In late 2024, changes to the Government Procurement Rules required Fire and Emergency New Zealand to adopt eInvoicing capabilities. For many organisations, this would have been just another compliance checkbox. But Fire and Emergency New Zealand saw something different.

At that point in time, eInvoicing was still a relatively new concept and many agencies were talking about the mandate like it was a burden. But after looking at what eInvoicing actually was - structured data, automated validation, direct system-to-system transfer - Fire and Emergency New Zealand saw the true benefits it could deliver to enhance their Accounts Payable process.

The vision was clear: use the compliance requirement as a springboard to transform their accounts payable capture process so that every invoice - paper, email, or eInvoice - would flow through one unified, automated process.

The Solution: A Partner, Not Just a Platform

Folding these eInvoicing requirements into an RFP for an Accounts Payable capture solution, Fire and Emergency New Zealand wanted something configurable enough to meet their needs while still being an ‘off-the-shelf’ solution that wouldn’t risk becoming unsupported in the years to come.

That’s why they chose to partner with Desktop Imaging to implement DI Invoicing - a fully managed cloud service designed to handle multiple invoice formats through a single processing pipeline.

The key wasn't the technology. It was the support structure around it.

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What Desktop Imaging provided:

• Integration with existing financial systems (no replacement required)
• Automated validation rules that rejected invoices from unapproved suppliers before they entered the workflow
• One point of contact for troubleshooting—no vendor finger-pointing

"The thing that made a huge difference was that we didn't have to become eInvoicing experts overnight. Desktop Imaging could have the eInvoicing conversations that we needed to have about our processes without them being confusing technical conversations." - Maxine Young

When Promises became the Proof

The implementation of eInvoicing comes with several key benefits and it was important to Fire and Emergency New Zealand that they were achieved. That eInvoicing wasn’t just hype, and that the implied promises of those benefits could be realised.

• Accuracy: Reduced dependency on OCR technology and manual data entry means less error corrections
  In terms of rejections reasons in general across both eInvoices and PDFs, 10.1% of what Fire and Emergency New Zealand received between July and September was initially rejected for a variety of reasons which could include Vendor ID, IRD rules, missing PO/BU numbers, invoice date issues, etc. However, only around 2.06% of those, or 0.21% of total invoices were rejected eInvoices. This validates the accuracy benefits of eInvoicing.
• Automation: Inbound eInvoices can be easily filtered and rejected if they don’t adhere to the business payment rules
  During the financial quarter of Jul-Sep 2025 every eInvoice received by Fire and Emergency New Zealand complied with IRDs requirements for ‘Taxable supply Information’ for GST, versus 189 emailed PDF invoices that were rejected back to the sender for non-conformance with those same rules.
• Speed: Accurate invoices processed quicker means payments can happen faster
  Fire and Emergency New Zealand are mandated by the Government Procurement Rules to pay 90% of domestic invoices within 10 working days. During the first full quarter following their eInvoicing go-live (April-June 2025), they reported an improvement of 8.3% of invoices now being entered within 1 business day. “We worked with a particular vendor to help them get started with sending eInvoices to Fire and Emergency New Zealand. We decided to do a speed test without telling anyone. We asked the supplier to record the time they clicked send in their system (8:51am) and we check the service logs to find the time that eInvoice was delivered to the Fire and Emergency New Zealand Accounts Payable system (9:16am). It took only 25mins from the supplier clicking send to the eInvoice being validated and entered pending approval.”
  – Kris Elliott (Desktop Imaging eInvoicing Specialist)
• Security: Vendor identity is validated as part of the sending process so risks of 3rd party fraud are reduced.
  During the financial quarter of Jul-Sep 2025 there were zero eInvoices rejected as coming from unknown vendors. Every single eInvoice came from a supplier that had been onboarded by Fire and Emergency New Zealand and the identifiers, payment references and account details in the eInvoice all matched the supplier master data in their finance system.

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What This Means for Other Organisations

Fire and Emergency New Zealand's experience reveals three critical lessons for finance leaders considering eInvoicing:

1.Compliance mandates are opportunities in disguise Don't just meet the requirement—use it to fix deeper process problems. The ROI comes from operational transformation, not regulatory adherence.

2.Supplier engagement is where most implementations fail Having the technology isn't enough. You need someone actively working with suppliers to drive adoption, or you'll end up with an eInvoicing system delivers limited benefits.

3. Choosingthe right partner is critical Becoming eInvoicing enabled is about more than just choosing an Access Point partner to plug you into the Peppol network. Working with an experienced technology partner can simplify implementation, extend outreach to suppliers, and ultimately help drive adoption and volume conversion.  

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Need to know more about eInvoicing?

Desktop Imaging offers complimentary consultations to answer any questions you may have, and to help you assess whether DI Invoicing is right for your organisation.

Desktop Imaging has been helping New Zealand organisations digitise operations since 1997. DI Invoicing is a fully managed cloud service requiring no new software or infrastructure investment.

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