If your business is established in Germany, structured e-invoices are becoming mandatory: receiving since 2025, issuing from 2027 or 2028. The law requires a compliant file (ZUGFeRD or XRechnung), not expensive software. Create it in your browser, validate it against the official rules, send it by email, and archive it safely.
Forget filling out forms. Just say what you need in plain words and the assistant takes care of ZUGFeRD compliance, XRechnung and EN 16931 included.
Skip the menus and the data entry. Give the assistant an instruction ("turn this PDF into ZUGFeRD" or "check this XML") and it runs.
Attach any PDF or XML invoice. The assistant reads it, understands the data, and returns a compliant file you can download in the chat.
Whatever the assistant generates matches the European EN 16931 standard and the ZUGFeRD PDF/A-3 specification, ready for XRechnung, Peppol BIS and the German B2B e-invoicing mandate.
Your files are processed in-memory and never stored on our servers. They are purged the moment your request is complete - fully GDPR compliant.
Stop retyping supplier invoices. The assistant scans your PDF, works out its layout and hands back a validated ZUGFeRD file that satisfies XRechnung and the German e-invoicing mandate.
Since 2015, the GoBD, the tax office's rules for digital records, have applied to every business, freelancers included: digital invoices must be kept as the original file, unchanged, exportable and readable for the whole 8-year retention period. With the e-invoicing mandate a print no longer counts. Our archive takes care of it for you.
Every German business has had to accept e-invoices since January 2025. Both formats are covered here.
Already chat with an AI app every day? Connect it to our MCP server once, then ask for ZUGFeRD and XRechnung invoices right there, in the app you already know. Same engine as our assistant, no switching tabs.
Every business in Germany must be able to receive e-invoices. Yes, that includes you already.
Businesses with over EUR 800,000 previous-year turnover must issue e-invoices for domestic B2B sales.
Everyone must issue them, regardless of size.
Exception: small businesses under the § 19 UStG threshold never have to issue e-invoices, but must still be able to receive them.
From your deadline on, a normal PDF no longer counts as an invoice under German VAT law and can cost your customer their input VAT deduction. That is why customers will insist.
Germany deliberately chose a decentralised model: no government portal, no mandatory network, no certified provider. Sending a compliant ZUGFeRD file as an email attachment fully satisfies the law. What your accountant (Steuerberater) and your customers care about is that the file follows the EN 16931 standard, because their software, most commonly DATEV, books the embedded XML automatically. In short: you do not need an ERP system, an accounting subscription or a provider contract to comply. You need a correct file.
A guided form in English handles the German VAT breakdown (19 %, 7 %, exempt) and outputs a compliant PDF/A-3 with embedded XML your client's accountant can import into DATEV directly.
Open toolInvoicing a German public authority? Generate an XRechnung with the buyer's Leitweg-ID (their routing number, they will provide it).
Open toolCheck any file against the official EN 16931 Schematron rules and German business rules, and see exactly what to fix, in plain terms.
Open toolThe receiving obligation already applies to you. Before booking a supplier's invoice, verify the XML layer, which is legally authoritative when it disagrees with the PDF.
Open toolCheck XRechnung files against EN 16931 and the German CIUS rules, including the Leitweg-ID.
Open toolReceived an XRechnung or CII file no program on your machine opens? Read it in your browser like a paper invoice.
Open toolThe e-invoicing obligation introduced by the Wachstumschancengesetz (Growth Opportunities Act).
Germany's hybrid format: a readable PDF with machine-readable XML inside. Identical to the French Factur-X.
The pure-XML format required for invoices to German public authorities.
The routing identifier of a public sector buyer; required on every XRechnung.
Small business under the § 19 UStG VAT exemption; exempt from issuing e-invoices, not from receiving them.
The bookkeeping principles requiring you to archive e-invoices in their original structured format, currently for eight years.
Your German tax advisor. If they use DATEV, the files from this site import directly.
E-invoices must be archived in their original structured format, currently for eight years under GoBD principles. A printout alone does not satisfy this. A dedicated, backed-up folder does, for a business of your size. Keep every file you issue and receive, unchanged.
Rather not look after that folder yourself? The GetZUGFeRD archive does it for you
Everything happens in one chat, no technical know-how needed.
Attach a PDF or XML invoice to the chat, or simply paste your invoice details.
Tell the assistant what you want - convert, create, validate, or extract. It calls the right tool automatically.
Receive your compliant ZUGFeRD file straight in the chat, set to send or store.
Practical articles on the German e-invoicing mandate: who it binds, when, and what actually goes wrong.
Half the difficulty of German e-invoicing is that the manuals assume you know what a Leitweg-ID is, why GoBD matters, and how a Kleinunternehmer differs from a small company. This glossary translates the vocabulary that carries real consequences, one honest paragraph per term.
The vocabulary is the hardest part. ZUGFeRD, XRechnung, Factur-X, Peppol BIS: it sounds like four competing standards, and teams burn days comparing them. In truth there is one semantic standard, EN 16931, wearing different national outfits. Here is the map, and the one question that picks the right format.
Your German client asks for a ZUGFeRD invoice and your invoices are in English. Do they have to be translated? No. German VAT law prescribes content, not language, and in an e-invoice most of that content travels as language-neutral codes anyway. Here is what stays English, and where to be careful.