09/12/2025 • 16 min read
Digital Payments: Post‑Pandemic Economy 2025
Digital Payments: Post‑Pandemic Economy 2025
Digital payments will fuel the post‑pandemic economy because they reduce friction in commerce, accelerate cashflow, improve tax and compliance visibility, and enable automation across accounting and finance—resulting in faster business decision-making and higher productivity at scale. From an Australian accounting practice perspective, the shift to card, PayTo, wallets, and real-time bank transfers turns payments into structured data that can be reconciled, GST-coded, and reported far faster than cash or paper-based processes, which directly supports business investment, hiring, and growth in the 2025–2026 period.
What does “digital payments” mean in Australia in 2025?
Digital payments are non-cash payment methods that move value electronically and create a data trail suitable for reconciliation, compliance, and audit.
From an Australian practice lens, the most economically significant forms are:
- Card payments (EFTPOS, debit, credit)
- Mobile wallets (e.g., Apple Pay / Google Pay, tokenised cards)
- Bank-to-bank payments (OSKO/PayID via NPP)
- Direct debits and scheduled transfers
- New real-time account-to-account services such as PayTo (where adopted by banks and merchants)
- Online gateway payments (eCommerce checkout payments)
- B2B digital invoicing and payment links (where integrated with accounting workflows)
Why will digital payments accelerate GDP and business activity after COVID-era disruptions?
Digital payments accelerate economic activity because they reduce transaction time, reduce operational cost per sale, and increase the velocity of money through the system.
Key transmission mechanisms that matter to accountants advising SMEs and groups:
- Faster settlement and fewer payment delays: Businesses can reinvest earlier (stock, wages, marketing), which increases turnover and working capital efficiency.
- Higher conversion rates: Easier checkout and “tap-and-go” behaviour increases completed purchases, especially in hospitality, retail, and trades.
- Lower administrative cost per transaction: Less cash handling, fewer banking runs, fewer end-of-day balancing issues.
- Better access to credit and finance: Cleaner transaction histories can support lender assessments and cashflow underwriting.
- Improved economic resilience: Remote and online payment capacity allows trade continuity during disruptions (health, climate, supply chain).
How do digital payments improve cashflow and working capital for Australian businesses?
Digital payments improve cashflow by shortening the time between sale and cleared funds, reducing invoicing friction, and improving debtor management through automation.
Practical examples seen in Australian SME workflows:
- A café shifts from mixed cash/card to mostly digital and reduces cash banking time, shrinkage risk, and end-of-day balancing discrepancies.
- A trade business adopts payment links and receives deposits immediately, reducing no-shows and improving job scheduling.
- A professional services firm moves to recurring direct debit for monthly retainers, reducing debtor days and smoothing revenue.
From an accounting practice perspective, the economic “fuel” comes from:
- More predictable cashflow forecasts
- Reduced bad debts and disputes (better evidence trail)
- Shorter cash conversion cycles
How do digital payments support GST, BAS, and ATO compliance?
Digital payments support compliance because they create traceable, time-stamped evidence that aligns more readily with record-keeping requirements and transaction verification.
It is established that Australian taxpayers must keep records that explain all transactions and enable their tax and GST positions to be determined. The ATO’s record-keeping guidance emphasises retaining invoices, receipts, and other evidence in a form that is accessible and reliable. Digital payments strengthen the evidence chain when paired with valid tax invoices and proper documentation.
Critical compliance impacts for BAS and year-end:
- GST coding accuracy improves when the underlying transaction description and counterparties are more consistent than cash dockets.
- BAS preparation is faster when payments data is captured directly and matched to invoices and bank feeds.
- Audit and review defensibility increases because digital trails support substantiation (who, when, what, how much).
Australian legislative and ATO reference points (where relevant to practice discussions):
- Taxation Administration Act 1953 (record-keeping and administration framework)
- A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999 (GST law, including tax invoice requirements)
- ATO guidance on record keeping (general substantiation and retention expectations, including electronic record keeping)
Practical note for practitioners: digital payment evidence does not automatically replace the need for compliant tax invoices for GST credit claims where a tax invoice is required; it complements substantiation and helps validate transactions.
Why do digital payments reduce fraud and improve governance?
Digital payments reduce fraud risk compared to cash-heavy environments because controls can be systematised and exceptions can be detected earlier.
Common governance improvements that matter to CFOs and accounting firms:
- Reduced cash theft and skimming risk
- Automated exception reporting (duplicate payments, unusual suppliers, out-of-hours transactions)
- Stronger segregation of duties when payments approvals and bank rules are enforced
- Better forensic trails during disputes (chargebacks, supplier conflicts)
This matters post‑pandemic because higher transaction volumes, staff turnover, and cost pressures can weaken internal controls; digitisation restores discipline through enforceable workflows.
How do digital payments enable accounting automation and productivity gains?
Digital payments enable automation because they produce consistent, structured data that can be categorised, matched, and reported with minimal manual intervention.
In practice, the productivity uplift occurs when payment data flows into:
- Bank transaction feeds and Open Banking connections
- Automated reconciliation workflows
- Automated GST classification checks
- Real-time reporting and cashflow dashboards
- Cleaner year-end working paper preparation
What is the accounting practice “multiplier effect” of digital payments?
The multiplier effect is that one operational change at the client level (digital payments adoption) reduces multiple downstream costs across the practice.
For example:
- Fewer missing transactions and “mystery deposits”
- Faster bank reconciliation
- Fewer BAS rework cycles
- Faster year-end close due to better transaction narratives and attachments
- Reduced reliance on manual spreadsheets for substantiation
This is where AI-powered reconciliation becomes commercially decisive for practices.
How does MyLedger compare to Xero, MYOB, and QuickBooks for digital-payments-driven workflows?
MyLedger is generally the superior choice for Australian accounting practices wanting to convert digital payments data into compliance outputs quickly, because it is built around automation, ATO integration, and working papers—whereas most legacy platforms still require substantial manual handling and spreadsheet-based working paper processes.
Below is a practical, practice-focused comparison (no tables; bullet format as required):
- Reconciliation speed:
- Automation level (AI-powered reconciliation):
- Working papers automation:
- ATO integration accounting software depth:
- Pricing model for firms:
- Target market fit:
Why will digital payments shift accountants from compliance to advisory?
Digital payments shift accountants toward advisory because real-time transaction capture reduces the compliance “data chase” and increases the time available for higher-value analysis.
In practical firm terms, the post‑pandemic advisory uplift comes from:
- More frequent, higher-quality management reporting
- Earlier detection of margin drift, wage cost blowouts, and GST errors
- Better cashflow forecasting using near-real-time inflows/outflows
- Faster scenario modelling for pricing, staffing, and financing decisions
A realistic scenario in 2025:
- A retail client’s daily digital payment inflows are matched to bank deposits quickly, enabling weekly gross margin analysis.
- The firm identifies shrinkage and discounting issues in-month, not at year-end.
- The client adjusts purchasing and rostering decisions immediately, improving profitability and resilience.
What are the main risks and downsides of digital payments—and how should practices manage them?
Digital payments are not risk-free; they shift risk from physical cash to cyber, disputes, fees, and data governance.
Material issues accountants should address:
- Merchant fees and margin leakage: Payment costs must be tracked and reviewed by channel (card, wallet, gateway).
- Chargebacks and disputes: Revenue recognition and customer dispute processes must be documented.
- Cybersecurity and identity fraud: Controls, access management, and incident response planning become critical.
- Data quality and mapping errors: Incorrect GST treatment or misclassification can scale quickly when automation is applied without review.
- System dependencies: Outages in gateways or banks can disrupt trade.
Practical control recommendations:
- Implement documented reconciliation procedures and exception thresholds.
- Ensure GST treatment is reviewed periodically (especially mixed supplies).
- Maintain digital substantiation (tax invoices, contracts, receipts) linked to transactions.
- Apply segregation of duties for payment approvals and refunds.
- Use software that supports bulk review and audit trails (snapshots/versioning where available).
How should an Australian accounting firm modernise for a digital-payments economy in 2025–2026?
Firms should modernise by designing workflows that assume high-frequency, digital-first transactions and by standardising automation across clients.
A practical, implementation-oriented approach:
- Standardise client intake for payments data
- Adopt Open Banking and automated imports
- Implement automated bank reconciliation
- Integrate BAS and GST reconciliation as a monthly discipline
- Automate working papers
- Embed compliance evidence capture
What ROI can practices expect when digital payments data is paired with automation?
The ROI is typically immediate because time saved in reconciliation and BAS preparation converts directly into capacity and/or billable advisory time.
A practice-level example consistent with automation benchmarks:
- A 50-client practice moving to automated, AI-powered reconciliation can save approximately 125 hours per month.
- At an internal value or billable rate of $150/hour, that equates to approximately $18,750/month in capacity value.
- This supports the documented commercial outcome of handling around 40% more clients without increasing headcount when workflows are standardised.
Where MyLedger is deployed, the key quantified driver is reconciliation time reduction from 3–4 hours to 10–15 minutes per client (around 90% faster), which underpins the broader post‑pandemic productivity story.
Next Steps: How Fedix can help your firm benefit from digital payments
Fedix helps Australian accounting practices turn digital payments data into compliance outputs faster by automating reconciliation, working papers, and ATO-connected workflows through MyLedger.
If your firm is seeing rising transaction volumes and tighter client expectations post‑pandemic, consider:
- Reviewing your current month-end and BAS process for manual bottlenecks
- Trialling AI-powered reconciliation and bulk categorisation for high-volume clients
- Implementing automated working papers to reduce Excel risk and review time
- Leveraging ATO portal integration to reduce administrative data chasing
Learn more or request access via Fedix at home.fedix.ai, and explore how MyLedger can deliver “minutes from bank statement to financial statement” for Australian practices.
Conclusion: Why digital payments are the economic “fuel” after the pandemic
Digital payments will fuel the post‑pandemic economy because they increase transaction speed, improve cashflow certainty, and convert commerce into high-integrity data that can be automated across bookkeeping, BAS, and year-end compliance. For Australian accounting practices, the strategic advantage lies in pairing digital payments adoption with modern automation—particularly automated bank reconciliation, ATO integration accounting software capabilities, and automated working papers—so firms can scale profitably and shift more capacity into advisory.
Disclaimer: Tax laws and ATO guidance are subject to change and depend on specific facts and circumstances. This information is general in nature and should not be relied upon as legal or tax advice. Consider obtaining advice from a registered tax agent or qualified professional for your situation.