E-invoicing gains traction in Singapore

InvoiceNow, Singapore’s nationwide e-invoicing initiative spearheaded by Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), could see more adoption by companies following the launch of a series of grants last November.

Launched in 2019 as part of the government’s Smart Nation plan, the initiative was rebranded InvoiceNow in 2020. With over 50,000 businesses supported by more than 30 access points and 170 solution providers, InvoiceNow’s end goal is to see e-invoicing fully adopted by businesses across all sectors.

According to Geok Seong Wah, director of IMDA’s E-invoice project office, attracting larger enterprises is vital as they will drive more adoption, but challenges remain.

‘Smaller businesses want to see larger enterprises on the network but the challenge of attracting larger companies lies in the complex systems they have to deal with at their end,’ he says. ‘At the beginning of the initiative, it was a problem for enterprises to decide whether they should join the network or wait for their business counterparties to join first, but this is less of a problem now as the network continues to grow.’

Range of incentives

While InvoiceNow is, Geok says, a ‘multi-year project’ with no hard deadline, IMDA is exploring various approaches to speed up adoption, including offering grants.

Last November, a bonus scheme and three types of grants were launched for participating firms, those yet to join and solution providers, while a SG$200 bonus is available to businesses that send 10 e-invoices within a year on the programme.

Lead Connect offers SG$30,000 to large organisations with their own finance/enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. Enterprises must integrate the InvoiceNow network with their solution, which must be connected with the help of an access point, within 12 months. They must also have a minimum of 200 business counterparties comprising suppliers and customers.

Under the Lead Transact Grant, large enterprises with a minimum number of transaction business partners can benefit from up to SG$40,000. Along with a valid and active business UEN (unique entity number), enterprises must have transacted with 25 UENs as a buyer and/or 250 UENs as a biller. They are eligible to receive incentives as both buyer and biller.

SME focus

Of the 50,000 organisations now on the network, most of them are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Geok hopes to see the number of SMEs and service providers increase; IMDA has already created an ecosystem of 170 solution providers to serve a range of needs.

‘We are driving demand for the network and we are also looking to add additional capabilities. That is the key focus right now,’ he says.

DataPost (Singapore), which provides access point connectivity services and e-invoicing solutions to all business types, was one of the first access point providers to join InvoiceNow and achieve IMDA accreditation. Jerome Choo, its head of digital solutions, says the firm was ‘intrigued’ by the idea of standardised e-invoicing.

DataPost offers a web portal system that helps SMEs with an existing accounting/ERP system get connected. With companies looking to maximise their use of InvoiceNow, DataPost recently introduced Invoice Response and Purchase Order, a new type of document that enables businesses to transact over the platform.

Empowering businesses

Xero, a cloud accounting small business platform, became an InvoiceNow Solution Provider in 2019. The initial challenge lay in educating SMEs on how e-invoicing works and the advantages it offers, says Adrian Tan, product compliance manager at Xero.

‘InvoiceNow helps small businesses and advisers streamline their accounting work and get paid faster, as well as providing significant efficiencies: reducing administration time, invoicing errors and the risk of invoice fraud,’ Tan says.

‘Xero’s platform complements InvoiceNow with solutions including direct bank feeds, OCR [optical character recognition] tools like Hubdoc, and bank reconciliation. Implementing a solution to give businesses a quick, easy and secure way to manage their invoicing is part of delivering on our commitment of empowering SMEs.’

IMDA, along with the Accountant-General’s Department and other agencies, will continue to encourage their suppliers to use InvoiceNow. ‘We hope the number of government suppliers using InvoiceNow to transact with the agencies will increase,’ Geok says.

While domestic adoption remains its chief focus, IMDA is also working closely with countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Japan on specific future crossborder initiatives.