E-Invoicing (XML and PDF/A): XRechnung, ZUGFeRD and FacturX

XRechnung

XRechnung is the German eInvoice standard, according to which, with a few exceptions, paper or simple PDF invoices may no longer be submitted to federal authorities and the state of Bremen as of November 27, 2020. Instead, public sector contractors and suppliers are to invoice their services electronically in XRechnung format from this date. As a result, the invoice content can be created and processed as a structured data record. As of this date, public sector invoice recipients are allowed to reject invoices received in paper or other formats (e.g. simple PDF file). The standard is based on the EU standard EN 16931. Invoices according to this standard are XML files, i.e. they are missing a visual representation that can be easily and “ergonomically” read by humans.

ZUGFeRD

ZUGFeRD (German language acronym for „Zentraler User Guide Forum elektronische Rechnung Deutschland“, i. e. „Central User Guide Forum electronic Invoice Germany“) is a digital data format. It combines a printable invoice (PDF/A-3 file as visual representation of the invoice data as digital media format instead of the corresponding paper invoice) with an embedded XML file that presents the invoice data in a specifically structured way. This special data structure enables billing and accounting applications to read information like for example the invoice amount, date or number in a standardized way and to process this data. The overall goal is to further develop elaborate ways of working with invoices without having to switch media, for example between paper and computer data. In the long run, the concept aims at replacing the existing OCR recognition methods. Since 2014, the standard is developed by a cooperation between FeRD, various private organizations, companies and government departments. ZUGFeRD enables electronic invoice exchange between companies, public administration and consumers.

In order to overcome the obstacles mentioned above, the German organization FeRD (Forum elektronische Rechnung Deutschland e. V.) has been founded to develop and establish an appropriate standard. FeRD works as a hub to link the key players and interested companies in the field of E-Invoicing. Details on the current state of the developed standard (ZUGFeRD format) are available on the FeRD website.

ZUGFeRD from version 2.0 is based on the EN 16931 standard and is technically identical to the French Factur-X standard, thus also supporting efforts to establish a Europe-wide standard in the field of electronic invoice processing. Among other things, the format offers a profile (designation: EN 16931), which is identical to XRechnung in this respect. On the other hand, ZUGFeRD 2.1/2.0 allows for lower technical requirements (in the BASIC profile), but also higher requirements for electronic invoices (in the EXTENDED profile). All three profiles mentioned above enable your customers to create ZUGFeRD invoices that meet the requirements of the German Value Added Tax Act (UStG). Using the BASIC profile, for example, even smaller customer companies that do not have any business relations with public administration can create VAT and ZUGFeRD-compliant electronic invoices. The BASIC WL and MINIMUM profiles can be used as a booking aid, but not to create invoices that meet the requirements of the VAT Act.

ZUGFeRD 2.1.1 provides an additional option to use a sixth pseudo-profile called “XRechnung” to create XML invoices formatted according to the XRechnung standard and a PDF/A file containing a visual representation of the invoice.

Differences between ZUGFeRD 1.0 and higher are differences due to the design principles of the EN 16931-1 standard, profiles, business rules, calculation methods, allowed tax types, tags in syntax mapping, code lists & embedding in PDF/A-3.

Like PDF/A-1 and PDF/A-2, PDF/A-3 is a special type of PDF format. All three formats may be used for the long-term archiving of documents. The distinctive feature of PDF/A-3: it allows to embed any other file type into the PDF/A file. Therefore, it is possible to embed XML files. The PDF/A-3 specification has been published in October 2012.

XML files are a special type of text files, since they save data in a hierarchically structured way. The structure allows various applications (e.g. billing and accounting system software) to read the data from these files.