eInvoicing in Australia: where the Peppol rollout actually stands

Australia’s eInvoicing rollout is real but frequently overstated. As of mid-2026 there is no mandate on businesses: no business is required to send or receive eInvoices, and that includes B2B trade. What does exist is a steadily tightening set of obligations and targets on the government side, designed to pull the business population onto the Peppol network by gravity rather than by law. Here is where things actually stand, sourced from the ATO in the Sources section.

The short version

• Government (non-corporate Commonwealth entities): must be able to receive Peppol eInvoices, a mandate in place since 2022 ^[1] . The Australian Government is now establishing eInvoicing as the default method for exchanging invoice information in Commonwealth procurement, a commitment from Budget 2024-25 ^[1] .
• Businesses: adoption is voluntary. Over 400,000 Australian businesses are registered on the Peppol network ^[1] , mostly through a switch flipped inside their accounting software.
• States, territories, councils: more than 300 state and territory government organisations and local councils have adopted eInvoicing alongside the Commonwealth ^[1] .

The 2026 government targets

The ATO, in its role as the Australian Peppol Authority (APA), has set non-corporate Commonwealth entities (NCEs) two dated targets ^[1] :

1. Work with suppliers to lift eInvoicing to 30% of all invoices received by 1 July 2026.
2. Enable automated processing and sending of eInvoices by December 2026.

NCEs report progress against both quarterly to the APA. Corporate Commonwealth entities and Commonwealth companies are not yet in scope, though the ATO encourages them to adopt ^[1] .

For a supplier to government, the practical consequence is that agencies are actively onboarding their highest-volume suppliers, writing eInvoicing into contract renewals, and telling vendors they prefer eInvoices ^[1] . If your client sells to the Commonwealth, eInvoicing is moving from nice-to-have to the path of least resistance.

What this means for an SMB that sells nothing to government

Nothing is compulsory, but the economics already favour switching on the capability:

• It is usually already in the software. Xero and QuickBooks Online connect to the Peppol network natively; registering takes minutes and there is no separate system to buy.
• Invoices arrive where they get paid. An eInvoice lands directly in the customer’s accounting system instead of an inbox, which is why the government links eInvoicing to faster payment and improved cash flow ^[1] .
• It cuts fraud exposure. The ATO names disrupting payment redirection scams as a core aim: invoices travelling through the accredited network cannot be intercepted and doctored the way emailed PDFs can ^[1] .

The sensible default for bookkeepers in 2026: register every client on the network (it costs nothing in the major platforms), prioritise clients who invoice government, and treat full B2B eInvoicing as an efficiency upgrade to roll out client by client rather than a compliance emergency.

Getting a client registered

Registration runs through the accounting software, not through the ATO. The steps are roughly the same on every Peppol-connected platform:

1. Confirm the ABN is clean. The network addresses businesses by ABN, so the registration must match the entity actually issuing invoices. Clients trading under multiple ABNs register each one separately.
2. Switch on eInvoicing in the software settings. Xero and QuickBooks Online both register the business on the Peppol network from inside the product; there is no separate application, accreditation, or fee for an end business.
3. Check the Peppol Directory listing. Once registered, the business appears in the public directory, which is how customers’ systems discover where to send eInvoices.
4. Tell high-volume customers and suppliers. The network only saves time on trading relationships where both sides use it, so start with the counterparties that generate the most paper.

One caution worth passing to clients: receiving eInvoices means invoices appear directly in the accounting system as drafts awaiting approval. Approval workflows matter more, not less, because a fraudulent or duplicate invoice that arrives looking native is easier to wave through than an emailed PDF. Keep a human approval step on payables regardless of how the invoice arrived.

The two-stream reality for the next few years

Even at 400,000 registered businesses, the majority of trade documents an Australian SMB handles still arrive unstructured: shop receipts, fuel dockets, emailed PDF bills, subscription invoices from overseas SaaS vendors who will never join an Australian network. eInvoicing fixes the structured stream; somebody still has to process the rest.

That is the stream ExpenseFlow handles. It captures the paper and PDF documents, extracts the data, applies the right account codes and GST treatment, and syncs each transaction into Xero or QuickBooks Online with the source document attached. The eInvoices flow into the ledger through Peppol; everything else flows in through ExpenseFlow; the BAS gets prepared from one consistent set of books. ExpenseFlow does not participate in the Peppol network itself, and does not need to.