Germany is set to implement mandatory electronic invoicing (e-invoicing) for business-to-business (B2B) transactions, beginning January 1, 2025. The rollout will occur in phases to facilitate a smooth transition for businesses. With Teamleader Focus you're all set to send e-invoices to your customers! Find out all about it in this article.
 

E-invoicing in Germany

The European Union decided that by 2030, all member states should enforce digital invoicing in a B2B (business-to-business) context to combat fraud. Each member state has some freedom to decide how and when this comes into effect. 

For the German e-invoicing regulation, there are three key phases in the implementation:
 

• January 1, 2025: All businesses must be prepared to receive e-invoices. This does not mean businesses are obliged to receive all invoices in electronic format starting from that date. Instead, this means your system must be ready: make sure your tools or software can receive and process e-invoices, even if some of your suppliers still issue paper or unstructured invoices. During this initial phase, sending e-invoices is optional; businesses can continue to send paper or non-structured electronic invoices. 
   
• January 1, 2027: Sending structured e-invoices becomes mandatory for businesses with an annual turnover exceeding €800,000. Smaller enterprises may still send paper or non-structured invoices for transactions conducted in 2027, provided the recipient consents. 
   
• January 1, 2028: The regulation extends to all businesses, regardless of size, requiring the sending and receiving of structured electronic invoices for B2B transactions. 
   

E-invoicing formats

Acceptable formats for e-invoices include:

• XRechnung: A structured XML-based format compliant with the European standard EN 16931, designed for machine processing. 
• ZUGFeRD (from version 2.0.1): A hybrid format that combines a human-readable PDF with an embedded XML file, facilitating both manual and automated processing. 
• Peppol-BIS Billing: Used within the Peppol network, supporting cross-border electronic invoicing and compliant with the EN 16931 standard. 
• Electronic Data Interchange (EDI): Under certain conditions, electronic invoice formats that deviate from the EN 16931 standard, such as EDI procedures, can also be used. 
   

German e-invoicing in Teamleader Focus

In the first half of January 2025, Teamleader Focus will comply with the new German e-invoicing legislation around sending e-invoices, which will take effect January 1st, 2025.
 

Who

As stated above, the regulation applies to German businesses that send invoices/credit notes to other German businesses (B2B). This means your company address needs to be in Germany, or you need to have a company entity in your account that's located in Germany.

How

To be compliant for sending e-invoices in the right format, we've made sure you can automatically send a UBL in attachment (in the format XRechnung) when sending an invoice or credit note via email from your German entity to a German company. Follow these steps:

1. Go to Settings > Invoices > Preferences 
2. Enable the slider next to 'Add UBL in attachment when sending invoice or credit note via email':
   
   
   
   Note: If you don't see this slider, this means you don't have a Belgian or German company entity in your account. Add one to resolve this issue.
3. Navigate to the invoice/credit note you want to send to your customer. 
4. Click on Send > Send via email and InvoiceCloud
5. Automatically, a UBL of the invoice/credit note will be added to the attachments of the invoice/credit note, together with the PDF of the document.
   
   • If your customer is German:
     The format of the UBL will be XRechnung
   • If your customer isn't German/your company entity isn't German:
     The format of the UBL will be UBL Bis 3.0
6. Click on Send invoice/credit note

 
Know that you can also separately download invoices and credit notes as a UBL file in accounts with at least one German entity. This allows you to e.g. send the UBL as an attachment via email to your bookkeeper, who in turn can upload that UBL to the bookkeeping tool. 
Go to your invoice/credit note > three dots > Download UBL (XRechnung):