a lack of clarification. An issue with access points adding businesses to the network with incorrect Peppol IDs or without endpoints was raised and has been shared with the ATO. Decided that a ticket should be raised with OpenPeppol as they would be able to investigate this further.

Discussion on the CANCC's eInvoicing naming decisions and perception on this. Came to an agreement that the spelling is not important but there's still a decision to be made on a consistent name.

Majority agreed that an invoice status message should be sent from C4 to C1 in order to let senders know if the invoice was received, accepted and/or rejected.

• Peppol are looking at mandating an Invoice Response Message because they see the value in this. They haven't in the past because C4 may not be able to generate a meaningful IRM.
• Certainty of invoices being delivered is a huge incentive for senders to work within Peppol.
• Need discoverability for this to happen. C4 needs to know that C1 can receive and accept a response message.
• Rejection notification to include a meaningful message.

Need to be confident that an invoice will be delivered if it complies with the standards (unless there is a network error).

• Understanding what the industry would like and what the AU/NZ government are prepared to accommodate may be quite different. Trying to reach an 80/20 compromise.
• This standard needs to have specifications and additional fields that can be added.
• The business transactions between the buyer and seller is the primary activity. The message standard needs to support that, not the other way around. In which case the standard needs to be flexible enough to accommodate potential variations in that business transaction.
• It should not be left up to C1 to accommodate all the potential variations in how the agreed business transaction between a buyer and seller is implemented.
• Buyers need to articulate clearly the data requirements and business rules by which they can accept e-invoices. And sellers need to articulate how they can send e-invoices, and those two activities need to be agreed upon by C1 and C4.

Encouraged everyone on the call to reply to the ATO and MBIE's discussion paper individually. ABSIA will be creating a draft reply for everyone to use.

Meetings will continue with software industry participants only (including non-ABSIA members) and scheduled on a fortnightly basis. Meetings will only actually be held if there is something concrete to be discussed. External speakers may be invited to present or participate (e.g. ATO/MBIE), as required.

Some members have offered to share their submissions to the ATO/MBIE discussion paper on receiver requirements and response messages. These documents should be redacted to remove anything commercial-in-confidence and sent to Maggie who will collect and distribute. Please do this prior to C.O.B. Tuesday 14 July, so we can distribute ahead of the ATO/MBIE Service Provider on Thursday 16 July.

We had an extensive discussion on interoperability and the role of participants in the four corner model. Paul Simons described Belgium's experience in working across the four corners to get agreements on simple standardisations that benefit all - e.g. not including "PO" at the beginning of a PO Number and removing punctuation from identifiers (ABN, VAT, NZBN). ABSIA will distribute sample PDF and ask participants to convert to AUNZ BIS 3.0 and send to a new Peppol ID (TBC). ABSIA will then collate the responses and share different methods of implementing, as the opportunity to drive a discussion similar to that held in Belgium.

TC434 Invoice Committee (a part of CEN which developed the EuroNorm invoice model - EN16931) are evaluating permitting XML as an attachment type. This could resolve many of the industry specific requirements by allowing additional information in the invoice which does not impact accounting system / ERP processing, nor require schematron validation. This has not been officially discussed, but if it moves forward the process will take 1-2 years. 

Encourage everyone to read the Peppol International Invoice (PINT - sent in a previous email) and Global Interoperability Framework (GIF) documents that have been recently published. PINT work will impact A-NZ especially when trading internationally. GIF has recommendations and best practices including information on invoice messaging and response messaging.

Encouraged everyone to read the new TIA and policy documents. Slides and notes from the 30 June OpenPeppol Service Providers meeting are on Slack and contain more detail on this process. Notably, the proposed notice of termination for the existing TIA is 31 October, thereby expiring the agreements six months later on 31 March 2021. 

Discussion and updates provided on continued ATO, MBIE and Peppol meetings. 

General discussion on the PINT (Peppol International Invoice) and how it may work in parallel with existing specifications. ABSIA will aim to organise a presentation from PINT working group lead Georg Birgisson for those who are interested to learn more.

Discussion around how AU/NZ should best implement KYC. There is industry support for myGovID to be extended for B2B use. AU/NZ could learn from Singapore's approach to KYC and the use of CorpPass. Noted that KYC currently applies to both senders and receivers.

Belgium and Singapore have implemented "Peppol First Commitment" and "Peppol Ready" respectively as ways to drive adoption with accounting and similar software providers. For Belgium, this means if a receiver is registered with Peppol, the transactions would default to being sent through the Peppol network. In Singapore, the Peppol Authority is accrediting software providers and their implementations of Peppol. There was a discussion around whether AU/NZ should take a similar approach. It was understood that while this would be useful for driving Peppol adoption, it should not be mandatory as there are other standards that consumers can choose. 

Discussions continuing from the ATO/MBIE Service Provider meeting held earlier that morning including interoperability and PINT.

Interoperability issues exist in two places - in the C2 - C3 AS4 message exchange, and also in the interpretation of the BIS. Discussions focussed on AS4 message exchange and how to solve these problems locally including:

• ABSIA hosting a list of endpoints that are interested in interoperability testing with others on the network.
• Creating something to Singapore's 0195:SGECHOTEST01 endpoint where you can send a message and a confirmation email is returned.
• Need for discipline and governance over the network while keeping in mind that it is still maturing. 
• OpenPeppol is planning to release Testbed v2 with more detailed AS4 compliance requirements that may address many of the problems.

Either way, there is the need to have these discussions with the service provider community, ATO/MBIE and Peppol. Rick Harvey will be following OpenPeppol up about when the new testbeds are expected to be launched.

Following on from the above, please send any AS4 interoperability issues to Rick Harvey or Maggie Leese.

Discussion about the PINT and how this should apply to businesses that do not operate globally and therefore do not need to send or receive international invoices. Amongst the group it is still a bit early to come to a conclusion on this but the conversation led to better understanding of the issues PINT solves from a global perspective.

While there was nothing new to discuss about the new TIA, it was noted that the old agreements and new agreements will be operating in parallel for some time. 

Mentioned the Australian Government e-invoicing mandate and that the exact details of this are not yet known. New Zealand may have a similar mandate pending the outcome of their upcoming election. 

Discussed items, mainly the new TIA, from the recent Peppol Service Provider Community Meeting (these slides are available through confluence). We understand that Peppol are aiming to give the required six months notice of termination of existing agreements by the end of the year, which would mean new agreements must be signed by 30 June 2021. In the Peppol meeting, there was significant debate around PA specific requirements and the impact that will have on interoperability due to competing requirements across the world. Peppol are looking to find commonality across different agreements. 

Provided an update on the work of the ATO and MBIE's invoice content and status working group. It was noted that a final draft of the invoice content paper should be released over the next few weeks. 

Discussed the impact of Access Point Providers in delivering services to their customers that are beyond the scope of their responsibility as an Access Point leading to confusion about where Peppol governance applies and does not apply. This is particularly relevant with the introduction of PINT which has requirements placed upon corners 1 and 4 (and software developers that fulfil this role or sell to those that do) but which can only impose requirements on Access Points. 

Rick Harvey gave a presentations on the work of the DDTS working group and outlined the changes that will be required to support PINT. Rick noted that this is different to other Peppol migrations as it involves changes to both the messaging level and the document level. While no decisions have been made, the key proposed dates are at least 12 months in the future with the earliest being November 2021.

It was noted that there are no regular meetings open to everyone within any Peppol community to raise issues. Suggestion to request this via the operating office and this will be taken to the eDelivery Community for consideration. There was also the opportunity to discuss this with Martin Mane who is the eDEC leader. 

The work on the best practice guides is mostly complete with the invoice content guide now available on the A-NZ Peppol GitHub. 

It was raised that there should be a more formal process for resolving issues between Access Points. Currently these are dealt with between the Access Points but the issues are not raised with the ATO or MBIE. A process for this should be suggested to the ATO/MBIE. 

PINT documentation should be available for review soon. This includes in depth migration and impact analyses. The earliest starting date for PINT at the moment is May 2021 with an expected 12 month period before it becomes mandatory. Paul Simons noted that there was an agreement for PINT to be pronounced as if it rhymes with "mint".

Australia and New Zealand are currently consulting on which rules Australia and New Zealand could look to adopt from the November release of the Peppol BIS. One rule that has changed is only allowing one type of payment means to be specified which does not match the way businesses operate in Australia and New Zealand. It was suggested that if A-NZ want to change, then we should change towards what has been discussed with PINT as it is easier for A-NZ to do this when compared to Europe.

The rules are being review around the membership of the monthly Peppol Service Provider meetings making it easier for software providers to join. While they are quite lenient at the moment, you are technically meant to be a service provider to participate in these meetings. It was recommended that those who are interested should request to join this group.

It was recommended that if you are not already taking part in the Post-Award Domain Community (PoAC) and are interested in keeping up to date with documentation, you should raise a ticket with the help desk. It was noted that new Peppol members are not automatically added to this group.

This meeting covered Treasury's discussion paper on options for mandatory adoption of electronic invoicing by businesses. Discussions surrounded the questions outlined in the paper and participants shared their perspectives. 

It was agreed that a mandate, no matter what option is chosen, would assist in increasing awareness about e-invoicing amongst different business types.

The discussions from this meeting helped to shape ABSIA's submission. It was pleasing to see that many participants were on the same page and that ABSIA was hearing similar views to this consultation.