eInvoicing for Australian Government Suppliers: What You Need

eInvoicing for Australian government suppliers in one sentence

To supply Commonwealth agencies by eInvoicing you send a valid PINT A-NZ Peppol invoice through an access point to the agency's participant identifier, which unlocks the Commonwealth's faster-payment policy. If the network model is new to you, the Peppol e-invoicing Australia guide covers the fundamentals.

Why the government wants eInvoices

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is Australia's Peppol Authority, and government has led adoption to cut cost and delay. Commonwealth agencies can receive Peppol e-invoices directly into their finance systems, replacing PDFs and email. The payoff for you as a supplier is speed: Commonwealth policy supports paying eInvoices up to a threshold within five days. Treat the exact figure as policy that changes — confirm the current Commonwealth policy threshold and terms for your contract.

What you actually need

Supplying the government by eInvoicing comes down to three things:

A valid PINT A-NZ invoice. Your system must output the correct profile. Since 15 May 2025 the legacy A-NZ profiles are retired — it is PINT A-NZ only now.
A registered participant identifier. This is your address on the network, usually built from your ABN, published so agencies can route to you.
A connection through an access point. You do not connect to each agency; you connect once to the network.

Getting a participant ID

You do not register a participant identifier yourself in isolation — your access point does it as part of onboarding. The provider publishes your identifier so trading partners and agencies can discover you, then manages routing. Once you are live, an agency's finance system can address invoices to you and receive yours in return, both directions over the same connection.

Choosing an accredited provider

The ATO accredits Access Point and SMP service providers against the Australian Peppol Authority's requirements. When you supply government, an accredited provider matters: accreditation is assessed for security and conformance, including obligations such as reporting security incidents within four hours and an annual review. See how to choose a Peppol access point for the wider checklist, and what a Peppol access point is if you want the model first.

Are you ready to invoice government?

[ ] Confirm the agency accepts Peppol e-invoices and obtain its participant details.
[ ] Confirm the current Commonwealth faster-payment threshold and terms.
[ ] Produce a valid PINT A-NZ invoice and validate before sending.
[ ] Register your participant identifier (usually via your ABN).
[ ] Connect through an accredited access point.
[ ] Test with a sample document before going live on a real contract.

How GoRoute helps

GoRoute (POP000991) is a certified Peppol Access Point and SMP, and is now an ATO-accredited Australian Peppol Service Provider. That means we register and manage your participant identifier, produce and validate PINT A-NZ invoices, and route them to Commonwealth agencies through one REST API — so you can meet the faster-payment terms without building Peppol yourself. If you also trade across the Tasman, one connection can serve both markets — see trans-Tasman eInvoicing and the multi-country e-invoicing API. Book a demo.

Sources: ATO — eInvoicing; Peppol / OpenPeppol.

Frequently asked questions

How do I send eInvoices to an Australian government agency?

You send a structured Peppol e-invoice through an access point over the four-corner network, addressed to the agency's Peppol participant identifier. Commonwealth agencies can receive Peppol e-invoices, so once your system produces a valid PINT A-NZ invoice and you are registered on the network, the invoice routes to the agency automatically rather than by email or PDF.

Does the Commonwealth pay eInvoices faster?

Commonwealth policy supports faster payment of eInvoices up to a threshold, with a target of paying within five days. The exact threshold and terms are set by policy and can change, so confirm the current Commonwealth policy threshold and conditions for your contract before relying on the faster-payment terms.

What do I need to start supplying the government by eInvoicing?

You need a way to produce a valid PINT A-NZ Peppol invoice, a registered Peppol participant identifier so agencies can find and route to you, and a connection through an access point. Using an ATO-accredited Australian Peppol Service Provider is the most direct route because accreditation is assessed against the Australian Peppol Authority's requirements.

What is a Peppol participant identifier?

A participant identifier is your unique address on the Peppol network, usually based on your ABN. It is published so that trading partners and government agencies can locate you and route documents to you. Your access point registers and manages this identifier as part of onboarding.

Do I have to use an accredited provider to invoice the government?

You must exchange through a Peppol access point, and the ATO accredits Access Point and SMP service providers in Australia. Choosing an accredited provider gives assurance that the provider meets the Australian Peppol Authority's security and conformance obligations, which matters when you supply government agencies.

Is eInvoicing the same as emailing a PDF invoice?

No. A PDF is an image a person must read and re-key. An e-invoice is structured data that travels machine-to-machine over the Peppol network and lands directly in the agency's finance system. That difference is what enables straight-through processing and faster payment.

Which invoice profile do I use for Australian government invoices?

You use PINT A-NZ, the Australia-New Zealand specialisation of Peppol BIS Billing 3.0. Since 15 May 2025 the legacy A-NZ profiles are no longer supported, so validate every document against the current PINT A-NZ artefacts before sending.