One of the first validation steps that larger organisations need to complete when they receive an invoice is to verify which part of the organisation the invoice was sent to. Some organisations, particularly those that operate at a Regional or National level,  have different departments, branches, offices or business units that are part of the one legal entity but that transact independently from each other.

Using the Peppol eInvoicing network requires each entity to have a globally unique identifier which ensures the identities of both the sender and the receiver are valid. In addition to plotting the path across the network between the Access Points, the identifiers also eliminate 3rd party impersonation scams.  Here in NZ, the primary identifier on the Peppol Network is the NZBN and each company registered in NZ automatically has one. So while this makes sending an eInvoice to an organisation easy, sending one to a specific part of an organisation is a little more challenging.

When invoices are received as emailed PDFs, capturing the addressee from the document can allow you to route the invoice to the appropriate AP team member for processing against the transacting department. However, when it comes to eInvoicing, that level of individuated addressing isn't available if there is only a single NZBN being used.

Fortunately, the good folks at MBIE have an answer to this exact challenge, and that answer is Organisation Part Numbers - Identifying different parts of your business | New Zealand Business Number (nzbn.govt.nz)

An Organisational Part Number is a unique 13-digit number that allows you to enable different parts of your organisation to transact on the Peppol network as if they were a stand-alone entity. For Peppol purposes, they are essentially secondary NZBNs that allow for more specific identification and addressing of eInvoices.

Every business with an NZBN can get two Organisation Part Numbers for free, but more can be licensed if needed. If you need less than five Organisation Part Numbers then the process is self-service by logging in to the NZBN website - My businesses | New Zealand Business Number (nzbn.govt.nz).  If you need more than five Organisation Parts you'll need to get in touch with NZBN Team.

If you want to get started with eInvoicing but don't know where to begin, you are welcome to reach out to the Desktop Imaging team as we'd be happy to help.

Let us help you with your eInvoicing journey. Please answer a few questions about your current invoicing procedures.

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