eInvoicing AZ

Everything you need to know about e-invoicing

In our eInvoicing AZ you will find all important information about e-invoicing and how to create it in SAP with our GOpus eInvoice solution.

glossar

A-Access Points

To send or receive an e-invoice via Peppol, a certified access point, a so-called Peppol Access Point, is required. Not only invoices, but also orders, delivery and payment advices, etc. can be exchanged electronically with public institutions and private companies nationally and internationally via our certified access point ecosio.

B – B2B commitment

The Germany-wide obligation to issue e-invoices is currently limited to B2G invoices. Other countries are already much further ahead: Since April 2018, Italy has also made electronic invoices mandatory for B2B invoices. In the coalition agreement between the SPD, the Greens and the FDP from 2021, the nationwide B2B obligation is brought into play through a central reporting system for companies.
More about the current B2G deadlines under “National Commitment” and “International Commitment”.

C – CII (Cross Industry Invoice)

The Cross Industry Invoice (CII) is a technical specification that can be used to create a message syntax that can be exchanged between trading partners worldwide.

D – Data

All invoice data that is also required in an analog invoice is part of the e-invoice. It is transferred into a structured data set (XML). Classic invoice data includes sender, invoice number, positions, articles, amounts and taxes.

E – E-Invoice

The electronic invoice is enshrined in EU Directive 2014/55/EU and nationally in the E-Government Act and the E-Invoicing Ordinance. According to the definition, the e-invoice must meet two conditions:

  • The invoice is issued, transmitted and received in a structured electronic format and
  • the format enables automatic and electronic processing of the invoice

The format in which the e-invoice is sent is legally irrelevant. In addition to PDFs, image files (.jpg, .gif, .bmp) can also meet the requirements of an e-invoice, as long as they are issued and sent electronically. By sending e-invoices, numerous costs are saved in the company, such as personnel costs, storage costs (saving storage space for archiving) and low costs for postage, paper and printer ink, for example. In addition, the e-invoice ensures greater liquidity, as the faster delivery of the invoice also means faster payment.

According to Section 5 of the Federal E-Invoicing Ordinance, an e-invoice must contain at least the following information in addition to the invoice components required for VAT purposes (see Section 14 of the VAT Act):

  • The routing ID will be communicated to you when you place your order
  • Payment terms or alternatively the due date
  • Bank details of the payee
  • De-Mail or email address of the invoice issuer
  • optional: order and purchase order number

F – Formats

The following e-invoice formats are common in the countries and can be implemented with our e-invoicing solution:

  • Belgium: PEPPOL
  • Denmark: PEPPOL, OIOUBL 
  • Germany: XRechnung, ZUGFeRD
  • Estonia: EVS 923
  • Finland: TEAPPSXML, Finvoice
  • France: Chorus Pro, DEMAT (EDI COMPLET), OASIS UBL 2.1, CII UN/CEFACT
  • Greece: no standard, PEPPOL recommended
  • Croatia: OASIS UBL 2.1 or CII
  • Ireland: PEPPOL BIS or UBL, EDIFACT
  • Italy: FatturaPA
  • Latvia: PEPPOL BIS 3.0
  • Lithuania: no standard, PEPPOL recommended
  • Luxembourg: PEPPOL BIS, UBL 2.1
  • Mexico: CFDI 
  • Netherlands: NLCIUS, UBL-OHNL, SETU (HR-XML), SI-UBL
  • Norway: EHF, PEPPOL BIS
  • Austria: ebInterface
  • Poland: Krajowy System e-Faktur (KseF)
  • Portugal: UBL 2.0 or XML-GS1
  • Sweden: PEPPOL BIS 3.0
  • Switzerland: ZuGFeRD recommended
  • Slovenia: e-SLOG
  • Spain: Invoicing, V3.2.X
  • Czech Republic: EDIFACT; UBL, ISDOC
  • Hungary: NAV
  • United Kingdom: EDIFACT, ANSI X12
  • Cyprus: PEPPOL-BIS

G – Legislation

According to the German E-Invoicing Act, the following deadlines apply in this country for the introduction of e-invoicing with the XRechnung standard:

  • 27.11.2018: Implementation deadline for e-invoice receipt for the highest constitutional bodies and federal authorities
  • 27.11.2019: Implementation deadline for all other federal authorities
  • 18.04.2020: Implementation deadline for all other authorities, states and municipalities
  • 27.11.2020: Obligation of suppliers of the federal government and the state of Bremen to send invoices exclusively electronically (B2G)
  • 01.01.2022: Obligation of suppliers in the states of Baden-Württemberg, Hamburg and Saarland to ship exclusively electronically (B2G)

Here you can find out about the respective implementation deadlines of the federal states.

H – Hybrid invoices

Hybrid invoices have been established through the ZUGFeRD format. They offer a visual representation of the invoices as a PDF in which the structured invoice data is embedded in the form of an XML file.

I – International commitment

In the following countries, e-invoices are already (partially) mandatory or a law on e-invoicing has been introduced.

Africa: Morocco, South Africa

Asia: China, India, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Qatar, Philippines, South Korea, Turkey, Vietnam

Europe: Andorra, Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Finland, France, Great Britain, India, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Hungary, Cyprus

North America: Canada

South America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay

Australia: Australia, New Zealand

J – Years of storage

E-invoices, including all receipts, must be kept for 10 years, just like invoices in analogue form.

K – KoSIT

The XRechnung format was developed by the Coordination Office for IT Standards (KoSIT).

L – Route ID

The routing ID is part of every e-invoice and serves to uniquely identify the public invoice recipient/client. It can also be used for Peppol addressing.

N – National Commitment

The implementation deadline for receiving electronic invoices in the XRechnung standard is

  • 27 November 2018 (for the highest federal authorities and the federal constitutional bodies),
  • 27 November 2019 (for all other federal authorities, i.e. sub-central contracting authorities, sector contracting authorities and concession grantors) and
  • 18 April 2020 for the states.[10][11]

Since November 27, 2020, the creation of e-invoices to public contracting authorities of the federal government and the state of Bremen has been mandatory. On January 1, 2022, the states of Baden-Württemberg, Hamburg and Saarland followed suit.
The deadlines for the other federal states from which e-invoicing will be mandatory can be found here: E-invoicing obligations

O – OZG-RE

OZG-RE stands for Online Access Act-compliant invoice receipt platform. This is the platform for affiliated institutions of the indirect federal administration and cooperating federal states.

P – Peppol

Peppol is a network for transmitting electronic documents. It functions like a communications network in which messages can be exchanged securely. Companies can submit B2B and B2G e-invoices internationally via access points such as ecosio.

R – Invoice Receipt Platforms

In Germany, two invoice receipt platforms have been established for the submission of electronic invoices to authorities (B2G): The Federal Central Invoice Receipt Platform, or ZRE, as well as the Online Access Act-compliant invoice receipt platform, OZG-RE for short. The ZRE is used by the direct federal administration, constitutional bodies and cooperating federal states, the OZG-RE by affiliated institutions of the indirect federal administration and cooperating federal states. In the B2B sector, Peppol is the network most used for the exchange of electronic invoices.

S – SAP Service Invoicing

If you use SAP Service Invoicing, you can send e-invoices with our solution. You can find more information about SAP Service Invoicing here.

T – Testing

For testing the submission of electronic invoices, the test environments of the ZRE (bund.de | Central Invoice Receipt Portal (ZRE)) and the OZG-RE (OZG-RE – Registration (xrechnung-bdr.de)). You are also welcome to book a live demo of our e-invoicing solution at any time, where we simulate the sending of an e-invoice from SAP.

U – UBL

UBL stands for Universal Business Language and is an XML standard that defines agreements on the digital data structure of the XML file.

X – XInvoice

The XRechnung is an XML-based data set that has established itself as the German standard for the content and technical composition of invoice information.

Z – ZUGFeRD

The ZUGFeRD format is another German e-invoice format, de facto identical to the French Factur-X: It allows visual representation as PDF/A-3. This PDF file contains the XRechnung as an attachment.

en_GBEnglish