Compliance requirements

General

E-Invoicing in Germany is currently required for B2G transactions. Since 2025-01-01 it is mandatory to be able to receive e-invoices for domestic B2B business. Issuing E-Invoices will only become mandatory from 2027-01-01 for larger businesses, with smaller businesses having more time

Processes

While networks like PEPPOL exist that can make exchanging invoices easier, it is currently not mandatory to use. Simply providing invoices in a legal format via electronic means such as Email is enough to be compliant in Germany.

Formats

The main e-invoicing formats accepted in Germany are ZUGFeRD (XML embedded in a pdf) and XRechnung (pure XML).

Standards & field mapping

The generated e-invoices follow EN 16931 using the UN/CEFACT CII syntax; ZUGFeRD is technically identical to Factur-X. The service period is mapped to the invoicing period (BG-14) or, where not available, to the invoice line period (BT-72). Tax exemption reasons are provided as exemption reason code and text (BT-121/BT-120).

Using E-Invoicing

Configuration

Access and configure the E-Invoicing settings through the instellix Web Portal:

1. Navigate to: Configuration > Billing > Document Provisioning

Here you can configure rules guiding which E-Invoicing Format will be used under which circumstances.

• You can set a default that will be used for all invoices where no specific rule applies.
• You can configure the rules by defining a condition when the rule will apply and then which E-Invoicing method will be used. This allows you for example to have different formats for different billing groups or lets you decide if you want to handle B2C and B2B differently.
• "Method" defines which format instellix will generate.

🚧

We suggest you coordinate enabling this feature with your Professional Service Representative. As creating e-invoices is slightly different to a regular pdf creation some minor adjustments to your template might need to be made ahead of time.

Accessing E-Invoices

• The ZUGFeRD file will replace the invoice pdf currently being created, you can access it in the same place.
• The XRechnung is an additional XML that is available as an attachment to your document. See the attachment tab at the bottom of a document details page in our webportal.

🚧

Free texts that you add to your documents are not automatically included in the generated ZUGFeRD or XRechnung XML. If information from a free text needs to be part of the e-invoice data itself, coordinate the required adjustments with your Professional Service Representative.