5 business days instead of 10

Which agencies

Around 135 government agencies are covered by the requirement, which was strengthened from January 2026. Agencies brought into scope include ACC, NZTA (Waka Kotahi), Health New Zealand and New Zealand Police.

If you supply any government agency at all, it is worth checking whether yours is on the list before you decide this does not apply to you.

What it means for a small supplier

Halving the wait on every government invoice is a permanent change to your working capital, achieved once. For a business invoicing an agency monthly, that is five business days of cash brought forward every single month, for a setup that usually takes under an hour.

How to get set up

1. Check your software. Around 57 New Zealand providers already support eInvoicing. Xero and MYOB both do.
2. Register against your NZBN. That is your address on the network.
3. Tidy your invoice data. Correct legal entity name, correct purchase order reference, correct GST treatment. Agencies reject on detail.
4. Send a test invoice and confirm it landed.
5. Tell whoever raises your invoices what has changed. For most people, nothing visible does.

The thing that catches people out

Faster payment only happens if the invoice is right. Agencies match on the purchase order and the legal entity name, so an invoice raised against the wrong reference still sits in a queue while somebody sorts it out. Getting your customer and item data straight is a bigger part of this than switching the setting on.