The Obligation of E-Invoicing in Germany
The recently adopted Growth Opportunities Act provides for an obligation to dispatch invoices in electronic form from 01.01.2025, with a 2-year transition period, i.e. from 01.01.2027.
What does this mean for you as a Vertec customer?
The good news: (almost) every invoice that is sent as a PDF from Vertec has already been (also) an e-invoice for many years, namely with in the Zugferd format . This is a clever standard because, as a so-called “hybrid” invoice, it is both human- and machine-readable – the actual e-invoice is included as an XML file, “hidden” in the PDF. Since Vertec Version 6.4.0.16 and the ZUGFeRD Standard 2.1, this is also XRechnung (EN 16931) compatible.
Vertec customers only need to make sure that they use the now common Office Reports (the old Legacy Office Reports do not support ZUGFeRD). The popular basic report Invoice with list of services is equipped with an automatic ZUGFeRD implementation, but this can be easily transferred to other Office reports.
ZUGFeRD and also XRechnung (either included in the ZUGFeRD format, i.e. in PDF, or as a separate XML file) are explicitly mentioned in the draft of the German BMF confirming it compatible and therefore compliant formats. The PDF is likely to prevail for tax-compliant keeping of incoming invoices in small and medium-sized enterprises over a text file, because it is much easier to prove that they have not been altered, e.g. by means of an electronic signature.
E-invoicing is becoming more important
E-invoicing is gaining in importance to many Vertec customers, regardless of the legal regulations. LEDES , which is widely used by lawyers and for which we offer a standardized additional feature, we also have experience with exchange platforms (EDI) such as Conextrade in Switzerland. Please contact us if your customers require formats other than ZUGFeRD – due to the extensive versatility of Vertec, we can create any desired format according to a customer's needs.
However, what we know from our long-term experience with e-invoices is many users believe that the technology behind is supposed to be the main problem. We know: “No, it is the file content”. By this, we mean: What data does the recipient of the invoice need in which field? Unfortunately, the ideas of the different invoice recipients differ widely, which makes it difficult to find a standard.
For this reason, our LEDES implementation works with Templates which can be created by customers for specific platforms. At the moment, we are considering to offer this for XRechnung as well.
We are happy to learn more on your ideas on that matter. Please join the Vertec Forum !
