Peppol and EDI: what ANZ businesses need to know before the 2026 and 2027 deadlines

If you supply a large retailer or any level of government in Australia or New Zealand, you have probably heard that Peppol e-invoicing is coming and that you need to be ready. Most of what gets written about it muddles two things that are not the same: Peppol and EDI. Here is the operator’s version, without the vendor noise.

What Peppol actually is

Peppol is a government-backed network for sending and receiving invoices directly between business systems. No emailed PDF, no re-keying, no supplier portal to log into. Every business on the network has a Peppol address. You send to it, and the invoice lands inside the other system already structured and ready to process. In Australia and New Zealand the invoice format is PINT A-NZ, and the network is overseen by the ATO and MBIE. Think of it as one shared standard that any participant can reach, rather than a separate connection built for each partner.

Why Peppol and EDI are not the same thing

This is where most of the confusion sits. If you already run EDI with your retail trading partners, Peppol does not replace it. EDI carries the operational documents that keep a supply chain moving: purchase orders, order responses, despatch advices, and often invoices too, over established point-to-point or VAN connections. Peppol is a four-corner open network built primarily for the compliant invoice, and it is what government and a growing list of large buyers are standardising on.

In practice, most ANZ businesses end up running both. Your orders and despatch keep flowing over EDI with the partners who use it, and you add Peppol for the buyers and agencies who want a compliant e-invoice. They sit alongside each other. Anyone telling you to rip out EDI and “move to Peppol” has not looked at how your supply chain actually runs.

The dates that actually matter

The pressure is real, but it is uneven, so it is worth being precise.

In Australia, federal agencies have been able to receive Peppol invoices since 2022, and must process 30% of their invoices via Peppol by July 2026, with automated processing by December 2026. There is no law forcing suppliers onto Peppol. The pressure comes through procurement contracts, so if you tender for government work, expect it to show up as a condition.

In New Zealand, government agencies must be able to receive e-invoices now, and from January 2027 large suppliers (annual revenue over NZ$33 million) must send them to government. A separate prompt-payment rule means agencies aim to pay e-invoices within five business days, which is a genuine cash-flow reason to be on the network.

There is no private-sector B2B mandate in either country. A Business e-Invoicing Right has been canvassed in Australia but is not law. Treat anyone who tells you B2B is mandated with caution.

Registered is not the same as ready

One trap worth knowing. A business being “on Peppol” is not the same as being able to receive a current invoice. PINT A-NZ has been the mandatory ANZ invoice format since May 2025, and the older A-NZ Peppol BIS 3.0 profile was retired at the same time. So when you check whether a trading partner can take your invoice, the honest question is not “are they registered” but “can they receive a current-spec PINT A-NZ invoice”. Those can be different answers.

Registered and ready are not the same thing.

What to do now

Two practical steps.

First, find out which of your trading partners and buyers are actually on Peppol, and what they can receive. That tells you whether this is a this-quarter job or a watch-and-wait one. Flow can run that check for you against the live network, with no obligation.

Second, decide how you want to run it. Some ERPs (MYOB, Dynamics 365 Business Central) handle basic Peppol invoicing natively. Others (NetSuite, Pronto Xi, SAP without the relevant module) need an Access Point and the integration plumbing built and maintained. Either way, Peppol rarely lives on its own. It ends up sitting next to your EDI, your AP automation and your ERP connections.

That last layer, where Peppol, EDI and your core systems all have to work together and keep working, is the part that does not show up in a sales demo. It is also where we spend our time. Flow connects your ERP to Peppol through a certified Access Point and runs it as a managed service, alongside the integrations we already operate for ANZ businesses. If the deadlines are on your radar, start with our Peppol page or ask us to check your trading partners.