Advanced Ordering and Order Balance Enhance Invoice Automation in InvoiceNow

Participants in Singapore’s InvoiceNow network will soon gain new automation capabilities with the introduction of Advanced Ordering and the new SG BIS Order Balance document specification. These enhancements are designed to streamline purchase order management, improve invoice accuracy, and reduce manual processing across the transaction lifecycle.

Advanced Ordering supports the full purchase order lifecycle, including order creation, changes, and cancellations. To complement this functionality, a new document type, SG BIS Order Balance, has been introduced to provide visibility into remaining order quantities and values after partial deliveries or invoicing.

Operational Impact

For sellers, these updates enable a high degree of automation. Vendors can generate invoices directly from purchase orders received from public sector buyers, reducing manual data entry and reconciliation.

For procuring agencies, the enhancements allow for:

• Automated invoice approval and accounting
• Structured ordering using catalogs
• Better control over order fulfillment and balances

Supported Business Scenarios

The Advanced Ordering framework supports the following activities:

• Initial order from buyer
  Structured ordering of goods or services using free text or identifiers. Products may originate from paper or electronic catalogs.
• Change of order from buyer
  Buyers can modify orders before delivery preparation. Sellers may accept or reject the changes.
• Change of order from seller
  Sellers can propose changes to accepted orders, such as delivery date adjustments or product substitutions. Buyers may accept or reject the changes.
• Cancellation of order from buyer
  Buyers may cancel orders before delivery preparation, subject to agreed timelines. Sellers may accept or reject the cancellation.
• Cancellation of order from seller
  Sellers may cancel orders due to delivery constraints or other reasons. Buyers must confirm receipt of the cancellation.

Rollout Timeline

Government vendors will be the first users of these new capabilities. Public sector systems are expected to be ready for trial use from September 2025.

Further technical details are available in BIS Advanced Ordering 3.0 and SG BIS Order Balance v1, which define the document structures and process flows supporting these enhancements.